Zibo Lushan National Forest Park, Shandong, China

4Kevin B 5:00 PM Aug 7, 2016

A breath of fresh air (in more ways than one).
I have come to dread national parks and mountains in China. The overcharging, the carefully maintained paths and stairs, the overwhelming crowds, the little pop-up traders every 100-or-so metres. For someone who grew up readily able to explore the wilderness, they all feel a little to sanitary. So, when my wife announced this as a destination, my spirits fell, but slowly, surely, things improved. The drive there was simple and pleasant enought and the car park outside the ticket office was pretty quiet. What followed was a fifteen minute drive up the kind switchbacked, mountain road than would make and excellent feature of a Top Gear segment to the car park at the base of the climb. This is wehere I expected things to slip, but despite there being a good few cars, the signs were that it wouldn't be overcrowded, indeed the overflow car park was barely distinguishable and had been allowed to overgrow. The visitor centre was a simple affair, with a small snack/gift shop, toilet and first-aid station. We didn't dally longer than it took our five year-old to relieve himself and we set off. Certainly, the park isn't as immaculately maintained as others as the wooden boardwalk that made up the early paths felts a little loose, but remained sturdy. A fork in the path took us right on the primary route to the summits. There's plenty of plant life, a wide range of trees and wild flowers and a diverse range of insects (the trees sound practically alive). It's a pleasant climb, a little overgrown in places (which I like) and it brings you to the rock maze. This is where the ascent gets a little more challenging as a naturally deposited array of rocks, forming paths and climbs, presents your route up. Of course, convenient steps have been put in place, but the narrowness and winding nature of the route make it an interesting andmildly challenging progression. Certainly, my middle-aged spread didn't hinder progress and my son take on an Indiana Jones-eque approach to surmounting the obstacles (A metal walking stick is useful for younger walkers, for confidence if nothing else). through the maze we reached the first summit, with commanding views of the surrounding scenery, which is largely unspoilt and very pretty. You can also see across to the high summit, complete with it's temple. This, sadly, is one reason why I'm not five-starring the park as the high summit is now also adorned with a substation and pair of huge antennae that at least mean you're never short of a mobile signal. The path across to the other summit is easy and finished with a fearsome set of steps, bringing you out just over 1,100m above sea level, to yet more gorgeous views and more flying insects than I would have believed feasible (mainly butterflies and dragonflies). The descent path is easy, bringing you past another temple with a small snack shop outside. Whilst the drinks were above the odds here, the snacks themselves were reasonable. The rest of the route sown is clean, easy and pleasant. The whole walk was reckoned by the ticket office to be about an hour, but with stops for the views, taking into account the pace of a) my son and b) the city-slicker remainder of our party, the whole walk took us around two hours, although this could have been longer if we'd had the mind. All in all, nicely out of the way, not too sanitised, not too rough and probably the best national park experience I've had in China. Certainly worth a look if you fancy a mountain walk for the walk itself and don't fancy the crowds at Taishan.