Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage (Henan and Xi'an Tour Day 2)

Yuntai Mountain (云台山) in Henan Province received UNESCO World Geologic Park in 2004. It is the only scenic area in Henan that receives 5 titles- China 5A Grade Tourist Attraction, National Geologic Park, National Water Conservation Scenic Area, National Forest Park, and National Macaque Natural Reserve Area.

With a coverage of 190 square km, Yuntai Mountain Scenic Area has 11 attractions. Widely spreaded green vegetation, layers of peaks, and ever flowing rivers flowing through the valleys make Yuntai one of the best nature scenic area in China. Among 11 attractions, we visited two popular sites there- Red Stone Gorge (红石峡) and Zhuyu Feng (茱萸峰) or Cornel Peak.

From Kaifeng, we started our journey at 8:30 am, and reached the entrance of Yuntai Mountain Scenic Area around 11:00 am. It was a sunny day with the temperature 25 degree celcius. The entrance fee was CNY120 (March - November), CNY60 （December - February). For the transportation inside the scenic area, extra CNY60 was required. The transportation is necessary as the attractions in Yuntai are scattered far from each others. Paying for the transportation means we can lay back and enjoy the scenery while leave the driving to the expert drivers.The ticket is checked at the entrance of each attraction, so we need to keep the ticket safe all the time. The entrance ticket valids for two days with one entry limited for each attraction.

China is under extensive development. High rises are built next to the agricultural lands. This photo was taken on our way to Yuntai Mountain.

Signage showing Yuntai at Xiuwu County. We are on the right track.

 Entrance to Yuntai Scenic Area. The temperature was comfortable, but the humidity was high.

First stop in Yuntai Scenic Area- Jiaozuo Yuntai Tianjie International Hotel (云台天阶国际饭店) for our lunch.The restaurant was clean (upper right), and a walk at the balcony promised nice view over the park (upper left). The fried bun with pork belly (lower left) and yam with maple syrup were among ten dishes served.

Red Stone Gorge (红石峡) or Red Stone Valley is 2 kms in length, and with an average of 68 m deep. The entrance to the gorge is marked with a carved stone (upper left). Streams, springs, waterfalls, and pools are all available in the valley, which make it a wonderful place for a leisure walk. The stones in this valley contain high concentration of iron that make them red in colour. Some part of this gorge is believed to be submerged undersea 1.2 billion years ago. The information carved on the stone (upper right) are in both English and Chinese. Stairs are inevitable hurdle and do expect a lot of climbing, up and down the gorge (lower left). It was a tiring journey, but the rewards worth far beyond our expectation. There was a cave about a man's height in the whole journey through the gorge. 

Pool, waterfall, and stream in the gorge accompany by green trees. This photo was taken at the stone bridge nearby the entrance.

Visitors marched through the small walking path in between 100 meter gorge. It was a great experience for us.

Humans look like small ants in between large boulders in the gorge.

We were lucky to get less visitors during our visit with more space to relax while enjoying the great nature beauty of the valley.

Calm and beautiful pool with emerald green water.

Refreshing waterfall.

End of the visitor area- we were not allowed to go beyond this point. Slow and steady, we completed the journey through the gorge in 2 hours.

A dam was built at at the end of the gorge (upper left), forming a scenic lake- Zifang Lake (upper right). Many stalls and hawkers were available at the dam area (lower left). We continued our journey through Diecai Dong (叠彩洞) to the highest peak in Yuntai Mountain. Diecai Dong is a series of 23 tunnels built along 4.3 kms or road at Yuntai Scenic Area.

Great view from the window of our bus along Diecai Dong.

Another beautiful scenery of Yuntai.

