It is said that the spring is infinitely good, and it is shameful to waste the spring, so even if there is no careful planning in advance, we have to catch the ducks on the shelves and start. The original plan was to go to Baili Rhododendron in Bijie, Guizhou. Unfortunately, the temperature is high this year and the flowering period is early. The flowering period has passed in early April, and Fanjing Mountain has been rainy all the time, so I decided to change to Shanxi for the second time. Don't ask why you chose Shanxi, there is only one reason. Tourists from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai are free of admission.
Although it is a temporary decision and it is a second brush, a simple strategy still needs to be prepared. Basically follow the 5A and 4A scenic spots that are free of tickets in Shanxi, deducting the Hukou Waterfall, Wang Family Courtyard, Pingyao Ancient City and other scenic spots that have been visited. Preliminary determination The main itinerary includes Yungang Grottoes (second brush), Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, Wutai Mountain, Changzhi Huguan Taihang Mountain Grand Canyon, Yuncheng Jiezhou Guandi Temple, Yongji Wulaofeng and several scenic spots. During the preparation of the strategy, I found that there are very few free travel strategies in Huguan Taihang Grand Canyon and Wulaofeng Scenic Area, so I will talk about some details that should be paid attention to in the free travel of these two scenic spots later, for the reference of travel friends. In addition, first declare that the following is basically a running account, there is no beautiful text or beautiful photos, and I am a patient with moderate acrophobia, mild obsessive-compulsive disorder, and mild secret phobia (the reason for this statement will be mentioned later), unless you I like free travel and public transportation, but I just want to find some tips, otherwise I can basically take a detour. And if you don't want to read my nagging, you might as well skip to the end of the article to read the TIPS, which is simple and clear. Due to my obsessive-compulsive disorder, I like to seamlessly connect the itinerary as compactly as possible. It is common to use night shift sleeper trains to save time. I will never save money for the sake of saving money, but I will definitely make do when I need it, whether it is Boon Mountain in Nepal A wooden house with four walls leaking air, or an ancient house on the first floor where Langde Shangzhai lived with livestock, or a Kempinski in a metropolis, can all be happy, so for friends who pay special attention to the comfort of the itinerary, you may refer to It doesn't make much sense.
As mentioned earlier, due to the lack of time to prepare carefully, the itinerary is simply arranged in the order of geographical location from north to south and from west to east. However, after actually walking down, I found that I still overestimated the convenience of transportation in Shanxi. After all, Shanxi Wuyi The previous peak season is not considered a real peak season. Many assumptions are not feasible, and I will elaborate on it later:
Day 1 Apr 8th: From Shanghai to Taiyuan, take off at 22:15, arrive in Taiyuan in the early morning of the next day, near the airport
Day 2: Taiyuan to Datong, train to Datong early in the morning, visit Yungang Grottoes, stay in Datong
Day 3: Datong-Ying County-Datong-Wutaishan Railway Station, visit Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, the twists and turns of the itinerary are helpless, stay at Wutaishan Railway Station
Day 4: Visit Wutai Mountain, night train to Yuncheng
Day 5: Visit Guandi Temple and Salt Lake Scenic Spot in Yuncheng, stay in Yuncheng
Day 6: Climb Wulaofeng, stay in Yuncheng
Day 7: Yuncheng to Changzhi Huguan Taihang Mountain Grand Canyon Scenic Spot, Suqiaoxia Village
Day 8: Visit Baquan Gorge, Hongdou Gorge, and stay in the urban area of Changzhi (here you can choose to return by direct flight or return via Taiyuan)
Day 9: Changzhi train to Zhengzhou, visit Henan Museum, night train back to Shanghai, the end of the trip
Summarize the itinerary in a simple, rude and extremely subjective way. The five-star recommendation of Yungang Grottoes and Yingxian Wooden Pagoda for the cultural landscape is worth doing twice and three times. The premise is that there must be a professional explanation, and you will definitely feel a lot of benefits; The Baquan Gorge in the canyon and the Wulao Peak in Yongji, although one is 5A and the other is 4A, are both niche scenic spots, especially Wulaofeng. At least this season there are few tourists, but the scenery is very good, five-star recommendation; Wutai Mountain is very It is suitable for tourism with Buddhist beliefs or sufficient Buddhist cultural heritage. If you are a tourist who is purely looking at flowers like me, the natural landscape of Wutai Mountain in this season is really different from the benevolent; the Guandi Temple in Yuncheng, the Taihang Mountain Grand Canyon in Huguan Red bean gorge (if you don’t go to Qinglong gorge, don’t comment), two-and-a-half-star recommendation, it’s not bad to see it when you have time; Yuncheng Salt Lake scenic spot is a huge pit, not recommended, at least this season is not worth going in at all, it’s enough to go outside the scenic spot, spend It takes money and time to walk in, and the scenery is the same. At the end of the itinerary, I could have chosen to go to the Jinci Temple in Taiyuan to see the peony, or to go to the Henan Museum in Zhengzhou. I finally chose the latter, which should be said to be very worthwhile. One more thing, the free ticket policy for residents of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai introduced by Shanxi is very good, but after the whole itinerary, it was found that the standardization of implementation still needs to be improved, and I will elaborate on it later.
