Flower Wood to the Silver Pagodas, 2014/6/28
Photos from an 18km walk through the hills of Huairou District.
For this hike we joined two of our Level 3 hikes together to make one of our “Hillwalking Challenge” type trails.
We began the hike in a small village called Flower Wood, and walked out the back, following field trails through chestnut orchards and into a big valley behind the village.
The trail took us up and over a ridge, passing through some very bushy sections – not many people walk this trail anymore, and it gets fairly overgrown, especially in summer.
After a nice walk along the ridge, we walked past Lily Village, and then on and up to a big reservoir in the hills. The reservoir is popular with local fishermen.
We then walked down and out another valley to the beginning of our Silver Pagodas hike, and then on to Longevity Village.
The hike to Longevity Village took us around the back of the Silver Mountain, and on to the “Valley of Mercy”. The valley showed us no mercy whatsoever, and the climb up to the top of the Silver Mountain was extra tough in the heat. One bonus – beside the trail, the wild raspberry bushes were full of super sweet fruit. Delicious!
We all eventually reached the lookout point at the peak of the mountain, and then headed down to the pagoda site. A little bit further down the trail we found our bus, and after a proper Beijing Hikers picnic – beer, cookies, nuts, and watermelon – we headed on back to Beijing.