Wutai mountain 4 years later

On the joyous occasion of the Founding of the People's Republic of China 59 years ago (next year will be the big 60), the 1st of October marks the start of a week-long public holiday. Unfortunately the government only gives everyone 3 days off, so everyone works the weekend before in order to get the extra 2 weekdays off, and thus have 7 days straight without working.

4 years ago, 3 weeks after I arrived in China, I got up the courage to go off alone knowing only 5 words of Chinese and managed to get to a mountain (and some caves) not that far from Beijing.

It was the first place I went to in China (read the original post here, and excuse the horrendous spelling mistakes as i guess back then spell-checkers did not exist!) and there has been changes.
The town by the mountain is still a tourist-trap, but there are now more temples (not all of the 50 or so temples in the area are centuries old it seems!), more hotels and more people. The good news is the transport situation has improved as more tourists go there (though most still drive from Beijing and, during this October holiday, the main road in the town is a permanent traffic jam) and the prices are lower through increased competition (more restaurants, hotels etc have sprung up).

Last time I only had 1 night and 1 morning which was not enough time to conquer a peak (though we got close). It was always on my list of places to return too. It is one of the famous mountains in China, though not in the top 5 of mountains to climb... partly because there is not just 1 mountain with 1 path (of stairs) to the top (alongside a cable car) as with all the other mountains. Wu Tai Mountain (meaning 5 platforms i.e. peaks) has 5 different 'mountain tops' and all now have roads or tracks reaching them, so tourists drive around each of them.

With more time this time me and Chris hiked 4 hours up to Central peak (2,800m up, though our starting point was probably around 1,800m) which became very tough for the last 200m of height or so from the altitude and camped there. We figured it might be cold up there -but did not expect it to be THAT cold. None-the-less, with thermals, 2 t-shirts and a hooded sweater on I managed to warm up the sleeping bag and get to sleep.

A quick 'head-out' of the tent about 2am revealed a universe above. Truly incredible. I am always impressed by the stars -not just when you can see a couple of hundred, but when you can see thousands and thousands. It is so rare to see even ten stars in a big city. Not since 1 year before when I was in Vietnam had I seen so many stars (even in Malaysia and Philippines, for some reason, there were not that many). What was most surprising was that we were only a 6 hour drive from Beijing and in an area that provides 30% of China's coal (as with 4 years ago, we saw plenty of evidence of that on the bus back) with the accompanying power stations and trucks transporting coal from here across China.

If it was not so freezing cold we might have kept our heads out of the tent for longer. Fortunately in the morning (we watched both sunrise and sunset, and both were pretty), the sun rose and warmed us up as we climbed the tallest peak (North -3,090m) and mosied on down to town for a hearty lunch and bus back to Beijing. During the sunrise we were almost attacked by a dog who had run out of the temple (there are monks living in temples on each peak) to greet us. Let's just say he woke up on the wrong side of his kennel that morning!

So, 4 years later, and tourism has ticked on... no massive changes although it was nice to see more Chinese hikers (there are no real paths to the summit as so few people make it, so each creates their own!) and even some cyclists (going up the road of course, but still pretty impressive!). The entrance fee to the town/mountain had doubled which was not surprising; it seemed the money was spent on building more tracks to the summits, more temples and fancier gardens around the temples.