Hefei’s Hidden Treasure: Zipengshan

As I’m going through my old China photos, I came across the few pictures I had taken of Zipengshan in Hefei. Zipengshan was like my little treasure during that 2005 trip. I had no idea what I was getting into when I went out there. I just told my supervisor I really wanted to see a farm, so she wrote down the name of a nearby mountain and told me to wait on the street until I saw a bus come by with the same name on its window.

Well, that mountain region had what I was looking for: a few rice paddies and not much else. As the other teachers and I walked around, though, Zipengshan started to reveal that it was more than just a farm. By accident and after walking through a forest for an hour, we stumbled into a clearing where an elaborate “story” had been carved into the side of a cliff. At the end of the carvings were these three humongous statues:

Wow… it was like discovering the Great Valley! When my supervisor first sent me to Zipengshan, she had warned it wasn’t very interesting, but maybe she didn’t know about this place. Or maybe she was trying to protect it! Whatever the case, this small area of Zipengshan was amazing, took me by complete surprise, and is still one of the most memorable trips I went on.

2 April 2011 | China | Comments | Home
tags: attractions

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