Day 1-2: I checked the air ticket before departure, and found that a certain app has a special package of air tickets and hotels near the airport, which is the same price as a single air ticket, and can also provide pick-up service for overnight flights, so I decided to start. After getting off the plane, I called to pick up the plane and checked into the hotel smoothly. The conditions of the hotel were as expected, but it didn’t matter. I got up after a few hours of confusion, took a taxi and went straight to Taiyuan Station. The train is to Datong South, which takes less than 2 hours, but it should be noted that Datong South is far from Yungang Grottoes and Datong Station, and there is no direct public transportation to Yungang Grottoes (Datong Station has 603 direct to Yungang Grottoes, very convenient). I tried to place an order for a ride, and the order was accepted smoothly, saving a small fortune and saving a lot of time. If not, it is recommended to take a taxi, this section of the bus is very inconvenient.
Yungang Grottoes is the first scenic spot of our free ticket tour in Shanxi, so we don’t know the process at all. After consultation, we finally figured out the specific process: first, register and make an appointment with real name on the small program of Shanxi tour, and verify at the ticket office After the appointment record and the original ID card, you will take a photo and brush your face, and then you can enter with your face at the entrance, which is basically smooth. I thought that other scenic spots had the same process, but I was too naive. Later, I found out that this is the only scenic spot that is the most standardized and smooth.
As a reminder, after entering the Yungang Grottoes Scenic Area, the first 1 km or so of the landscape is newly built, including the water temple, which can be quickly passed by. The real essence is in the Grottoes Scenic Area at the back. The entire grotto scenic spot has been visited once, and all the grottoes have been visited twice, and several explanations have been made. As for why it is not the same, the main reason is that each explainer has his own preferences and style, and the focus of the explanation content It's not the same, so it's worth rubbing a few more. Of course, if you don’t happen to be able to catch it when you go, it is strongly recommended to spend a lot of money to ask a professional to explain it, it is worth it.
In the afternoon, I took the 603 bus from the scenic spot and returned to the ancient city of Datong City smoothly. I plan to go to the ancient city to taste the special mutton siu mai of Datong. As a result, I found out that the siu mai restaurant here is only open for breakfast and lunch, and basically no food is served after 2 pm. Later, the proprietress reluctantly agreed to heat up two cages of siu mai, but there was no guarantee whether it was mutton or beef. Since it is not freshly steamed siu mai, I dare not make random comments. Generally speaking, the meat of siu mai is thin and soft, with chopped onions, etc., the meat quality is not as strong as imagined, and it can be clearly chewed. It's tough, but the siu mai skin is delicious, and the shape of the flower is also very beautiful. However, the mutton in Shanxi generally has a strong mutton smell, whether it is mutton dishes or pasta. If you are not able to tolerate the smell of mutton, you should be cautious. After lunch, I wandered around the ancient city and arrived at Huayan Temple. I was going to make an appointment to enter again, but I was told to make an appointment from the official account. In the process of making an appointment, I encountered a program logic bug. After entering the ID number, it was prompted that the ID card did not match.
However, this logic is wrong. The ID number is only related to the city where you first applied for the ID card, and has nothing to do with the household registration. After communicating with the ticket office, let yourself go to the ticket office to communicate; after the ticket office once again explained the reason why the reservation cannot be made, the ticket inspector still feels incomprehensible (hey, I feel very incomprehensible that he cannot understand this matter), Fortunately, a staff member who looked like a leader came over, took our ID card and checked it repeatedly, and waved us in, which was so touching. Huayan Temple is still worth a visit. Most of the buildings and sculptures in the Liao and Jin Dynasties have a history of nearly a thousand years. The wooden pagoda is an all-wooden pagoda second only to the wooden pagoda in Yingxian County.
When I got out of Huayan Temple, I found that there were more and more tourists. I found out that it was because of the Datong Lantern Festival. The original Lantern Festival during the Spring Festival was postponed to the present due to the epidemic. After checking in at Datong Hotel, I went to Zini 369 Coarse Grain Nanhuan Branch, a local restaurant with good reviews on the Internet, for dinner. The little brother who ordered the dishes was very patient and enthusiastic. When he learned that we were traveling from other places, he not only took the initiative to send a fruit plate and a roasted potato, but also recommended the lantern festival at night, which was really touching. The food is delicious and the mood is very comfortable. After dinner, I took a taxi to the ancient city. The lantern festival is not so beautiful, but it is better than the crowds of people.