Zhuyu Feng (朱萸峰) is the highest peak in the scenic area. A shopping area was built at the parking area (upper right). The food were sold with fair price, but the beverages were sold with almost double the price compared to the city area. Another few thousand step of stairs await between the car park and the peak (lower right). We only managed to complete 20% of the journey up. Well, strong feet are required to accomplish the journey, which estimates to be around 1 hour 30 minutes for a round trip. How many people were visiting this area? We could roughly estimate the number by counting the transit buses parked there.

Zhuyu Feng from afar. We started our journey back to visitor center around 4:45 pm.

We reached Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan after 2 hours drive from Yuntai Mountain. Again, we couldn't escape from 10 course meal, which we took at Fuqi Tian Restaurant (福齐天美食园). Then, we had our rest at Hilton Zhengzhou (as shown in the photos above). The hotel was excellent in service and amenities and had been rated as the best hotel in Zhengzhou by Tripadvisor. The shopping area were available nearby the hotel as well. However, we didn't stroll around that night due to exhaustion.

Yuntai Mountain is truly a world heritage. We have experience in many places which the photos normally look better than the real site. But for Yuntai Mountain, seeing it with our own eyes is far more stunning than looking at it through photos. We continued our day 3 trip by visiting Henan Museum and Huang River scenic area at Zhengzhou City.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]

[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]
[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple] [Longmen Grottoes & Charriot Luoyang]
[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]
[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]

Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip (Henan and Xi'an Tour Day 1)

We joined 8 days trip to to Henan and Shaanxi Province, China organized by Apple Vacations & Conventions. Travelling westward along Huang He (Yellow River), we visited several attractions- Kaifeng City, Zhengzhou City, Yuntai Shan (Yuntai Mountain) near Jiaozuo, Shaolin Temple at Dengfeng, Luoyang City, and Xi'an City. Well, we would like to bring you to our first destination in our China trip- Kaifeng City.

Founded more than 2700 years ago, Kaifeng City (开封市) was important as the capital for 8 dynasties in China, and has been identified as one of the major ancient cities in China. However, in our country Malaysia, the city is famous because of the Mandarin television series "Justice Bao Qingtian (包青天)", which the story of Baozheng as a judge and prefect of Kaifeng was featured in 236 episodes.

We reached Kaifeng City around 2 pm. The first stop- Lord Bao Memorial Temple (包公祠). The temple was built in 1984 thus no historical value. However, we learned much about this historical figure in the next 60 minutes stay. Lord Bao Qingtian (包青天) real name was Baozheng (包拯). From the family of scholar, he stayed with his old parents till the age of 39. After the decease of his parents, he started his politician life as the magistrate of Tianchang County.

He became the prefect of Kaifeng City in the year of 1057. Although he held the position for only 1 year and a few months, he brought a few reformations. One of them was allowing the citizens to lodge of complaints directly to the administrator, by-passing the corrupted city clerks. He died in 1062 at the age of 65. In his 25 years of civil service, he punished many corrupted officers, and set a very good example as a righteous man.

During our visit, most of the information given in the temple were in Chinese only. Thus hire a tour guide or do some pre-visit reading is necessary for those who can't understand Chinese. Lord Bao Memorial Temple cannot be entered without a fee- CNY30 for adult and CNY15 for child. The operation hours: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm daily, and 7:30 am - 6:00 pm for winter. 

The entrance of Lord Bao Memorial Temple.

Baozheng was a man with medium stature with fair complexion- different from what we saw in the television series, which he was portrayed as dark, muscular, tall, and proud. The character of Baozheng as described according to the history was portrayed in Second Hall of the temple.

Baozheng as described in television series was featured in East Hall of the temple. Most of the description was not historically correct. For example, Lord Bao could never execute Chen Shimei (陈世美)- son-in-law of the emperor, as Lord Bao lived in Song Dynasty, while Chen Shimei lived in Qing Dynasty. Lord Bao's face was darkened by Chinese opera to feature his righteous character, and had been adopted by the television show.

The Main Hall shows Baozheng as a god of justice. The Main Hall is the place where people come to pay respect to Baozheng. "正大光明" or aboveboard describes why and how Baozheng becomes one of the god of justice.

