Luoyang Departure: Wanxian Mountain, Guoliang Village and the Cliff Road, 3 Days 2 Nights
Three days from Luoyang. Guoliang hangs on the face of a cliff, and the only way in is the road the villagers cut by hand: 1,250 metres, thirty-five openings onto the gorge. One night at a cliff-top guesthouse, where you open the door in the morning onto the Taihang escarpment.
Highlights
Day 1: Luoyang via Huixian to Nanping
Leave Luoyang in the morning and take the Changzhi-Jiyuan expressway to Huixian, about three and a half hours. Lunch in the county town, where the local yam and hawthorn are worth trying. In the afternoon go up to Nanping, whose gorge is gentler than the one at Guoliang: Sun Moon Star Rock, Black Dragon Pool, water audible the whole way. Back at the guesthouse by six; the mountains lose the light early and by half past six there is not much left of it.
Attraction introduction: Nanping is one of the districts of Wanxian Mountain, sitting at about a thousand metres. The gorge holds a series of pools including Black Dragon Pool and White Dragon Pool, and the red quartz sandstone walls belong to the same formation as the cliffs at Guoliang.
Tips: Most of the paths at Nanping are flagstone and slick after rain, so grip matters. Guests generally find the nights cold here even in early autumn, and the guesthouses supply thick quilts. In practice, the first night is spent at Nanping so the cliff road can be entered early the next morning, ahead of the coaches.
Day 2: The cliff road into Guoliang, a night on the edge
At eight take the park shuttle into Guoliang. The road is cut through the cliff itself: rock on one side, openings on the other, and the light arrives in slices. Thirty-five of them, and every one frames a section of the gorge. Get off at the village entrance. The houses are stacked stone with slate roofs, built on top of the cliff. In the morning walk to the Heavenly Pool and the Shouting Spring; in the afternoon go out to the cliff edge and watch the far wall divide into a lit half and a shadowed half as the sun swings west. Tonight stays in the village, where the only sound after dark is wind.
Attraction introduction: Guoliang village takes its name from the uprising led by Guoliang at the end of the Eastern Han. The site sits on top of a cliff with drops on three sides. The cliff road was begun in 1972 and opened in 1977, 1,250 metres long, five metres high and four metres wide, carved by the villagers with hand drills and hammers; the village is listed as a national traditional settlement.
Tips: Wherever the cliff edge has no railing, keep well back, and do not photograph while walking. Guests generally find the temperature on the cliff drops sharply after sunset. In practice, sleeping in the village is the only way to be at the edge before the day visitors arrive.
Day 3: Early on the cliff, then back
Out at half past six. Nobody else is up. Mist climbs out of the gorge and the opposite wall is a single grey outline until the sun clears the eastern ridge, and then the whole face turns from grey to gold in about ten minutes. Breakfast, bags at nine, and back out along the cliff road, this time in daylight and downhill. Lunch in Huixian, Luoyang by late afternoon.
Attraction introduction: Guoliang is known for its dawn cloud and the way the light moves across the gorge. The village faces east from the top of the cliff, so the first sun strikes the opposite wall and then slides down it.
Tips: At dawn the cliff edge is close to freezing and a down jacket is not an exaggeration. Guests generally find the tour coaches start arriving after seven and the viewpoints fill quickly. In practice, plan the sunrise window between half past six and seven.
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