Pierreh. Unblogged

On my Lonely Planet (2 years old) some information changes.
ChangbaiShan is not longer “wild”. Chinese tourism organization did put his hand on it. Chinese and South Korean tourists are coming by buses. Everything is very organized and it is not easy to get out of the trail. It is still a lovely place.

So just few information, which can help you:

I took a taxi from Baihe in the morning it cost me 40rmb to the entrance of the park. As the lonely said, they let you 16 kilometers before the start of the trail but you don’t have choice, taxis don’t go further. Then I had to pay the entrance fee of the park 100rmb plus the bus to get to the trail 68rmb.
The trail is made of wood, pavement and they even built a tunnel. You have to pay 25 rmb to get to the tunnel and to the lake. The lake and the Shangbai Mountain are really great. Then I wanted to get to Tian Shi, which is a summit from where you can get a good overview by walk (lots of tourist get there by 4×4 from the first hotel). You can see the trail, if you turn your back to the lake, on the right. You just have to cross the little river and you are on it. It is climbing well. After 5 minutes on it, a guard was running after me. In the mountain a Chinese guy with a tie!!! And I could not get further, he didn’t want to let me go. I even try to give him money. The fact is to climb that “summit” you have to pay for it at the entrance. You need to ask at the ticket office that you want to take that trail and it is 200rmb (without the entrance, and may be this include the bus). I had to go down and back again… If you go to ShangbaiChan, do this trail it is great and not that hard: first you manage to get approximately one hour and half in the quiet mountain out of the “tourists” trails, then when you get at the top of the first climb, there is a nice pasture perfect for picnic. If the weather is good, the view is wonderful.

For those, which don’t like to climb, you can go up with a 4×4, but regarding the driving, I think it is more dangerous than to walk on the trail. Then you can go down to the lake from Tian Shi. If you didn’t pay the 200rmb, you might be stop by a guard which going to tell you it is too dangerous and won’t let you go. If you get through him, at the bottom, another guard will wait for you and ask you to pay a fee (maybe 25rmb, I did not have to pay regarding the number of tickets I got in my hand).

I hope this little note will help some bag packers. It maybe has been upgrade on the lonely planet…

Last thing, I took a very small bus (7 peoples) to go back to Baihe: 20rmb…