Laoshan Scenic Area, Shandong, China

5Amy 5:00 PM Mar 9, 2019

Fairy mountain near the sea
On February 17th, 2019, my dad, mom and I went to climb a famous mountain called Laoshan Mountain in Qing Dao. We lived in downtown of the city, where is about 30 kilometers from the mountain. There are buses to get to the mountain every day. To save time, we spent about 50 Yuan to take a taxi. An hour later, we finally arrived at the foot of the mountain. there were two choices to climb the mountain, one was climbing on your feet, the other one was going to half way up the mountain by the cable car. We choose the cable car. After bought two adult tickets（160 Yuan）and a children's ticket（90 Yuan) in a big hall, We took a bus to get to the cable station. Soon, we get on the cable car. The view below us was awesome. We saw many kinds of beautiful stone hills and the blue sea. Because it was in winter, the temperature was below 6 centigrade. So if you go there in winter, don't forget your coat. After we got down of the cable car, we still had to climb for a while to get to the top. So don't forget to wear sport shoes. We saw a big cave made of rocks in front of us. We went into the cave, it was so dark that you cannot see anything. So you would better take a flashlight with you. In side the cave, there were steep stairs,. The room inside was not enough for you to stand straight, so you had to bow and climb with your hands and feet. On the top the mountain, we could see the amazing views below. It was my first time to see mountains and beach together since the Laoshan mountain is near the sea. I took many pictures of the scenery. Going down the mountain was easier than climbing up the mountain. I suggest you not to take the cable car to got both up and down the mountain. The roads in the Laoshan mountain were very interesting. Laoshan Mountain is great. The cable car are save. The big rock cave is irritative. The views along the road are beautiful and also attractive. I recommend Laoshan mountain to you.

4Deanosaur89 5:00 PM Mar 27, 2021

Busy Day at Laoshan
We enjoyed our day at Laoshan but wish the weather was better. We hit a hazy day when we went so the views went in and out. Once at the top you can see most peaks but you might not get the coastal views you are hoping for due to haze and fog some days. For us we started with Yangkou and hiked up and down in two hours and offered great ocean views and some very claustrophobic inducing walkways (including Mitian Cave). After this we went to Taiqing to take the cable car up (it was open in March 2021) and hiked down which took 2.5 hours. Taiqing had more Taoist areas including a couple of temples, tea gardens and a very uneven walking path. We enjoyed Yangkou more as it had better views in our opinion. After we finished at Taiqing we realized that there is a bus system that goes throughout the Laoshan Scenic area that is included in the ticket price of 120 RMB. 120 RMB covers entrance at all gates for two days but the cable cars are extra. Taiqing cable car is 45 RMB one way and the rest are 40 RMB one way. Laoshan cola is available in this area but many of the shops were not well stocked when we were here in March. We found the food was not overly appealing so we would recommend you bring your own. Drinks were also double the price in this area. We would recommend starting at the Laoshan Mountain Tourist Center (Laoshan Scenic Area - Tourist Services Center in Didi). The weather can change quite frequently in the area - we experienced warm weather in Yangkou but got a blast of cold mountain air in Taiqing. We would recommend layers and a good pair of shoes. We went in spring but my wife was constantly bundling up and adjusting layers. We wish that better information was available online before we arrived in Qingdao so we hope the map we picked up helps you plan your trip! We felt like we missed out on Yufeng and will be back one day as that is where that one really good looking bridge is that we have seen in so many pictures of Laoshan.