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Must-read before your travel
2016-05-15 23:57:24 source： hits：

Must-read before your travel: (please read through the foregoing pages, taking the responsibility for yourself!)

Time: from June 20th to 21st in 2015

Destinations: Da Ye Pool of Taibai Mountain and Ba Xian Platform

Personal information: office staff, weighted more than 100 KG.

Travel schedules: one-way journey along 12 kilometers of mountain road, mostly uphills and downhills, plain road conditions.

Day1：Start from Xi'an---Xiaban Temple (with an altitude of 2,800 meters) --- Shangban Temple (3200 meters) --- Immortal platform (3300 meters) --- Round Heaven and Square Earth (3511 meters) --- Small Han Yu Memorial Temple (3480 meters) --- Big Han Yu Memorial Temple (3568 meters) --- Da Ye Pool (3590) --- Camping site

Day2：Ba Xian Platform (3771.2 meters) --- backtrack

Food: two days (traveling light is recommended, as there are supply points along the way. Plain food which is easy to carry is the best choice. Don’t eat too much along the way, so prepare food on a 70% full basis for each meal. You can carry the food with you, but if money is not the problem, you can get food from the supply points. Calculate the distances between each supply point and take into account the weather conditions, you get to know how much water you need to take along the journey.

Outfit: a suit of quick-dry clothes, a piece of light fleece jacket/soft-shell jacket/outdoor raincoat, head lamp, ultra-light trekking stick, outdoor gloves, sun screen 30+ or above to protect yourself from sunburn (remember to put on sunscreen on your face, neck, hand and other exposed parts. Re-wear the sunscreen timely according to the instructions. The sunscreen thing is the real experience of my travel). Put all the above things into a durable knapsack , then everything is OK. (through the traveling experience of my own, I come to believe what the man (works in the Snow Leopard Outdoor Travelers’ Club) said, that is, we must climb the Taibai Mountain in light package.

Equipment: the portable and effective mini SLR camera is recommended. If you are in good shape, then bring all kinds of camera bodies and lenses. However, Taibai Mountain is a good place for shooting scenery and taking memorial pictures, so take into account the collocation of the camera bodies and lenses. If you insist on taking a SLR, I have to warn you in advance that the equipment can be your burdens along the way. Up to now, the digital camera has developed pretty well, so the high-definition mini SLR/digital camera and the portable tripod are recommended. The SLR is not easy to carry along the way, what’s more, it may scrape the neck and get bumped.

Supplement: we traveled with the Snow Leopard Outdoor Travelers’ team, the club had booked the room in advance. If you travel alone, you’d better tell your family the route, departure and return time of your traveling. You’d better book a room in advance, even if it is a pre-paid room. Or you can bring the tent and sleep bags to camp in the mountain. long the journey in Da Ye Pool , we encountered two girls who had no place to settle in and cried nonstop. The boss of the club put up a simple wind-proof tent for them, so they finally settled down at the place where the altitude reached 3,600 meters. If you are not fully prepared, please don’t travel here for you have to take the responsibility for your own life.

An overlook of Da Ye Pool

Opening:

In June of 2014, I spent the whole month in Quanzhou, sweating along my journey. This June of 2015, I traveled along the Taibai Mountain to spend the unforgettable Dragon Boat Festival. In this festival, together with my friends, I participated in the Taibai Mountain climbing activities held by @Shaanxi Travels. To an overweight office clerk like me, climbing is the last thing that I want to do. But in order to complete my wish of shooting the “Qomolangma” of Shaanxi——@China Taibai Mountain, I took part in the activity after deliberate consideration. At that time, I didn’t think too much, hoping the activity was not so challenging. However, when I came there, I realized that it was a real challenge for me. I wouldn’t have taken part in the activity if I knew the real situation. But, after 34,572 steps of climbing, the 24 kilometers mountain road lets me know, for the first time in my life: what can be called a team, what responsibility really means, what persistence looks like and who can be the role model of life...

