We climbed 3,333 steps yesterday!

On Saturday, we took the metro (subway) as far south as it goes, and then a Didi (similar to Uber) taxi from there to Cuihua Mountain National Geopark.

The Didi experience was kind of funny because it was our first time using the app to order a taxi. And of course the language is an issue. 

Before we get to that, I have to show you what our typical buffet style breakfast looks like here at the hotel...

Hard boiled egg, green beans, some kind of pork and potato dish, bean sprouts, squash, some kind of leafy green stuff, meat stuffed noodle thing, fried egg.

So we got off the metro and walked outside to where there were taxis waiting. Of course we didn't want a typical taxi because then you have to communicate and agree on price... it's much easier to use Didi. So I got on the app and ordered a car. It arrived in about 60 seconds and we got in and said hello in our best Chinese. 

The guy says hello, and points at his phone. It's showing a four digit number where the first two digits are already there, but the last two digits are other other numbers that he was asking for. Some kind of security code. I'm looking at my phone and don't see anything, and shrugging my shoulders. I handed my phone to him because there are all kinds of Chinese characters on the app. We tried to figure it out, and then it occurred to me that the first two digits corresponded with my phone number! I gave him the last two digits, we all laughed about it, and we were off. Now we know.

At the ticket booth to the park, we paid 65 yuan ($13.50 CAD, $9.50 USD) each as an entrance fee.

We decided on the hike up Cuihua Mountain. But this is not a standard hiking trail. It is almost all steps. 3,333 steps!

Most people drive to the upper parking lot. That way, you only have to do 1,250 steps. But no, not us... of course we chose to do the whole thing!

This dam was built as an experiment back in the 1970's.

Pretty waterfall.

The little lake that the dam created.

Here we go!

Pretty little butterfly.

Made it up 1,000 steps. Equivalent to 58 stories.

This was an odd bug. Never seen anything like it before.

Scenery along the way.

Hmm. What's that way over there? Right in the center of the photo.

Zoomed in a bit.

Zoomed in all the way. Some kind of temple. Imagine building that way up there!

Heading higher.

Here comes Ruth.

Some of the stairs are very steep.

Made it up 2,000 steps!

Yep, more stairs.

There was hardly anybody else climbing up. We encountered several people going down, but we figured they maybe got an earlier start and were on their way down. It turns out that there is also a shuttle bus and you can take a bus to the upper parking lot where you also only have to do 1,250 stairs... then you can take the stairs we were doing all the way back down.

The Tianchi (Heavenly) Lake

Made it up 2,888 steps!

By this point, we are definitely running out of steam. We have been climbing stairs for an hour and forty minutes!

Heavenly Lake. Nice setting, but it looks kinda brown and ugly!

Scenery near the top.

Made it to the top!

Unfortunately, this is where we encountered the crowds. Almost everybody gets up there by climbing the 1,250 steps... almost nobody does the route that we did!

Not sure of the significance, but a lot of people buy these ribbons and leave them behind.

Ruth and the view.

Everybody stands here to get their photo taken with the sign at the top.

Except hardly any of them actually climbed the 3,333 steps! Most of them only did 1,250 steps, but I'll bet a lot of them think they did 3,333 because that's what the sign says.

The route back down to the upper parking lot.

Too crowded for me.

Looking up at where we had been.

They say this pine tree is 450 years old.

Building built into the side of the mountain.

Cool.

The area is geologically famous due to landslides that they think happened during earthquakes many years ago that caused huge boulders to fall down.

It formed many caves including this wind tunnel which was noticeably colder than than the hot temperatures outside the crevice.

This leads down to an ice cave!

Apparently there is snow in here year round.

It felt refreshingly cool in there.

Some of the many boulders that fell.

Looking up at where we had been.

Down at Heavenly Lake. It doesn't look quite so brown at shore level.

You can rent boats, but nobody was... we didn't ask, but they must be pricey.

We saw this huge beautiful butterfly, but it was tough to get a decent photo of.

Golden birdwing butterfly.

We climbed another 1,000 or so steps back down to the entrance along a different path. Our legs were done! then we took another taxi back to the metro and a mall near the hotel for dinner.

There are a lot of fancy modern shopping malls.

We ended up at a sit down restaurant for dinner.

Long day, with a lot of exercise... we slept well Saturday night!