From the top of the mountain, we went downhill to another tourist hot spot, the Stockade of the Ghosts (鬼子寨). The place got its name from a slice of Qing Dynasty history. At that time, the Qing soldiers were in hot pursuit of the army of a rebel called Li Chi Shing (李自成). When they reached a valley of one of its streams which Li had caused to be blocked up, they set up a camp there for the night . But whilst they were sleeping, Li broke the dam and torrents of water came tumbling down amidst the "ghostly" cries resounding from the surrounding hill deliberately mimicked by Li's rebel soldiers to scare them away. Those not washed away by the floods ran for their lives and never ever returned.
The car park of at the base of the Stockade of Ghosts
The tiger guarding the dam
A fierce tiger
Hanging upon the eaves of the huts there, we found not soldiers, but wind dried ducks
For a few brief moments, the sun came out
The valley was full of vegetation
its trees are often covered with a thick carpet of moss (a bit like those at Jiujiagou.(九寨溝))
which seem to spread to all the rock surfaces
New and old leaves at the same place and at the same time
Every spring, the valley is covered by layers and layers of thick fog
The fog coming own from across the hills
The rocks on the stream are rather flat
Fortunately they have now built a concrete path. Otherwise we would have to hop from one rock to another to see the sights
The valley was criss-crossed with many streams
The trees grow there almost as if it were tropical rain forest
From time to time, we find some felled trees
The famous "General" (將軍石) standing tall
straight up more than a hundred meters from the ground
To get a bit of sun, the trees often have to spread their branches right above the streams
There are all kinds of creepers
Some of the trees are really tall
Maybe they have been growing undisturbed for hundreds of year?
Some would stretch out their branches from the side of the hills
others just grow wherever they find any space left unoccupied.
An elongated African figure in the middle of Hunan!
and a lone walker along the path
The place is full of ferns, some already dried up. If they don't, where would the young ones have space to grow?
I had wanted to look at the waterwalls further down the valley but the few hundred wooden steps leading to the bottom of the valley were so overgrown with slippery moss that it was simply impossible to take a few steps down without sustaining a fall. So I had to give up. Besides I figured that even if I were to do so, I wouldn't be able to see the waterfalls because the valley was so completely fog bound. So I had to give it a miss.
沒有留言:
張貼留言