@ daddy of little fish swimming and ten-year-old @little fish swimming

The ten-year-old @little fish swimming has become my role model

A man with climbing experience may have heard the sentence. It may be the reason why you stick to the end. When I came to the Taibai Mountain, to be honest, I was not fully prepared. When I knew that we had to climb with the Snow Leopard Outdoor Travelers’ Team, I realized that it was a real challenge.

In the morning, after one hour’s driving and experienced more than 100 curves, we arrived at Xiaban Temple, where the cable-way located. The new cable-way had not yet start operations. At 12:30, we took the former cable-way to the Shangban Temple. From there, we had to take the steps to head for “Immortal platform” and “Round Heaven and Square Earth” ( the “Immortal platform”scenic spot possesses gorgeous views.“Round Heaven and Square Earth”is the boundary ridge of southern and northern China). From“Round Heaven and Square Earth” to Small Han Yu Memorial Temple, the workers were paving the stone way, which was not difficult to walk upon. During this period, I traveled with @ daddy of little fish swimming, the ten-year-old @little fish swimming and @Guofu Minqiang, then we joined the elder brother of Snow Leopard. By the time, we still had energy to continue the journey. Then fogs appeared, with visibility of 50 meters. As it was our first time to Da Ye Pool, we had no idea of the distance. After 1 kilometer’s mountain road, we arrived at Small Han Yu Memorial Temple. Here, we took a simple supply and rest, renewing our energy. For the rest of the time, we had to leave for Big Han Yu Memorial Temple, which was 5 kilometers away.

The road from Small Han Yu Memorial Temple to Big Han Yu Memorial Temple

The Big Han Yu Memorial Temple was under our feet

Along the section, the frog and mist of Taibai Mountain had thickened up, with visibility of 30 meters. A light rain began to fall and the temperature decreased, so we had to put on all of our clothes. The outdoor raincoat I bought from Decathlon became the warm and windproof outwear for me. We passed through the Quaternary Glacier Scenic Area and headed for Big Han Yu Memorial Temple. There wasn’t so many uphills and down hills along this section, but the road condition was much worse compared with the road along the Small Han Yu Memorial Temple. As it was my first time here, it had been too much for me to endure. After two hours’ walking, we arrived at Big Han Yu Memorial Temple at around 19:30. The ten-year-old @little fish swimming insisted on walking alone during the whole process, so I said to myself, “@little fish swimming can keep on walking, why can’t I ?”. Then we arrived at Big Han Yu Memorial Temple and had a brief rest. Each of us ate a bowl of hot porridge and regained our energy. As our camping site was in Da Ye Pool, we had to go there in the evening. After 15 minutes of rest, we left for Da Ye Pool. The following journey would be one of the most unforgettable journeys in all my life.

(There were flat grounds for campsite at Big Han Yu Memorial Temple and a few places to settle in. So many people rested here and visited Da Ye Pool and Ba Xian Platform the next day. But as we wanted to watch the sunrise, we had to go on the journey and camped at Da Ye Pool.)

The highest point of Taibai Mountain -- Ba Xian Platform

Travelers who were watching the sunrise

On the road, you would always heard, “it is not far, just 5 minutes’ walk”.

