Hiking photos - Ten-Thousand Buddhas, Ancient Horse Hoofprints

This page contains photos from two of our recent hikes: the Ancient Horse Hoofprints hike on November 7th, and the Hall of Ten-Thousand Buddhas hike on November 8th.

Ancient Horse Hoofprints hike
On this hike we started from Tanzhe Temple in Mentougou, and then followed a long trail through the hills. Along the way we walked through Ingot Village for a look at an old temple site, then continued on through the mountains to arrive at an all-but-abandoned village, inhabited by a few people and some two thousand chickens. From there, we hiked up to the site of the 'horse hoofprints,' before heading downhill, passing an abandoned hotel complex and old mines before walking out through a village to meet our bus.

Statistics: 5.5 hours in total, with 4.25 hours of walking at approx. 3.2km/h over 17km; start height 203m, highest point 821m (by the hoofprints), finish height 153m. Total climbing up 735m, total climbing down 863m. Estimated 2,175kCal burned. Camel and/or Yak attacks: 0.

Hall of Ten-Thousand Buddhas hike
The weather could have been a lot better for this trip, but we braved the smog to take a look at the ruins of the Village of Ten-Thousand Buddhas and the temple of the same name, before taking a walk along a ridgeline and pilgrim trail. Besides the old walls, not much of the temple remains apart from some carved tablets and broken statues - it would have impressive in its day though, covering an area of approximately fifty square metres and looking as though it would have been a multi-storey structure.

Statistics: 4 hours in total, with 2.75 hours of walking at approx. 3km/h over 8.5km; start and finish height 103m, highest point 473m (at the firebreak on the ridge). Total uphill approx. 400m. Estimated 1,313kCal burned.