Credits:  Quick page created by elseepe (Creative Team Member for JessicaSprague.com) using the “You Are Awesome” collaborative kit created for JessicaSprague.com’s birthday bloghop 2010 by the designers at JessicaSprague.com.

Rising above the city of Dali, standing east to Erhai Lake and facing west to the Black Hui River is the Cangshan Mountain.

It has 19 peaks with the Malong Peak, the highest, at 4,122 meters. Picturesque streams run between summits and cascades its way down.

What used to be an 8-10 hour trek through the forest is now down to 2 hours. We, however, made it in 30 minutes through cable car, which we rode from the Tianlongbabu Film Studio.

On the cable

Funny reminders right before getting on the cable car.

What greeted as we alighted from our cable car was this giant chessboard.

A few meters down, passing through a bridge is Qingbi Stream.

We didn’t go any further but sat somewhere and had a conversation with an old gentleman who was visiting with his daughter. He spoke impeccable English, which is quite rare today. He is from Beijing, and he learned his English in a Christian school when he was a little boy. He talked a bit about his life then and how he survived labor camp. He seemed happy and content. It was his wish to see Yunnan hence this visit with her daughter. They left first as we waited for the others to come back from their trek up the Cangshan.