 The temple compound was well-decorated.

 The rockery beside Lord Bao Lake.

Scenery beside Lord Bao Lake.

3:10 pm, we reached Kaifeng Fu (开封府), the governor office of Kaifeng City. Of course, this is a replica as the original Kaifeng Fu was destroyed by flood long ago. This replica of Kaifeng Fu locates at the north side of the West Lord Bao Lake (西包公湖), some 10 minutes away from Baozheng Memorial Temple.

"开封府" at the main entrance was written by famous calligrapher Cai Xiang (蔡襄) from Song Dynasty. Kaifeng Fu contains more than 50 pavilions and complements by beautiful gardens. This replica was built according to the plan from Song Dynasty, and had been rated as 4 stars attraction by China Government. The entrance fee was CNY60 for adult with opening hours 7 am - 7 pm.

Kaifeng Fu is huge. It took us more than 1 hour to walk around the area. Thus comfortable footwear is important. Umbrella is needed in case of raining as not all pavilions are connected with covered corridors. Snacks, beverages, and souvenirs were available for sale at Martial Art Arena.

 Main entrance with "Kaifeng Fu" written by Cai Xiang.

Yi Men (仪门) or the Gate of Rite is the door after the main entrance. The drum and the gong were used by citizens during Song Dynasty to summon officials from their office.

The main hall is the office of the governor, with the stone of admonition stands in front of the hall.

The stone of admonition states "everything that I earned was given by the people. It is easy to mistreat the people but it is hard to escape the judgement from god".

 Inside the main hall.

 The Lake of the Bright Mirror (明镜湖) and The Pavilion of Scholar Fan (范公阁).

The performance at Martial Art Arena (演武场). To know more about the performances in Kaifeng Fu, please visit the official website of Kaifeng.

Climbing onto the wall of Kaifeng Fu promises nice lake view from above.

4:30 pm, we reached the entrance of our next destination- Kaibao Shi Pagoda (开宝寺塔), or commonly known as Iron Pagoda of Kaifeng (开封铁塔). The pagoda was built using glazed bricks (琉璃砖) which the colour of the bricks resembles rusty iron. That's how the Iron Pagoda got its name. Built in 1049 in Song Dynasty, the octagonal pagoda is 55.88 meters in height.

The pagoda was built to replace its predecessor, which was destroyed by fire sparked by lightning. To avoid the lightning struck twice on the same place, engineers at that time decided to built the tower with glazed brick, which was non-flammable material with zero conductivity. The pagoda stands still through at least 38 earthquakes, many times of flood, storms, hails and wars. Consumes by time, the structure is now tilt a little bit to the southeast.

The entrance fee of the pagoda garden is CNY30. Another CNY30 is required to enter the pagoda. The garden opens 8:00 am - 5:30 pm. The pagoda was far from the entrance, thus we took the electric car (referred as battery car in China) to get to the compound the pagoda with CNY10 for a return trip. The pagoda was the only relic from ancient China that we visited in Kaifeng. It was amazing to see a pagoda that tall kept in good shape for such a long period of time. We lost our chance to enter the pagoda as it was closed to visitor at that time.

The entrance to the pagoda garden (upper left). The electric car service is available at the entrance (upper right). The whole garden is well decorated (lower right). The pagoda can be seen far away in the middle of the garden.

Family photo in front of the pagoda.

The top of the pagoda is now intalled with lightning rod (upper left) so the fury of Thor will not affect the structure anymore. The pagoda looks dull from distance away, but the exquisite sculptures on the glazed bricks can only be revealed when we get close enough to the structure.

