Baihuashan, Beijing

[chinabiker]

It's very difficult for us the keep our hands off the handlebars, so we decided to go for a short ride on November 4th.
Destination: Baihuashan 百花山 (100 flour mountain)

We left at 7 in the morning under blue skies and at single digit C temperatures.

The first stretch, along the 5th ring road of Beijing, was pretty boring and it
became very bad on the G108 afterwords. Very bumpy road surface and very chilly in the gorges between the Western mountains, where the sun shines
in for only 2 hours per day during the winter. From G108 (at km 74) we turned off to North into a small valley.
There is coal mining going on everywhere and black is the dominating color.
After 130 kms and 2 hours of riding we finally arrived at the bottom of the
mountain road we came for, having a short break to warm up on the sunny side of the slope.


Short break on a pile of coal dust


Meanwhile we reached 1000 m asl and the road to Baihuashan will climb for almost another 1000 m within 12 kms.


In the distance - the road to Baihuashan


Mid way up the mountain


Looking south


Andy on his way up


The final hairpins


We reached the top - altitude almost 2000 m and only 60 km West of the center of Beijing


View to the South from the summit


West


North


East


Little monastery


A look into the black valley we came trough


After a good hour of enjoying the views we started our way home, passing through another black valley.



Imagine to live there!


A nice one again - the road to Baihuashan


Coal pot


A rare sight in this area

We returned the same bad and boring route back home with some mixed emotions.



The map (click to enlarge)



More pictures


Andy & Robert