I booked a bus ticket to Yinjiang departing from Zunyi Chunchunbao Bus Station at 8:50 in the morning. Since I got up early, I checked the walking distance of more than three kilometers and walked along the road to browse the cityscape of Zunyi.
There are three famous snacks in Zunyi: bean curd noodles, mutton powder, and rice skin. I have eaten two of these three snacks, and they all taste very good. The bean curd noodle is for breakfast. I passed by a store, maybe it was too early. There are only noodles, and the bean curd hasn't arrived yet, so let's forget it.
There is a vegetable market in the century-old Songtao Street on Feicui Road near the passenger station, where you can see the eating and living habits of the local people. The basic vegetables are the same as those in the north, with more bamboo shoots, zheer roots, pickles, etc., and local camellia. I bought a little Maofeng, and the taste is not bad after drinking it all the way. The mutton is mainly goat meat, and the beef is divided into skinned and skinless. They take off the hair of the cow directly, and cook the cowhide and beef together. There are many smoked meats, smoked pork feet, pork legs, and sausages are all available.
There is also a local breakfast of glutinous rice, which costs 5 yuan a piece. Put various side dishes in the lunch box, and then cover it with rice. On the way to Yinjiang County, this packaged glutinous rice replaced my lunch.
Yinjiang County is a Tujia and Miao Autonomous County. The purpose of coming to Yinjiang is to walk from the west gate of Fanjing Mountain to the top of the mountain, and take the cableway down to the east gate without turning back.
The shuttle bus to Fanjing Mountain is at Yinjiang New Passenger Station, but in the case of few tourists, it will stop moving forward 30 kilometers away from the mountain gate. You have to take the ground bus that stops next to the scenic spot to go to the west gate of Huguo Temple. On that day, there were only me and a tourist from Wuhan, each of whom paid 50 yuan for the fare. Tickets for Mount Fanjing are no longer on sale after 3:00 pm. You have to book tickets on the official website in advance and enter the park before 3:00 pm. In short, this route is not very mature, and there are quite a lot of bumps in the middle. If it is not for taking an unusual route, and if you have not made a strategy, it is recommended that you go up and down from the east gate. Up the ladder, and then down by the cableway. During my trip, I heard a 72-year-old Liaoning couple walking up the mountain.
Mount Fanjing is located in the transition zone from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the hills of western Hunan. The Golden Summit at an altitude of 2,493 meters is the main peak of the Wuling Mountains. The name of the mountain comes from the "Pure Land of Brahma" in Buddhism. It used to be the ashram of Maitreya Buddha, and the incense was prosperous, but now there are far more tourists visiting here than pilgrims. Fanjing Mountain is known as the fifth most famous Buddhist mountain, but compared with the other four famous Buddhist mountains I went to, its cultural heritage does not match the name. There are not many temples on such a large mountain.
The original prehistoric landscape should be the feature of Mount Fanjing. I have never seen any of the four celestial wonders of cloud waterfall, Zen fog, phantom, and Buddha's light. Take the sightseeing bus to Mianxuling, and you can faintly see the Wanmi Sleeping Buddha. I saw several late-blooming red rhododendrons along the 5-kilometer trail. The trail sometimes shuttles between the forests, and sometimes walks on the ridge. It takes about 2 hours to walk to the core landscape area of the old and new Jinding.
The image of Mount Fanjing is endorsed by Mushroom Rock, which is very eye-catching in shape as its name suggests, and it is easier to walk on the road despite the large height difference. The upper part of the new Jinding mountain is divided into two. The Hongyun Jinding connected by a bridge is very beautiful, but the climbing road is very steep, and the foothold of some sections is a small pit that can only accommodate one foot, and it needs to be grasped. You can climb to the top only by holding your hands and feet firmly with iron chains. The area of the peak is small, and a small temple is built on each side, one is called Sakyamuni Hall and the other is called Maitreya Hall. It means that the modern Buddha Sakyamuni will alternate with the future Buddha Maitreya. In the morning, red clouds and auspicious air often surround it, so it is called Hongyun Jinding.
Most of the tourists who come to Fanjing Mountain get on and off the cableway from Dongmen Yuao, so it takes a long time to wait for the cableway.