Day 3: Get up early and go to the bus station to buy a ticket to Ying County. There are many shifts, an hour and a half drive, and I learned two pieces of information: one is that although Ying County is between Datong and Wutai Mountain, there is no direct bus to Wutai Mountain. So I have to return to Datong; second, there is a direct bus to Wutai Mountain at 2:30 in the afternoon in Datong. After calculating the time, I felt that there should be no problem, so I decided to visit the wooden pagoda first, and then return to Datong to catch the direct bus to Mount Wutai. When I arrived at the Wooden Pagoda in Yingxian County, I consulted about free tickets as usual, and learned that as long as I made an appointment in the Tour Shanxi mini program, I just swipe my ID card. But in fact, there was no response to swiping the ID card. Fortunately, after checking the appointment record and ID card, the staff directly opened the staff channel and let us in. Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, like Yungang Grottoes, must have a professional explanation. The kind of guide-style explanation that relies on gossip to fool tourists is really not worth listening to. This time I was very lucky. I happened to meet a professional who took a team to visit the wooden pagoda. The team members called each other a teacher, and they were quite respectful. The teacher was also knowledgeable, from history, religion, architecture, painting, sculpture, The wooden pagoda was analyzed from various angles such as mural materials and cultural relics protection. There was no specious legend in the whole process, but a layman like me listened to it for more than an hour without knowing it. There is also an episode in the middle. Due to the protection of cultural relics, it is not allowed to climb the tower, so many birds live on the beams in the tower, and dung bombs fall from time to time. It is recommended to wear a hat when visiting, at least to avoid the tragedy of blooming on the top of the head. It is said that the lecturer who was surrounded by everyone's stars and moons was unfortunately hit, and this luck is no one. But having said that, I really encountered the matter of "winning the jackpot" on this trip. Hey, this is a later story, so let's not press it for the time being.
Fascinated by listening to the explanation, the actual tour time exceeded our expectations, so we could only return to Datong after a hasty lunch. Hurry up, get back to Datong Bus Station at 2:30, but an accident happened, and I was told that the shuttle bus to Wutai Mountain was cancelled. I can only take a bus to Shahe Town where the Wutaishan Railway Station is located, and then take a bus to Wutaishan early the next morning. Considering that we had to catch the earliest bus into the mountain the next day (departing around 4:30), I decided to make a living in a small hotel next to the train station. The little black dog raised by the owner is really cute. He took my wife to a supermarket to buy ham sausage for him proactively and enthusiastically.
At this point, the itinerary of the Yingxian section of Datong is over, and the itinerary of Mount Wutai is about to start.
Tips:
1) The free ticket policy for major scenic spots in Shanxi to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai will end by the end of 2021. There are mainly two ways to make reservations through the Shanxi Mini Program and the official account of the scenic spot. There is no requirement for advance reservations. Then make an appointment on site. If you encounter system problems and cannot make an appointment online, for example, the system determines that the ID number does not meet the requirements, you can usually enter after communicating directly with the ticket inspector.
2) Datong South Railway Station has no direct public transportation to Yungang Grottoes, it is recommended to take a taxi; Datong Station has bus No. 603 that goes directly to the scenic spot and passes through the ancient city of Datong, which is very convenient.
3) If you want to eat Datong’s special siu mai, you must go early. The general siu mai restaurant only serves breakfast and lunch, and they rest after lunch, but the high-end restaurants should not be listed here.
4) During peak season in Datong, there is a direct shuttle bus to Wutai Mountain Scenic Area, which departs at 2:30 p.m., but it is best to check in advance whether there is a shuttle bus on that day; Ying County is closer to Wutai Mountain, but there is no direct shuttle bus to Wutai Mountain Scenic Area, you need to go through Datong or Taiyuan, etc. Transit.
5) Wutaishan Railway Station is actually in Shahe Town, and it is about an hour and a half drive away from Wutaishan Scenic Area. The earliest train from the railway station to the scenic spot departs at around 4:40. If there is a train coming from Beijing, you can catch this train directly up the mountain after leaving the station. Since then, starting from 8 o'clock, there will be multiple shuttle buses to the scenic spot. The return trip from the scenic spot to the train station departs from the scenic spot at 4 o'clock in the afternoon at the latest. There are also many shuttle buses directly from the scenic spot to Taiyuan.
