Mystic Valleys of Xinchang – National Geopark

Welcome to a brand new day in Xinchang…I got a really good night’s sleep and it was time for breakfast…Before leaving the room, I opened the curtain out to check the weather and here we go, it was raining, yayyyy! How nice!!! It made me to think how we were gonna hike, but then remembered a quote which I use to boost my energy to run outside in the winter…

“There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.”-Bill Bowerman

At breakfast, an interesting thing happened. Yesterday, in the campfire party, we were talking about how nice it would have been to have a Nutella. Guess what ??? One of the waitresses put Nutella just right in front of me…We have a saying in Turkish when your random wishes come true, we say: “I should have wished for something else”.

After getting our energy from Nutella, it was time to leave the hotel.

Lions and red ribbons in China

Look at that lion statue in front of the hotel…Isn’t it looking  as if it was saying”hey, where are you going? take me with you and set me free from this red ribbon around my neck”?…Sorry buddy…

In China, some banks, hotels and government buildings have these lions,  made of stone,  in front of the buildings’ entrances. The common belief  here is that lions protect the building and make it stronger. The red ribbon that is put around lion statues’ necks is used for celebrating special days.

The Lion statue in front of the hotel

Here we come  Xinchang National Geopark

We got on our bus and took a nap till we got to Xinchang National Geopark…When I opened my eyes, I was amazed with the view…Just loved it!! What do you think?

Mystic Valleys of Xinchang

Let me give you a wider perspective:

Mystic Valleys of Xinchang

The fog here was so heavy that you felt as if you were in a mystical place…We were lucky to experience Xinchang National Geopark in this weather, the fog, the rain, the weather…It was such a great atmosphere…

Let’s start exploring the mystic valleys of Xinchang…

As we were walking, we saw many local ladies selling organic products along the way…Here are the first ones…

local ladies selling organic products in Xinchang

local ladies selling organic products in Xinchang

The wooden bridge on the river…

We passed through the local ladies and kept walking towards this interesting bridge: We stood on the bridge more than 20 minutes. It was just the perfect place to take pictures as you can see from our group as well…

Walking on the wooden bridge in Xinchang

Mannn! It was really cold! Even though we were hiking, I couldn’t put my eskimo&lion cardigan off…

Walking on the wooden bridge in Xinchang

While it was raining, walking on this bridge was a little bit dangerous cause as you can see from the shiny parts, it was easy to slip and fall into the river…

Why it took me 20 minutes to cross the bridge? here we go with the pictures:

The view from the bridge in Xinchang

As you can see from the below,  Latetia, my neighbour and friend, was amazed too by the view on the bridge…I love to catch these silent moments…

The view from the bridge in Xinchang

The view from the bridge in Xinchang

The house by the river…

Here is my favourite place…The house by the river…Imagine that you wake up here and look out from your window…Breath taking…It would refresh your soul for sure…I would spent here at least one month…So peaceful!

The house by the river seen from the bridge in Xinchang

We’ll come to that house again but for now we had to keep going to see more beauties…We took “Qian Zhang You Gu Road”. On our way, we saw some local people planting seeds up on the hills…

Our way to Xinchang National Geopark

I like to laugh  at myself, so here is an enterntainment for you…I always feel like “a kid in Disneyland or a fun park” when I am in the nature…Think about a kid who runs in every possible direction to try every machine in the park, well that’s me you’re talking about…Thanks to Latetia, she knew when I would love to have a picture without saying a word and when I handed over the camera to her, I was free…

Exploring Xinchang National Geopark like a kid

After getting on the giant rock, it was time to get down from the rock and find our group…The more we move along the valleys, the more beauty we saw…The rain was sometimes getting heavier but it was just adding more beauty to the nature…

The rain was adding more beauty to the nature…

Here is another local lady selling organic goodies on our way…

local ladies selling organic products in Xinchang

Look who is here? A sweet dog like a fox followed me like the ones in Belgrad Forest in Istanbul, Turkey.

