A mountain suitable for viewing azaleas—Tianlu Mountain

In spring, you should go hiking in the mountains full of rhododendrons. So in beautiful China, which mountain is the best for viewing azaleas? Of course it is the "China Baili Azalea Scenic Area" located in Dafang County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province. It says that its azaleas are second in bloom, and it is estimated that no other place in the world dares to admit that it is first.

However, for people in coastal areas, a trip to Bijie is too far. If you live in Europe, going from Guangzhou to Guizhou is equivalent to a trip to a foreign country.

People living in Guangdong don’t have to travel that far to see mountains full of rhododendrons. Although their abundance is far less than that of hundreds of miles of rhododendrons, it’s still enough to feast your eyes. There are several mountains where you can see this kind of rhododendron. The most famous one in Guangdong’s outdoor world is Tongtian Candle in Conghua, and the other one is Tianlu Mountain in Xinxing County.

I went to Tongtian Candle, one of the "Ten Climbs of Conghua", in the spring of 2018. I think that if it is just to see the azaleas, rather than pursuing the false reputation of how many kilometers have been completed this time, then Tianlu Mountain will definitely go More appropriate than the Babel candle.

Because the rhododendrons in Tianlu Mountain are larger, the mountain road is easier to walk than Tongtian Candle.

Let’s first take a look at the road conditions on Tianlu Mountain:

The road up the mountain has been manually excavated and is almost all mud. Although we have been climbing, the slope is not as steep as the Candle to the Sky, and the physical exertion is not great. When coming to this mountain, you don’t need heavy hiking shoes or trekking poles, just ordinary lightweight hiking shoes.

Tianlu Mountain has several entrances, one of which is a scenic spot that requires a fee to enter, and the ticket price is 50 yuan. If you take the circular route from the paid main entrance, it is about 20 kilometers. So this time the tour leader took us on the fare evasion route. I think the mountains with beautiful scenery are not suitable for too much viewing. When you feel extremely tired, you have no time to care about the scenery along the way. You just think about God, when will you be able to finish the walk.

Therefore, I have always suggested that those traveling friends who only come out to see the scenery and take photos should try to choose mountains that are not too difficult and try to bring a camera with them. If you feel that a SLR is too heavy, you can buy a card camera worth two or three thousand yuan, and the picture quality it produces will be inferior to the best and most expensive mobile phones on the market. If you feel that the effects taken with a card camera or full-frame are not as beautiful as those after color correction on a mobile phone, you can transfer the photos to your mobile phone and use various photo editing apps to fine-tune them. All card machines and SLRs on the market today can wirelessly transmit data to another device.

On the way up the mountain, you can see several small tea terraces. Like the thin trees around them, they seem lifeless and lack nutrition.

Because I only slept for 3 hours, I felt as tired as they did, and the air was dull, as if I was walking with my body wrapped in an airtight raincoat.

I kind of regret coming.

Seriously, after breakfast this morning, I planned to go back to bed and give up on today’s schedule. I squinted in bed for a while and then tried to get up. I thought that I might be able to sleep in the car for a while. When I got to the starting point, I drank a lot of coffee and felt better.

I brewed 2 packs of black coffee and about 900 ml of Tieguanyin in the bottle. I drank coffee and tea all the way down, but I was just too weak. Mental state can affect a person's personality at that time. My personality today looks like that of an autistic person. I barely talked to anyone, and even when someone did, my replies were as cold as a robot.

Others may think that I am a noble person, but in fact I am just tired.

After walking for half an hour, I sat down in front of a tea terrace to eat my lunch of Thai rice, black bean dace and eggs cooked in a rice cooker last night. I think this can replenish carbohydrates and provide enough protein.

I forgot to take the spoon out of the car, so I used a plastic bottle cap as a spoon. Several ladies who were traveling with me stopped to watch me eat out of curiosity. It was probably their first time seeing someone eating with a bottle cap. One of the ladies even captured a photo of me. It was only the next day that I saw this photo in the group.

