With a lot of Beijing’s village areas closed again to outsiders it’s tough to find a good fresh hike right now, so we’re going to combine a few recently-visited trails into a longer hike.

Phoenix Ridge was one of the first mountain scenic areas to open this year, and we did several hikes up to the ridge and back.

Yangtai Mountain opened more recently, and we hiked down from there on one of the hikes last month.

This time we’ll turn it around, hiking the main pilgrim’s trail up Yangtai Mountain and then crossing over to Phoenix Ridge via the ‘Big Wind Gap’ and the ‘Small Wind Gap’—an excellent workout for the legs on the way up, followed by excellent views while walking the open ridgelines, grassy meadows, and patches of pines near the Big and Small Wind Gaps.