guyaju and ancient cave living in china

Today I took Miss A. for a little adventure – or so we had hoped at least. I had fun anyway, but she was left wanting more of the rock-climbing type experience, which seemed now to be forbidden in the place we went to (or maybe we are just the only silly ones who actually obey every sign posted…). Anyway, we headed for a site called Guyaju – or Ancient Cliff House, located in a Beijing region called Yanqing; north of the city by the mountains (about 1.5-2 hour drive depending of the traffic).

It’s a beautiful and vey scenic spot, and cleary real estate developers have realised it too as right next to a large Montana-style development called and it was advertissing another one called Mendocino (like the one in California). This site is only ranked 3 stars in the Chinese system, and that probably explains the lack of any kind of signs leading to the location – and the entrance area is so small that it is easy to miss…

Anyway, it seems that the protection of the site is more strict now and we didn’t get to do climbing to the higher caves like we had expected – but that doesn’t recode the unique value of this site. There isn’t much else to see here though, so 1.5 -2 hours should be more than enough to walk around the loop, stop for a snack and explore those coves open for public.

One of the bigger cliff walls – a pretty impressive sight (although the stone is pretty soft it still takes a lot of effort – and had to be done without the modern tools and lights in hand…)

 

Quite a few dwellings!

Note though that there is no restaurant or typical vendors other than a few locals selling their fruit and nuts at the parking lot.We were disappointed that there was no climbing allowed like we had anticipated, but the beginning of the loop path gives some exploring opportunities. A fun two hours!”