At 13 o'clock in the afternoon, the air became cooler and I knew that I had reached a higher altitude. I heard that the highest point of Tianlu Mountain is more than 1,200 meters. The team leader said that we can reach the top of the mountain around 14:00, so by now I should be at an altitude of 1,000 meters.

From here on, the scenery, like the air, gets better and better. The land here seems to be only suitable for shrubs and grass plants. It is difficult to see trees. The few trees we encountered on the way were also bare.

From this position, you can already see the red azaleas in front of you. In other words, you must go to this height, otherwise you will not be able to see the azaleas.

The azaleas here are different from the purple and red azaleas we commonly see in low-altitude cities. They must grow at a suitable height. It doesn't matter whether it's too high or too short. It's best to be at an altitude of 1,000 to 1,200 meters. This altitude can avoid the scorching heat and cold. This shows that it is a very delicate flower.

From here, we could see cow dung all the way, but we never saw or heard cows mooing. Every time I go hiking, what I look forward to most is seeing cattle and sheep. They are honest, cute, and harmless to humans, so you don’t need to be wary of them at all. To be honest, the probability of you being hurt by a stranger outside is much higher than the probability of being attacked by a cow or sheep. Most of the friends I like to hang out with are as honest as an ox or as shy as a sheep.

I have no intention of engaging in ferocious intrigues, intrigues, and intrigues for the little benefit that cannot be taken away after death. Although, some people call such people great heroes and can find noble and beautiful things in them. But I don't want to. It’s not that I don’t have this kind of wisdom, but I know that one side will always get hurt. If he wants to earn it, just give it to him.

The tops of the mountains are almost all valleys with green grass and rhododendrons. The terrain is not undulating, making walking easy and comfortable. You can enjoy the beautiful scenery everywhere, making you feel like a romantic and comfortable spring outing in your youth.

Unlike the Babel Candle, the azaleas here really grow all over the mountains and valleys, and can be seen in a radius of 1.5 kilometers, just like the dark night sky dotted with twinkling stars.

What is surprising is that the back of the mountain is completely different from the front. As we began to descend from the top of the mountain, after a while the red rhododendron was no longer visible at all, as if the flower did not exist on the mountain at all. But we can see another kind of flowers. They have similar shapes but different colors. Some are pink, some are dawn, and some are lavender. Some are off-white from a distance. If you look up close, you can see that the stamens have a conspicuous bright yellow color. They appear on the green hillside, just like you suddenly see a few beautiful girls wearing floral skirts in the crowd. I didn’t know what flowers they were called at the time. It wasn’t until I was planning to write this travelogue that I found out through the image search function that they were Rhododendron japonicus and Rhododendron vulgare.

If you have walked many mountain roads, you will naturally know that the road conditions and green grass here are suitable for grazing cattle and sheep. I occasionally saw some cow dung, but they were never seen. I thought I would never see them today. They were probably hiding and didn't want to see people. Just as I stopped to rest, I noticed a row of gray-black buffalo standing in the distance. Oh, I finally see you. They were grazing on the hillside on the other side of the fork down the mountain. It seemed like I was the only one willing to walk over just to see them up close. When I came closer, they stopped, still holding grass in their mouths, and looked at me blankly. The smaller ones hid behind their mother and quietly showed their heads to look at me. I was also a little embarrassed, as if I had disturbed them. . Then they lowered their heads and continued to eat grass, as if they understood that I was just here to take pictures and had no ill intentions.

Because we are taking the circular route, the meeting points after going up and down the mountain are at the same location. We all gathered at 17:15.

Generally speaking, this route is satisfactory. It is only 9 kilometers in total. It is not too harsh and does not cause much damage to the knees, hips and lumbar spine. You can exercise your body, absorb a lot of negative ions, and enjoy the wonderful scenery along the way. I remember that the last time I took such a route was the Niuhu route in January 2020.

I think that the routes of many outdoor companies can be modified, such as Huangmeixuehou, Chayanding, Chuandiding, Wugong Mountain, etc. The mileage can be reduced, or an extra day can be arranged to complete it. Pursuing this false reputation of completing many kilometers in a short time completely destroys the original intention of outdoor hiking.