Luoyang Departure Laojun Mountain and Longywan 3 Days

Leave Luoyang at eight on the Luanchuan expressway, tunnel after tunnel, and reach the county town in ninety minutes. Eat first: acorn jelly dressed with garlic and persimmon vinegar, cold and faintly astringent, with a bowl of coarse grain noodles beside it. In the afternoon enter the mountain, take the shuttle to the lower cable station, ride up in one stage and change to the forest cable for the second, stepping out at the entrance to the Ten Li Painted Screen. The walkway runs pinned to the cliff, rock on one shoulder and open air on the other, two hours to the end. Come back below the summit before dusk and wait: around six the lamps come on one by one and the halls along the ridge surface out of the darkening sky, better than in daylight. Down by cable and sleep at the foot.

Attraction introduction: Laojun Mountain in Luanchuan is the main peak of the Funiu range at 2,217 metres, named for the tradition that Laozi withdrew here to cultivate, with the summit temples first built under the Northern Wei. The massif is granite and the pinnacles line the ridge in the formation called the Ten Li Painted Screen, a rare granite forest in north China. Entry is one hundred yuan and holds for two days, which means the mountain does not have to be finished in one.

Tips: The last ascent on the main cable is at half past three, and after that the only way up is on foot, so do not cut the timing fine. Guests generally find the moment the lamps come on is worth the wait, though the wind up there stiffens the hands. In practice the first day covers only the painted screen and the lights, with the summit left for the next morning, since the ticket covers both days.

Up again early on the second day, straight for the summit. Cloud sea is far more likely in the morning, and the sun comes over the eastern ridge while cloud creeps below your feet. The summit complex runs in several courts along the crest, the steps at the front narrow enough to queue when a group arrives. Down by late morning, lunch in the county town, then southwest toward the Miaozi valley and Longywan. Start with the nine bends, a flat boardwalk beside a stream that turns nine times between boulders, hardly any climbing at all. Sleep in Zhuangzi village, where the houses sit by the water and the only sound after dark is the stream.

Attraction introduction: Longywan national forest park lies in Miaozi township of Luanchuan, old growth on the inner slope of the Funiu range with forest cover around ninety eight per cent; the Jijiao peak inside the park is one of the range main summits. The park divides into the nine bends, the immortal valley and the forest oxygen bar, where a boardwalk runs beneath larch. Entry follows the notice of the day and has sat between fifty and seventy yuan in peak season.

Tips: The park is large, nearly twenty kilometres of mountain road from the gate to the cable, and private cars up to seven seats may drive in for ten yuan parking. Guests generally find the nine bends an easy first walk with good scenery, ideal for the afternoon of arrival. In practice that stretch takes the first afternoon and the peak waits for the third morning, so the route builds upward.

Jijiao peak on the last day. The cable is about sixty five yuan return and runs fifteen minutes, with forty more on foot above the top station and a short glass walkway on the way that costs five yuan and can be skipped. A stone marker for the highest point of the central plains stands on the summit, the wind is constant, and the ridges of the Funiu range line up to the horizon, cloud sometimes turning up out of the valleys below. Down for lunch in Zhuangzi village, tofu and a clay pot of mountain chicken, then the road at one and Luoyang by four.

Attraction introduction: Jijiao peak, named for a shape like a crowing rooster, is one of the main summits of the Funiu range and stands above two thousand metres; the top is reached by 3,999 stone steps or by cable. The Longywan area holds more than 1,900 plant species and 800 medicinal herbs, one of the better preserved natural forests on the northern slope, opened to visitors in 1994 as a national forest park.

Tips: The cable stops taking passengers up at four, so a summit attempt should not be left to the afternoon. Guests generally find the top ten degrees colder than the valley and want a jacket even in summer. In practice the first cable of the morning is booked, the summit gets its time, and lunch waits back in the village rather than at the canteen on the mountain.