Hike the Phoenix Hill
Located only 40km from the city, Phoenix Hill (FengHuang Ling) is one of the closest hill to the city center. Because of its prosimity, it has become a popular hiking mountain for the Beijing residents.
A search in google with the English Phoenix Hill resulted in Phoenix Hill around the world, just not the FengHuang Ling in Beijing, China. I guess that this hill has not been officially translated or it is less popular among the English speaking community. The direct word by word translation of FengHuang Ling is Phoenix Hill.
There were 3 known routes to the top of the mountain. I usually take the Northen route which offers some of the most pictorial spots. The landscape is rocky with very little vegetations on huge bare rocks. There was a section which is nearly 70-80 degree slope. The hikers climb up the slope using the stairs and the chain on the rocks.
The top of mountain has a man made pagoda. It is visible along the strenuous road. It gives reference to the hikers as how far they are from the top. The reading of the GPS shows that the pagoda is 640 meters above sea level and the bottom of mountain is 160 meters above sea level, which makes the mountain 490 vertical meters high. It is therefore shorter than the Fragrance Hill which is mover 500 meters in height. However, the hike in Phoenix hill is much more difficult due to the steep decent and the rocky and sleepy stairs.
It took us nearly 1.5 hour to hike up the mountain and another 1 hour to come down. It is said that on a clear day, one can see the Beijing skylines from the top of the mountain. However, today is not my lucky day. The dense haze covered the Beijing city. I could hardly see the parked cars on the bottom of the mountain let alone the city which is almost 40km away.
The “stairs to heaven”
Top of the moutain with the pagoda
