By the end of the day we had a ticket for the bus, a photo-pass for the mountain, one for the cable car up, the monorail, the cable car down, and one to be used for the Baguo Si monastery tomorrow. By lunchtime, Andy had thrown all his away except his monastery ticket … so when asked to produce his photo-pass for the mountain he had to run back to the bin, find the pieces and then put it back together to show the official – luckily she thought this was hilarious and let him through.
We then started our hike up to HongChunping Monastery where we were staying overnight. The route was paved with the exception of the shortcut through the river and took you through temples, pagodas and numerous stands selling drinks, mushrooms & herbs, jade amulets, prayer beads and cases of butterflies!
The local taxi service was not in much demand that day - but several porters bearing Chinese tourists up the mountain legged it past us while we slogged upwards. It was rather like being on a Stairmaster machine for two hours. The last 30 minutes was the worst - 1200 steps straight up – but we made it up to the monastery in record time – drenched with sweat and legs like jelly.
The facilities were basic – a communal shower and concrete squat toilets with low walls between each trap, but we each had twin share rooms that were clean and comfortable.
