Our plans to go directly to Shanghai from Song Shan didn’t quite materialise. We had to get a bus to Zhengzhou and from there a fast train to Shanghai, but when we tried to buy train tickets in Zhenghzhou we were told that everything for that day had been sold out. This meant we had to overnight in Zhengzhou and catch the 08:23 fast train to Shanghai the next morning.

We found a hotel opposite the train station, did a bit of walking around and then had a quiet dinner in our hotel restaurant.

Thursday morning we were at the train station at 08:00 and were pleasantly surprised with the train. We had reservations for soft seats and the ticket price was well worth it (an absolute fortune!) - the seats were very comfortable with loads of leg room, the people on the train was actually quiet and we even got a free bottle of water! We did the 1000km journey in 7 painless hours.

After another 3 bus journeys we finally made it to the next sacred Taoist mountain, Song Shan - most famous for the Shaolin Monastery as it is believed that Gongfu (or Kungfu to the Westerners) was created here by the monks.

We arrived in Dengfeng, the village at the foot of the mountain, around 16:00 Sunday afternoon and took a taxi to a hotel we found in the ever faithful Lonely Planet.

We were tired after another full day of bus travelling, so after chilling out for a bit, we went to find something to eat. This turned out to be impossible as there are no proper restaurants in town - only very dodgy looking little canteens which we don’t feel quiet strong enough for yet.. In the end we discovered a Dico’s (very similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken) and decided to go for the fast food option.

On Monday we felt the need for a lazy, doing-nothing day before tackling the mountain the next morning. After breakfast at 13:00 we went for a stroll and spent 2 hours in an internet cafe. Then went back for an afternoon nap before going to good old Dico’s again for dinner.

Tuesday morning was supposed to be us and the holy mountain, but when the alarm clock went off at 06:30 it was pouring down outside. We had hoped to do the 15km trek up the mountain and even took a taxi to the starting point. But halfway there we had to turn around as the weather was just getting worse. Very dissapointed we went back to the hotel but in the end enjoyed another relaxing day with no sightseeing at all. It is now our 3rd day in a row without taking a single photo, but we think the break is doing us, and our readers, a lot of good.

This has now put an end to our quest to conquer the sacred 5 Taoist and 4 Buddhist mountains in China, but we are still determined to give the remaing ones a run for their money.

One of the girls at the hostel in Luoyang was very helpful and told us that it is possible to go to Guoliangcun in only 2 bus trips (instead of 3 as per our Lonely Planet). We thought this would actually shorten the journey, but we were very wrong..

We got on the first bus at about 08:30 in Luoyang and after a 5 hour very bumpy, shaky, hot and sweaty ride (not to mention the neverending horn honking - apparently a necessity in Chinese driving) we made it to Huixian. As this part of the trip was only supposed to take maximum 2 hours, we were already fedup at this stage. Here Marizanne desperately had to go to the toilet and made a dash for the public toilet. It was in a little building far away from the main bus station building and as soon as she entered, she knew why.. We have seen many “strange” toilets on our trip sofar, but this was officially the worse toilet experience of her life (bad enough to even make it on the blog)!

The next bus journey to our final destination, Guoliangcun, was over in 2 and a half hours (thankfully!). We got dropped off about 3km from the village and had to take a taxi. The taxi driver took us to a hotel, but we decided to find something else - partly because the room was dirty with no bathroom, but mainly because one of the staff walked and killed 2 chickens right there on the street in front of us!

We checked into a small family-run hotel down the street and went exploring. Guoliangcun is a traditional, ancient village with an amazing setting in the mountains. We walked through the little town and then down to the man-made tunnel in the side of a huge mountain. In previous times the village could only be reached via a very steep staircase (the “Heaven Stairs”) but later they decided to make a tunnel through the mountain by hand. It is quiet impressive and apparently used in many Chinese movies.

There were no restaurants in the village but our hotel served food on a little veranda on the first floor. They had something of an English menu written on a small piece of paper (copied word for word out of the Lonely Planet). As we were waiting for the food to arrive, a young Chinese girl came to talk to us and even gave us each a fruit juice and a plate of dried fruits and nuts from the mountains in that area. She could speak a little english and was just to happy to practice.

We had only planned to stay 1 night here, so the next morning we caught a taxi to the next village, Nanping, where we got on various buses - Nanping to Huixian to Zhengzhou and the final change our next destination, Song Shan mountain.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

After our holy mountain experience, we caught a bus back to Xian where we had pre-booked train tickets (again hard sleepers for the 5 hour journey) to Luoyang.

Arriving in Luoyang we checked in at the Mingyuan Hostel and had a very relaxing evening (partly due to the fact that our legs were so stiff we could hardly walk!).

There is not much to do and see in town, except for the Longmen Caves about 13km away. We had a very nice lay-inn this morning and at around 14:00 took a local bus to the caves, south of the city.

The Longmen Grottoes are one of China’s few surviving masterpieces of Buddhist rock carvings. The site is absolutely huge with dozens of caves - the Ancestor Worshipping Temple definately the highlight of the day. This section was carved between 672 and 675 AD and contains the best works of art with three-dimensional figures and a central 17m-high Buddha.

It is a great day-out, except for the somewhat extortionate entrance fee and all the steps! Usually we don’t really mind steps, but after the Hua Shan experience, we are still a bit wobbly.

We ended the day with a very nice dinner (seated in hanging, swinging chairs) and tomorrow morning we are catching the 08:00 bus to Guoliangcun, an ancient village about 150km away.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.