We stayed in Zhong Zhou International Hotel (中州国际饭店) in Kaifeng City. The hotel was one of the top rated hotel in Kaifeng by Tripadvisor- clean, nice decoration, cozy room, polite staff, and with bathing water pumped from underground. The best thing was- we could control the temperature of the air condition whole night long. Located some 5 kms away from major attractions, the best way to move around from the hotel is by taxi. Xiao Song Cheng (小宋城) food center is located opposite of the hotel. It was a good place for supper.

We took our lunch at Kai Fu International Hotel at Zhengzhou and our dinner at Xiang Li Ren Jia Restaurant (湘里人家) at Kaifeng (upper row). We had the chance to try Kaifeng soup dumpling (开封汤包) at the restaurant (lower left). The taste was much below our expectation, and there was no soup within.  Besides, we had braised pork (pig feet) together with 9 other dishes. We had braised pork for a few consecutive meals in our whole trip.

Our dinner were sumptuous, but with a bit disappointment on the soup dumpling. We decided to try our luck at Xiao Song Cheng (upper row) for another round of dumpling- the taste was more or less the same. However, we did found some nice snacks there- the pear soup with crystal sugar (冰糖雪梨) (lower left), fried pork buns (生煎包) (lower right),  and almond tea （杏仁茶).The prices for the food and beverages a Xiao Song Cheng were reasonable with beautiful decoration.

For our first day China, we visited Lord Bao Memorial Temple and unveiled the truth behind the darkened face, strolled in the replica of Kaifeng governor office (or referred as prefecture), and witnessed a near 1000 years old Kaibao Shi Ta, tried some of the local delicacies, and rested in one of the top rated hotel in the city. We continued our trip early the next day to Yuntai Mountain nearby Jiaozuo,  around 155 kms away from Kaifeng City. Follow us now.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]
[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]
[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple] [Longmen Grottoes & Charriot Luoyang]
[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]
[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]

Two Days One Night in Cameron Highlands

We visited Cameron Highlands during Labour Day holiday. Being one of the popular locations for vacation, we were lucky to find a place to stay at Eight Mentigi Guest House few days before our departure. We departed around 7:45 am from Kampar, took our breakfast at Tapah, and reached Lata Iskandar at around 9:40 am. We took a 50-minute break there to enjoy the refreshing environment and nice coconut drink. The traffic was smooth and we managed to maintain the speed at 50-60 kmph.

Then, we took 45 minutes to drive from Lata Iskandar to Bharat Tea Plantation, 4 km away from Tanah Rata. We stayed there for almost 2 hours. Afternoon, we took a leisure trip to two strawberry farms and night market at Brinchang. As expected, the night market was congested. To avoid being caught in heavy traffic, we parked our car far away from Brinchang town center. We drove smoothly back to hotel at Tanah Rata while the traffic was congested at the opposite direction.

Second day, we went out early for breakfast and started our journey back to Kampar. On our way down, we stopped by Boh Tea Plantation in Habu and again, at Lata Iskandar for a snack break. We would share our experience through photos. More about our previous experience in Cameron Highlands (2010) is available here.

9:40 am at Lata Iskandar. Not many visitors were there. Refreshing air and cold water make this place a popular resting spot between Tapah and Tanah Rata.

This is the area where people can dip in the cold water flow from the hill.

Not many cars were on the road (upper left). Fruits (upper right, lower right) and souvenirs were the main items sold by the stalls nearby the waterfall. The coconut was sold between RM 4 - RM 5 depending on the size. The souvenirs were sold with reasonable prices. However, many of these souvenirs were not local products.

This was where we rested and enjoyed coconuts. The fried noodles and nasi lemak were nice too. The location- opposite of the waterfall, next to the entrance of the public toilet. The owner of the shop could speak in English.

11:15 am, we reached Bharat Tea Plantation and the road side was full with cars. We had to park our car some 100 meters away from the tea house (upper left). Again, we were lucky to find an empty table to sit down for original Cameronean tea break. The original tea was RM3.70 per cup while flavored teas were RM6.35 - RM8.50 per cup.

  Having afternoon tea here is an experience of a lifetime.