A shot from Xinchang National Geopark

The Cave in Xinchang National Geopark

When you come to Xinchang National Geopark, a must place you have to stop by is here: You can buy some organic goodies from the local ladies and also sit down and try them at the small tables in the cave, Cafe The Cave ,as you can see from the picture below.

The cave in Xinchang National Geopark

The organic goodies sold in the cave

Inside the cave in Xinchang National Geopark

Finally, we realized that, again, we spent too much time in the cave having fun and now had to catch the others in the group, but of course we kept going as taking pictures along the way…I’ve never thought that the fog would create such a magical atmosphere…

A shot from Xinchang National Geopark

Walking through the bamboo forest…

The great thing here is walking through the bamboo forest…Try to play peek a boo in the bamboo forrest is a real challenge…

The bamboo forrest

Isn’t it awesome?

The bamboo forrest

The bamboo forrest

Be careful Latetia, do not fall into the mini lake shaped like a fish…Here in Xinchang National Geopark, there were many rocks that you had to jump over…

Jumping over the rocks

A fish shaped mini lake

Orienteering Activity in Xinchang National Geopark

It was so lovely to see an ongoing orienteering organization in the forest as there are also many in Belgrad Forest in Istanbul, Turkey…

Orienteering activity in Xinchang National Geopark

Yeah, here we go, needed to jump over these giant ones again…but I also wanted to soak my feet up in the water too…

Giant rocks are everywhere!

Here we go in the mystical valleys…

Mystical valleys of Xinchang

Karate Kid in Xinchang National Geopark

As we were hiking, we started to talk about the movie “Karate Kid” and the places that were seen in the movie…Nice move Sebastian. This is not one of the places from the movie, but better to illustrate the popular move having the foggy hills as the background…

Moves like “Karate Kid”, the movie

There are tons of things to do in this mystical place…Looking up on the hills, this should be a perfect place for rock climbing…

Perfect place for rock climbing

The paths were covered with giant rocks and narrow routes like the one below…

Narrow paths in Xinchang National Geopark

Narrow paths in Xinchang National Geopark

Huge rocks are everywhere!

As we were climbing up and jumping across the water, we heard a melody coming from deep inside the forest…So our path was already decided, following the melody…At some point the path was smooth and was cleaned from the giant rocks…

A shot from Xinchang National Geopark

Following the melody…Meeting a Chinese traditional instrument…

We were finally getting closer to the melody and look what we saw…An old man playing a Chinese traditional instrument called “Er Hu“, a two stringed bowed instrument, sounds like kind of fiddle.

An old Chinese man playing Er Hu, a Chinese traditional instrument

We didn’t wanna form a circle of curious people around him, so we kept walking and suddenly realized that we were in a different place, like the movie “Alice in Wonderland”…

It feels like we’re in a place like “Alice in Wonderland”

Making hiking much more fun with friends

While making the hike so much fun with friends, we saw a swing…

The swing surrounded by the red trees…

The swing in Xinchang National Geopark

That was just perfect! Swinging in the nature and watching the foggy hills and all the beauties while it was raining…

Swinging in a mystical place

Here is the view while I was swinging…

The view while I was swinging

The view while I was swinging

I love the different landscapes and formations…It’s just so great to be in the nature…We realize how overwhelming it is to be surrounded by grey buildings only when we find the chance to go out to the nature …

A shot from Xinchang National Geopark

A shot from Xinchang National Geopark

A shot from Xinchang National Geopark

A shot from Xinchang National Geopark

Local ladies were everywhere…I love chestnuts, it is really popular here in China…And potatoes, they don’t look like the baked potatoes in Turkey but again similar taste…A potatoe is a potatoe everywhere…

Local ladies selling organic goodies

We learnt that there was a village up on the hills and it was a must to visit it…Jumping over the rocks and trying to find the village…

Found the small village…

People with a great smile…When you look at them you can see that they posses very little but having a great smile and feeling happy…Having these moments add more uniqueness to my trip, every time…

Do you remember this flower? We also saw another one yesterday: Here you can see that this flower is really popular in the country side. http://whiletravelling.com/tianzhu-lake-xinchang-part1/

