Dr. Mark Nan Tu

Nanyang, Henan Province to Shiyan, Hubei Province

Northen China plains

The detour to the back of the Wudang Mountain

We had a light breakfast at the hotel and checked out. We were heading for Shiyan City, Hubei Province. From there, we planned to visit the Wudang Mountain.
As none of us was familiar with Hubei, we brought a GPS unit. But, we quickly found that the direction given by GPS was incorrect. In a junction, we headed for a small road where all the locals told us to use a different road. The road pointed out by GPS was indeed the shortest road to Wudang Mountain. However, the road did not lead to the entrance but to the back mountain where we had to climb over a high mountain ridge over to Wudang.
The small road was badly maintained and the snow storm a month ago left the surface to be mud and ice. Our Yongsi Jeep performed very well. The mud tires gripped the surface and provided us with a skip free ride. The lower gear gave us a solid thrust which allowed us to get out many mud pits on the road.
It turned out that that scenery was extremely beautiful. Since there was hardly any vehicle travelled on this road, the ride was very enjoyable. We got out of the vehicle and took many pictures.
We turned back at about 15km and continued towards the Wudang Mountain. We arrived at the food of the Wudang Mountain at about 3pm. We had a very late lunch at one of the few restaurants that were still open. We got to the entrance at about 4:30pm. The staff suggested that we came back tomorrow as it was already getting dark.
We turned back and headed for Shiyan County. We booked a hotel close to the downtown area. Shiyan is the manufacturing base for the China Second Vehicle Manufacturing Company.
We checked in the hotel and off loaded our bags. We then set out to find dinner. Since it is the eve of the Chinese Spring Festival, we found that most of the restaurants were closed. We were very lucky and found a hotpot place in a narrow street near by our hotel.
The restaurant owner was a retired engineer from the China Second Vehicle Manufacturing Company. He had his three daughters visiting him during the Spring Festival. He was kindly enough to serve us hotpot dishes even there was no other customers in the restaurant.�
We bought some liquor in a store nearby. This is the Spring Festival�s Eve. We went back to our hotel room and watched TV. We drank the wine and send blessing text messages to friends and family members around China.

When it turned 12 at midnight, the whole city erupted into a giant firework shows. The noise of the firecrackers was defying.�
After the firecrackers celebration, we went to sleep. We had to get ready for hike the Wudang Mountain tomorrow.
Distance: Nanyang – Shiyan 265km.
Time: 8 hours including a detour, breaks and lunch

The small village at the foot of the Wudang Mountain (back mountain)

The local farming

Locals