After a nice tea break, we strolled around the tea plantation. The view was breathtaking.

Another view at Bharat Tea Plantation. The plantation was established by Mr. Shuparshad, who was also a famous grocer and transporter in Cameron Highlands. The plantation covers an area of 1620 acres.

It is a great place to take photo. Located just beside the main road, this place can be easily reached. It is a place that worth a visit in Cameron Highlands.

After lunch at Tanah Rata, we visited Healthy Strawberry Farm located between Tanah Rata and Brinchang. The compound of the farm was planted with nice flowers and cacti (upper right). Strawberry? Not that much. We tried the strawberry ice cream and pancake (lower left). Both were nice with reasonable price. Due to the super peak holiday, the dining area was full with visitors (lower right).

Big Red Strawberry Farm in Brinchang was still the better one (upper left). The farm is big, organized, clean and of course full with flowers, cacti, and various types of vegetables (upper right and lower left). The canteen was clean and full with visitors. The price of the food was more or less the same with Healthy Strawberry Farm. The only problem was to find a place to sit at the dinning area.

Flowers and cacti available in the strawberry farms.

More flowers and cacti.

Brinchang night market is located at the northern end of the town. The night market started as early as 5 pm. To avoid traffic jam, we visited the night market around 5:30 pm, bought some food and fresh baby tomatoes, and left the market around 6:15 pm. The sea coconut drink, steamed sweet potato, fried rice with chicken, and sweet corn were nice choices for dinner. The night market is getting more organized by moving away from the road side. 

On our way back to Kampar, we stopped at Habu to visit the vegetable plantations and Boh Tea Plantation there. Vegetable plantations can be seen on our way to the tea plantation. For us, the best location to see the beautiful farms is at the Hindu temple some 500 meters from the main road.

Vegetable farm at Habu.

Boh Tea Plantation is some 6 km away from the main road. There are two guard houses stationed starting 2 km from the visitor center.

We climbed up to the viewpoint, 170 meters uphill from the visitor center (upper row). There is a clear area on the hill top (lower right) with a boulder in the middle of the area.

Climbing up to the view point is not a very hard task, and the reward was the great view from the hill top. The whole tea factory can be seen from the view point.

This photo shows the patch of the tea plantation that cannot be assessed by visitor.

The workers' quarters in the middle of the plantation.

Eight Mentigi Guest House is near to Tanah Rata town center. Located at Mentigi Road, it is just 5 minutes walk to the town center- easy assess to food, groceries, transportation and services. The guest house offers very simple room (upper right). Television is placed in the living room with the coffee making facility, which we need to share with others (lower row). It is definitely not a first class guest house, but still worth the money spent if what we need is just simply a place to rest and stay overnight.

We took our lunch at May Flower Restaurant at Tanah Rata (upper left). It is a Chinese restaurant located at Camelia 4 Road (near to our hotel).  The portion of vegetables was big, while the taste and the price were average (upper right). The good thing was, the prices for the dishes were clearly shown in the menu. Restaurant Sheng Ming at Besar Road offered Chinese style breakfast, where we tried the fried bee-hun, noodle, and flat noodle. The price was a little bit expensive but the taste was good.

Cameron Highlands is really crowdy during public holiday and school holiday, so do expect long queue all over the places. We can avoid the crowd by being early, but still we cannot stay ahead of the crowd whole day long. The road to Habu Boh Tea Plantation is very challenging, especially when the small hilly road is full with vehicles from both ways. We have to be patient and prepare to give ways to others so everyone can keep on going. Both strawberry farms have sufficient parking place for visitors, but for Brinchang night market, we will try to park our car a bit further from the market site. Well, 15 minutes of walking is always better than 30 minutes of traffic jam.