After having talked with the locals of the village, we went back to where the swing was…

Scary times in the tunnel…

There was a tunnel that linked to another village so here was our new route and the tunnel…

As I was taking more pictures of the swing, I told my friends to keep going. When I was done taking pictures, I got into the tunnel and immediately I got a flashback…When I was fourteen, after my volleyball team training, I took the tunnel close to my home as a short cut back home, it was really a short tunnel with all the cars passing through but the thing was there was a hole that I didn’t see and I was this close falling into it but managed to see it thanks to one of the cars’ lights and jumped over…Here we had a longer one but fortunately with the lights on…

The walls were kind of clean as well…

But…Then…The lights went off…OMG! I was alone in the dark and I was like “Noooooooo”…I said many more things as well, as you can imagine…I had already walked the half way and I was just in the middle so there was no point in going back….I used my phone’s flashlight but the battery died soon as well…Ohh things were going perfect in the tunnel! It was getting scarier for me cause no one was hearing me as well…I kept walking beside the wall and hoping no holes to step in and fall into and no big spiders on the wall as well…Slowly getting to the light…

Finally, God, I was out…I felt like I was in a horror movie and I couldn’t see anything but the darkness and the light at the end of the tunnel…

At the end of the tunnel…

Look what was waiting for me at the end of the tunnel…This amazing valleys…

It was time to watch the view, relax and feel the amazing peace in the nature…

If only Jack let me do that…Here we go with the “Karate Kid” again…

After all the beauties we saw, we had to go back to catch our bus…

On the way back

Going back through the mystical valleys of Xinchang and the bamboo forest one last time…

I love the water drops that are hanging on at the edge of the leaves…

Finally we caught the others in the group…

Sebastian was asking how I found Xinchang National Geopark…The words that I could find were:

Awesome, cool, wonderful, amazing, stunning, perfect, peaceful, full of mystery, resfreshing, beautiful…I just loved this place…

Public Toilets

Before getting on the bus, a bathroom break was needed…This is one of the common public toilets in China.

Should be really windy up there!

As we were slowly walking out Xinchang National Geopark, here what caught my attention: What kind of bridge is this?

Another lady selling organic goodies under the rainbow umbrella…

Solving the space problem…

Here is the bridge again, this time with many people on it…While I was crossing the bridge, they were pushing me towards the sides…As soon as I pulled out my camera, everyone took a step backwards and here we solved the space problem.

My favourite place, again…

Isn’t it amazing…Being around this house and imagining how it would feel waking up here in the morning with all the beauties around…

Let’s have a closer look at the house…

Here is what you have when you walked down to the river banks from the hosue…

When I turned around, I saw this beautiful hill…

 Early Dinner Time…

After a great hiking lasted for hours under the rain, it was time to eat something…This was definitely beyond my expectations…

As you can imagine, rice is a must in Chinese traditional restaurants…Tons of rice…

Here is the kitchen…Everything was looking so yummy, except the sauces in the saucepans…I would definitely suffer if I got them…

The signs on the bathroom doors…

Here is how you can find your way to the right one…

Have you ever had a nap in public?

In China, you can see many Chinese people taking a nap during the day in public…Better not to show his face clearly…respect to the nap…

After early dinner, it was time for kids to play, run around, laugh out loud…Against all the noise, the man was still sleeping…It should have been more than a nap, right?

Happy times with these lovely kids and our group…In order to arrive Shanghai early, we had to go and say goodbye to Xinchang…

At the door here is a happy Chinese with the cigarette… 

Peeing in public…

Here is another shot before we got on our bus…In China, it’s also common to see men and little boys peeing on the streets…As this is normal here, staring at them is not normal as you can get an evil eye from the person in action meaning of “What are you staring at? Is there something weird?”

Two days getaway trip to Xinchang was amazing with all the uniqueness I’ve experienced and people I met…

The city life can sometimes be overwhelming with all the grey, tall buildings, traffic and pollution…

Here is the solution: Start exploring and…

“Feed your soul while travelling”…

Keep us posted by leaving your comments down there…See you in the next adventures…