Guizhou - entry 12

Well, it looks like I'm going to have a rather busy two weeks for sure and may even be busy into the middle of Feb depending on the situation at work. However, I really don't want to get too far behind on my posts on Guizhou as I'm having fun with it and also because I'm thinking of also posting up photos on Suzhou, The Bottle Tree Park in Singapore and some of my portfolio from 7 years ago, which still contains IMHO my best work to date.

So anyway, just so I can keep the momentum going, here it is... the Maling River Gorge (Malinghe Xiagu).

After our stroll in the park, we made our way over to the Malinghe Gorge where we were face with a 700-step walk down and a 500-step climb back up to the entrance of the park. Sounds tiring doesn't it? =) But let me say, it is well worth the hike.

The Malinghe Gorge is located in the northeast of Xingyi County and is about 15km long. According to our Guiyang guide, this small canyon is also known as "a beautiful scar on earth" and I have to say, whoever first used that phrase to describe the Malinghe Gorge got it right. It is a beautiful canyon. The Malinghe River flows swiftly through the gorge as over 100 small waterfalls cascade down the sides of the steep walls covered with vegetation. There is even one waterfall at the gorge where you can step behind the curtain of water and be baptised by it's fine spray. I can just imagine how much more magnificent this place would look during or just after the wet season.

Check out these pictures.

On the way down


At the base of the gorge.


Views from the base of the gorge.



On the way to the steps back up. You can cross the suspension bridge and walk on the other side of the gorge but we didn't have the opportunity to do that as time did not permit it.








At the cascade with the pathway behind the curtain of water.





Signboards at the entrance of the park


Signboards during the hike


Signboard at the end of the hike back up. This is actually an advertisment but is of interest to us as it has photos of the Malinghe Gorge and Wanfenglin.



LC also shot some nice photos of the Malinghe Gorge. Please check them out too.

On the way down.


View at the base of the gorge.


Suspension bridge


Views on the way to the steps back up.


View from behind the waterfall.


View from the base of the steps back up to the bus.


View from the steps back up.


The wooden steps back up to the top of the gorge are only temporary. If you look carefully, you'll notice that they've cleared a huge area of vegetation by the side of the steps. This is where they will build an escalator or elevator, I'm not too sure, that will bring future visitors to the gorge back to the top without having to go through the exhausting 500-step climb back to the top.

Right, that's it for the Malinhe Gorge. It's not the end of the 2nd day yet though. The guides arranged for us to go to a fruit market after our trip to the gorge. I don't have photos of the location but LC took a couple of shots. I'll talk about that in the next post because I'm going to have to go crash out now as I have to be up in 3 hours.... yikes... didn't realise it was so late. =)

enjoy