I had no idea of the distance between Big Han Yu Memorial Temple and Da Ye Pool until I returned and wrote this travel strategy. The distance was almost the same as the one between the two Han Yu Memorial Temples, or even farther. As the road condition was more complicated and all the wind & rains along the way, the ground was dewy. As I didn’t have an idea of the distance, I was not so scared. What’s more, there was no point in feeling terrified, so we had to carry on our journey. On our way back the next day, I noticed that there was a high uphill, few uphills, then downhills, anther uphills and finally downhill from Big Han Yu Memorial Temple to Da Ye Pool. I couldn’t remember the uphills and downhills, just knew that I couldn’t feel my feet. I knew afterwards that when we turned on our lamps, we were not far from the Big Han Yu Memorial Temple. So we were actually had a night-tour in the Taibai Mountain, with all the rains and mist. Night-tour was a pretentious description, in fact, we were forced to do so. We walked and stopped along the way, every time @Guofu Minqiang asked how far we had to walk, the Snow Leopard member would answer, “almost, just make a turn and we will arrive”. I had climbed other mountains, so every time I heard the answer, I knew that we still had a long way to go. As an experienced traveler, @ daddy of little fish swimming encouraged his ten-year-old girl- @little fish swimming along our journey. We had complex feelings along the journey. When we finally saw the light of the contact point, I felt that I was rescued, just like a living person appeared in the Silent Hill. I wondered if I really got there, after another half one hour’s walking, we arrived at Da Ye Pool. I had to thank the elder brother of the Snow Leopard Club, without him, I wouldn’t have arrived at the Da Ye Pool. On our way back the next day, I realized how far we had traveled. In fact, on the way back, when I saw @little fish swimming walking in front of me, I said, “little fish, I wonder what we will be like after ten years as we look back at the videos”? Deep inside, I regard the ten-year-old girl as my role model. According to my incomplete calculation, she was praised by more than 700 people along the journey. She was quite awesome indeed!

The way from Big Han Yu Memorial Temple to Da Ye Pool

Clime over the mountain ahead, we can get there!

For a light sleeper, camping was a suffering

We finally arrived at Da Ye Pool at around 11:30 p.m. They said that the pool was quite beautiful, but I could see nothing as it was in the evening. Then I determined to appreciate the pool next morning and wanted to have a sleep. I thought that I could fall asleep easily as we were so tired. It turns out that I was wrong. As we slept on the same bed, I couldn’t sleep as the people close to me snored loudly. What’s more, some people wanted to climb the Ba Xian Platform in the evening and someone opened the door for the smelly foot. Before dawn, someone shouted that the sun rose, so I thought I had to take the picture of it in a shout time. It turned out that I didn’t fall asleep until they went to the Ba Xian Platform, just napped for a while and my legs felt better. On 6 o’clock the next day, @ daddy of little fish swimming and I got up and debugged our cameras, taking the pictures in a short time. Then we had breakfast and started to turn back. Until we set out, I wondered if I could handle so long a distance back. However, when I saw how far we had traveled under the sun, I kept thinking, “oh my god, how could I handle such a long way yesterday?”

The sun and skyline at the wind hole of Da Ye Pool

Photographed the next morning

Thank god, there were the sun, cloud sea and the beautiful skyline

With all the rains and mist the day before, I had no idea of the road condition, then I arrived at Da Ye Pool. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come to such place. On our day back, thanks to god, I saw the beautiful skylines and the mighty cloud seas, which was the most beautiful scenes I had ever seen. It was on our way back that I realized how many dangerous road we had taken. At around 6.30 am, we started to turn back. From Da Ye Pool to Big Han Yu Memorial Temple, we constantly looked back at Ba Xian Platform. Watching the road that we had taken, we were filled with complex emotions. We walked and stopped along the way, as the sun rose, waters in our bodies evaporated easily, so we had a supply after arriving at the Small Han Yu Memorial Temple. There, we also ate bowls of porridge. After a brief rest, we headed for the cable-way. We didn’t turn back to “Round Heaven and Square Earth”, instead, we headed for Bansi New Residence through the plank road nearby. After the rest and reorganization, we then left for the cable-way. Finally we came back to the scenic spot. Today I make a calculation of the time spent, it shows that it takes us 7 hours to get to the place where we can take the tourist bus, then after nearly one hour’s drive, we can return to Xi'an at 5 pm.

(In addition: if your knees are not feeling good, you’d better bring a climbing stick with you. The lighter, the better. As the stick could functions as a buffer for your knees. Besides, you’d better bring a pair of professional knee-pad, which could provide protection and buffering for your knees.)