Day twenty
Today was a wildcard day; I could go to Taizhou, a city about 15 minutes by train to the south. Or check out and head to Shaoxing, the next destination for this trip.
When researching the trip, I saved a random mountain in Google Maps because it looked cool. So I got an hour-long taxi ride to the park entrance to check it out.
There wasn't a ton of information about the park; I only found one trip report from someone who did a 2-hour hike up the mountain, which seemed fun.
After a bento at the park entrance, I made my way to the start of the trail, only to find out it was closed for maintenance. The only way up was with the cable car; how sad ;).
From the cable car, I could see the trail, and I must say, I wasn't sad about not walking it. It looks brutal.
Ill-informed as always, I had no idea what I could expect. I took a random trail from the cable car exit and was met with beautiful sights of huge mountain ridges cutting through the landscape.
Around another corner, I saw one of the main attractions of this park. A huge bridge crosses two ridges.
To get to the bridge, you have to cross two hanging bridges first, though these are not the Indiana Jones ones built for mass tourism instead (with enough effort, you could get it to bounce, though. To the dismay of most people on it, hehe).
From the first bridge, you follow along the edge of the mountain ridge, where you are treated to amazing views of the valleys below.
Most people walk from the North cable car, where I started, to the Southern one or the other way around. But I wanted to see everything, so I made a full loop instead.
I even backtracked a little to cross both of these bridges (one is one-way).
The large overhang costs extra, but I'm here anyway, so I pay a couple of euros and follow the path up.
The view here is really awesome, though the glass floor they put in everywhere isn't as impressive as it was the first time.
Semi-hidden in the back was a small stall that sold bread, which was a nice snack for the second half of the loop.
I also got some coffee from a very nervous clerk, and my hot americano turned out to be an iced dirty coffee, which was actually delicious!
There was one more bridge to cross, back over the valley to the cable car. There were tons of people taking photos, so I joined in on the fun.
Around me, I noticed park staff slowly making their way to the cable car, and it's generally a good practice to follow staff when they stop working. Otherwise, you'll be stranded once the cable car stops.
I got one of the last rides down, dropping me off in a deserted park at the foot of the mountain.
On the way over, I booked a high-speed train ticket from the town near the mountain to my hotel. It's only a 15-minute ride, but it cuts down taxi costs by 50%.
Luckily, there were plenty of DiDi taxis in the area to take me to the train station, and with the help of some translation apps, they took the highway to get me to the station just in time.
After dinner and a coffee, it was time to relax at the hotel.
