Purple Mountain (Majesties)

One of the big tourist attractions in Nanjing is Purple Mountain, where there are lots of gardens, lakes, and (duh) a giant mountain to climb. Luckily, Sophie and I only live a 20-25 minute bus ride away from the mountain, and so it is a very easy trip to make. We went a few weekends ago (when it was warm and all the trees were red and orange, AKA the good old days of autumn now thrashed by the cold, gray winter.) Before I went, I knew all about the way hiking in China works. It’s just lots of stairs. There is no slope, no roots to step over, no flat areas. Just lots and lots of stairs.

Before we went, we researched the best way to approach the mountain. A very helpful website suggested that hikers walk up the mountain and then take the cable cars down. We figured this was a good plan, so we set out on our Purple Mountain adventure.

At our first stop, the view was beautiful but it wasn’t a very difficult hike and we weren’t very high up. We could see the cable cars coming down the slope, and we could see people boarding it not too far away. We continued up.

Sophie, prepared to hike

View from the first stop

At our next stop we were even higher up. There was a gated area with a sign that said “cable cars this way” but we weren’t allowed into the gated area without a ticket. I later realized this is actually where we had seen people boarding. We were told the cars were nearby, and we just had to follow the stairs to get to them.

Those damn stairs...

Apparently eating cucumbers while you hike is a thing here.
Cucumber vendors were EVERYWHERE on the mountain.
At that point in our journey, a cucumber really hit the spot.

By this point we were getting a little tired, definitely ready to take the cable cars down. I was feeling the burn after climbing so many stairs. However, we got to yet another flat rest area, with a sign pointing upward towards the cable cars. We asked a cucumber vender if we were near the cable cars, and he said yes, all we had to do was go up some more.

That last set of stairs was a doozy. It was a lot of never-ending stairs. We kept seeing people on the cable cars pass us by; we knew we were going in the right direction but it seemed impossible that we hadn’t yet arrived. It was so frustrating because at that point, turning around and going down the stairs would be pointless: I kept thinking we must be closer to the top than the bottom. I knew we had to keep going up to get down. Needless to say, I had to take a lot of rests. By the time we got up there, I felt so victorious. It was not an easy hike to make, but I’m proud we made it to the top. After searching for the cable cars yet again, we finally found the descending stairs that led to the cable cars. Of course, as soon as we arrive there was a bunch of people arguing in Chinese. The cable cars weren’t running.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

They went from “not running,” to “they will run in 15-30 minutes,” to “get on right now it’s your turn,” within a five minute time period, so luckily we did not have to hike all the way back down. I probably would have insisted on rolling down, there was no way my legs would carry me. Plus the views from the cable cars were spectacular, so I’m glad we got the chance to take them. I should probably stop calling them cable cars, because they were actually more like ski lift seats. If you lifted your feet off the safety bar, it would fly up. A bit frightening…

The view from the cable car. Everything is so tiny!

Sketchy cable cars...

So beautiful!

Sophie and me!

I felt really safe after seeing this at the 
beginning of our trip...

I’m glad we went in the fall because the weather was perfect and the trees looked so beautiful, but I am really looking forward to going a few more times in the spring. I am so lucky to live near such a great hiking trail!