Friday, 20 February 2015

China 2014: Day 5 (Wuyishan)

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year to everyone who celebrates it!

Apologies for not updating this blog regularly, and I am going to use school as a reason/excuse for my absence once again. Since I get a short break from school now, I shall continue my slightly overdue blog post.

Wuyishan is known for its mountains and beautiful landscape. On that very day where loads of walking and climbing was involved, the sun was out, and the weather was really hot. I was burning in my sweater...note to self: always check the weather forecast!

Again, I'm not sure why the photos appear redder and more orange on here...they looked fine when I was editing them! :( Now I shall let the photos do the talking. (Because I am lazy to type and honestly speaking, after more than 2 months, my memory of the trip isn't the clearest now :O) 





Wuyi Palace.
My grandpa! Featuring my grandma in the background :D

The front of Dawang (Prince) Peak
Such an autumnal scene!


Yunu (Lady) Peak
Was feeding the fish and look at that fish opening its mouth!

Chinese characters carved onto the rocks.


The back view of Dawang Peak. Looks less majestic, eh?


Jiuqu Stream! This river has 9 major bending, and hence it's named Nine Bends Stream.



And I began my ascend up the most famous (and scenic trail) up the Tianyou Peak!




Lens flare lens flare lens flare! Though it's not the best but hey it's lens flare after all!

Postcard view of Wuyishan, right here!


Continuing my ascend up to the highest point...the steps were getting steeper and steeper.



















Legend has it that the fairies used to dry their fabrics on this piece of rock (which is Tianyou Peak itself), hence leaving this streaky pattern down the rock :)


Love the golden glow!


The sun set, a while later.
And that's it for this post! I'm coming to the end of this travel posts series really soon...so stay tuned!

Elsa :)

Sunday, 25 January 2015

China 2014: Day 4 (Wuyishan)


Wuyishan (Mount Wuyi) is a city located in the northern and mountainous part of Fujian province. As you may or may not know, I am a nature lover. I absolutely adore the view of the mountain ranges, the trees, and the crisp air.

On the 4th day of my trip, I took a 45-minutes long flight from Xiamen to Wuyishan. On the flight there, I saw the fluffiest clouds I've ever seen! They looked like candy floss and it's just a whole stretch of endless and gapless clouds! The experience of flying over those candy floss clouds was just so so amazing. While descending, I saw the mountain range, and rivers! As a geography student, I was so thrilled when I saw meanders, and some braids. :)

Wuyishan Airport is a really small airport, serving only domestic flights. When I stepped off the plane, I could immediately feel the chill in the air. It was so much colder compared to Xiamen!



A local delicacy, of glutinous rice balls and braised meat.

After putting down my luggage at my grandparents' house, we set off the long-ish journey to the mountains (aka the northernmost point of Fujian Province!) On the way there, the view was really scenic. The road got narrower the further we drove into the mountains...hats off to the locals who manage to drive on such narrow roads!









All the bamboos!

After around 2 hours on the road, we finally arrived at the boundary between Fujian Province and Jiangxi Province! It was around 1600m above sea level, and when the wind blew it was brrrrrrr. But oh my. The view was so so amazing. There were just endless stretch of mountains, and coupled with the cloudiness...it was so beautiful.

Tongmu Gate (I'm not sure what's the proper translation but yeah. This basically marks the boundary between the 2 provinces. :)
Jiangxi!
Fujian :) and spot the winding mountain roads!
We then drove down the mountains to Qinglong Waterfall. On the way down, we saw many monkeys! The baby monkeys were so cute ehehe.
The water level in the river/stream decreases drastically in the winter. In summer, the water can cover almost the whole of the biggest rock you see there!


Monkeys!


Qinglong Waterfall!






1/13 shutter speed without tripod. #pretty proud of myself
But it was a pity that I couldn't do an even longer exposure...
Me looking like a walking corn with a not-very-adventure-ish bag.

Playing with the water from the waterfall! It was coooooold.




Fiddleheads growing from a fern! I've never seen such things before!!

There were many trees with orange leaves lining up the sides of the road. It felt so autumn-y :)))
And that's all for this post. Sorry for not posting anything for almost a month, as I was caught up in school work. So now that I am procrastinating on my school work, here you have it - this belated travel blog post. :D

Till the next time,
Elsa