This hike follows part of our old "Woodpecker Trail and the Pagoda on the Rock" trail, but with the village on the other side of Phoenix Ridge closed by firewardens we're only able to do the part of the hike that stays inside the park area.

The park area contains a network of paved trails that pass by old shrines, caves, and precariously-perched pagodas. We'll follow the park stairs up to the ridge to take a look at the "Flying Stone Pagoda" perched at 728m above sea level, and then come back down a different path down the slopes.

Super guide Millicent suggested this as a good hard Level 3+ hike (i.e. almost worth a Level 4 rating) with some extra views of frozen waterfalls in one of the valleys during winter.

The hike

It’s a big climb up to the Flying Stone Pagoda, with several false tops along the way to go with the ‘Ladder to Heaven’. If you’re up for the exercise, we’ll include the ‘Winding Trail to Cave’, another interesting section of the paths along the north side of the park area.

From the pagoda it gets easier—mostly flat, and then down all the way along the stairs on the southern side of the park.

We mentioned it was an old hike of ours. How old? You can read a 2007 write up of Woodpecker Trail hike on china.org.cn, featuring a short interview with Huijie.