Cameron Highlands is not that cold during the day, but might get colder during the night. The price for the food offered by the restaurants around Brinchang and Tanah Rata is not much different. The price for the steamboat is quite standardized as well. We didn't try any of the steamboat so we couldn't comment on the quality of the food. For shopping, try to buy items produced in Cameron for a better deal. Cacti, flowers, local vegetables and fruits (like strawberry, tomato, and cabbages) are some of them. 

One thing get lesser in Cameron Highlands, compared to our previous visit- antique land cruisers. For more about our previous visit to the highlands, please read our older posts as below.

[Cameron Highlands 1][Cameron Highlands 2][Cameron Highlands 3]

[All Our Destinations]

Other nearby attractions:

 [Last tin dredge in Malaysia] [Kellie's Castle] [Nice Food in Kampar] 

[Short Stay in Kampar][A Trip to Pangkor Island] [Ipoh Old Town]

[Lime Stone Caves around Ipoh] [Ipoh's Food]

La tentation Toddophobe

"J'avais plein de copains dans cette manifestation" Emmanuel Todd, démographe, France Inter 04.05.2015

Quand Todd n’est pas content, il fait un bouquin scientifique. Là, il digère mal les manifestations du 11 janvier parce qu'elles annoncent le pire. Y-a-t-il été ? Non. Ai-je le bouquin de Todd ? Non. Mais selon sa méthode sociologique cela me suffit pour faire un petit billet sur lui et sa prestation matinale sur France Inter, visiblement supervisé par le coach en buzz de Nabilla.

En tant que manifestant du 11 janvier (marcheur statique en fait, et totalement conscient des limites de l’exercice), il me classe avec 4.5 millions de personnes dans la rubrique xénophobe potentiel, islamophobe en puissance, antisémite en devenir et pro-Maastricht évident. A écouter ici.

Je m'autorise donc, s'il le veut bien, un mini droit de réponse sur mon blog car cela n'en vaut pas plus.

Lui est-il passé par la tête que les personnes qui se sont rassemblés ce jour-là savent aussi se servir de leur cerveau et se sont posées deux trois questions, peut-être les mêmes que lui ? Lui est-il passé par la tête que certains avaient peut-être juste du chagrin, et qu'à un moment il faut laisser parler son cœur ? A-t-il seulement constaté qu'il n'y a pas eu un seul incident dans ce rassemblement monstre ? Lui est-il passé par la tête que beaucoup d’individus en ont marre de devoir se positionner pour ou contre telle ou telle croyance ? Que nous aurions aussi défilé si ce massacre avait été accompli par des Breivnik-like en représaille contre une caricature du Pape (intégrisme catholique par ailleurs bien plus souvent caricaturé que le prophète chez Charlie).

Je n’ai pas marché le 11 janvier pour la défense de liberté d’expression (même pas), même pas pour la mémoire des gars de Charlie. J’ai défilé contre la connerie (et poussée à l’extrême elle mène toujours à la destruction) et j’avais au moins un point commun avec tous les gens présents, un point commun essentiel et indispensable pour la bonne marche de la société : la volonté de vivre tranquille et en harmonie avec les autres. Todd appelle ça de l’égoïsme, une "logique d'exclusion" de la part de "post catho zombies". Si ça peut éviter des morts dans la rue et les éditos de Zemmour en boucle, cet égoïsme me va. Égoïste et post-catho peut-être, mais zombie pas envie.

OK Emmanuel, on ne se mobilise pas assez sur plein d’autres sujets sociaux, mais comparer notre atonie devant le chômage de masse et notre réaction spontanée face à la violence des extrémistes de la religion est digne d’un édito de site complotiste. Il n’y a jamais eu de mal à s’unir même pour une journée (c’est déjà tellement rare !) pour signifier par le nombre son rejet de la barbarie d'une poignée de crétins déshumanisé. Ils n'ont pas à dicter, ce que l'on doit penser, croire et dessiner.

On est comme ça nous les humains, on a parfois de la peine et de la colère d'être tué au nom des  croyances des autres.