Fanjingshan, also called Mount Fanjing, is located in Tongren City, the eastern Guizhou Province of China. Fanjingshan is the tallest summit of the Wuling Mountains, at an elevation of 2572 meters.
Fanjingshan (梵净山) was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2018. It’s known for it’s iconic mountain top that has two temples on top, and is a famous Buddhist mountain.
I had an interesting experience hiking Fanjingshan, where the weather didn’t quite fit my expectations! Keep reading below for more details about how to visit Fanjingshan and what my hiking experience was like.
- How To Get To Fanjingshan
- Arriving at Fanjingshan
- The Magic and Mystery of Fanjingshan: My Experience Hiking The Buddhist Mountain of Guizhou
- My Hiking Time Schedule on Fanjingshan
- Fanjingshan Instagram VS. Reality
How To Get To Fanjingshan
The best route to get to Fanjingshan is by first going to Tongren City in eastern Guizhou.
You can either take a high speed or regular train to Tongren, or take a flight into the Tongren Fenghuang Airport. The airport is about 87 kilometers from Fanjingshan and about 21 kilometers northeast of Tongren City, so you can then take a taxi into Tongren City, or go directly to the mountain area.
I took a train from Chongqing directly to Tongren City, stayed overnight in Tongren, then the next morning took a car to Fanjingshan (1 hour).
Arriving at Fanjingshan
First go to visitor center to get your tickets. (During the busy season you might need to reserve tickets 7 days in advance, so I recommend checking online in advance!)
The local center is becoming quite urban like most Chinese scenic sites. A Dicos was there, and a KFC is being built.
Then you wait in line to take a 20 minute (9.5 km) bus ride to the base of the mountain. The road is windy and these drivers do not waste anytime getting you up to the mountain base. If you get carsick beware. Small vans that fit 15 not a large charter bus.
From there you can choose to take a cable car up the mountain, or hike 3-4 hours. It’s cooler as you go up the mountain. Even in August it was 72 at the base
There is plenty more hiking to do at the top so I recommend the cable car so you can have more time for photos and the other hikes. (Others have recommended doing the hike up, so it depends on your time schedule.
The Magic and Mystery of Fanjingshan: My Experience Hiking The Buddhist Mountain of Guizhou
I must say I had high anticipation for Fanjing Mountain, as I have wanted to visit for years! I even had a trip planned to come here in January 2020 (which failed to happen for obvious reasons I need not get into) but I was highly excited to finally see this unique mountain.
It was foggy and lightly raining when we arrived at the Tourist Center, but I told myself not to worry. I’ve visited many China mountains – Huangshan, Zhangjiajie, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Wudang Shan, Hengshan in Hunan. And most times it tended to be foggy in the morning, but then cleared by afternoon time.
Side note: Many Chinese people love foggy mountain scenery. They have a style of painting called Shan Shui 山水 that is devoted to these moody mountains.
Also, I knew the odds were against my favor. The local tourism group said that more than 200 days of the year this area is quite overcast, if not foggy and rainy.
After you enter the tourist site, you need to take a tour bus 20 minutes up to the cable car base. These drivers wasted no time zipping us up the winding mountain roads. (If you get motion sick beware). Then we waited almost an hour for the cable car. (Alternatively you can hike up, which take about 3-4 hours.)
Good, I thought, more time for the fog to clear!
But as we ascended the cable car it was still foggy, and raining more. We got off the cable car and started the first leg of the hike, a 30 minute walk up the mountain. It was still foggy.
And when we reached Cheng’en temple, a kind of base before hiking up the iconic mountain, it still wasn’t clear.
Usually you could see the Fanjingshan mountain view right here, so it was at this point I started losing hope. But I still went to begin the ascent up the mountain.
There were so many people waiting in line for the climb up that it was a slow hike up. It is lots of stairs up, so usually you might be winded doing this part, but we had plenty of time to wait.
Nearer to the top you could see why people slowed down – it was narrow and steep, with steps carved into the mountain and a chain on the side to help you hoist yourself up. You had to be careful, especially with the fog and the rain.
But I made it to the final stairs up to the top.
Fanjingshan is famous for its two temples atop the mountain, connected together by a bridge. You couldn’t see far from what was in front of you, creating an almost eerie look. Although I was a little disappointed by the weather, I still enjoyed the satisfaction of reaching this mountain and hiking to the top! It always feels amazing to reach a destination.
At the top a man and his daughter had even brought lottery tickets to scratch off to see if they would win anything!
After some time at the top, I descended.
Back by Chengen Temple I had some Chinese snacks, and waited a little more.
And then, briefly, the wind blew the fog, and I had a glimpse of Fanjingshan. It still wasn’t very clear, but I could see more of the outline than before, where previously there was only a cloud of white.
It was like Fanjingshan was choosing to reveal only part of itself, a mysterious and ancient entity that has witnessed millions of years of change. Buddhist sojourners to the mountain probably experienced this same view where I was standing. Maybe they were also hoping for a view of the mountain on a foggy day. I’m by no means a pilgrim – I took a bus and a cable car to this site whereas they probably walked hundreds of miles up steep mountains. But I felt some kind of peace, resigned to not seeing the majestic mountain it’s entirety today.
There are two other main points to hike to on Fanjingshan, the Mushroom Stone and the Old Golden Peak. I did both, first going to the Mushroom Stone.
From there, I went on to the Old Golden Peak which took about an hour in total to get to and come back to the Mushroom-like stone. It was also narrow, with chains at some points to hold onto.
After a long day on the mountain, I went down the mountain, back down the cable car and bus.
I learned there was a Dong Minority Village not 10 minutes from the base of the mountain. It’s not as well know as some other minority villages in Guizhou. It’s not very large or famous like Xijiang Miao village or Zhaoxing.
I had visited minority villages before, and a fun experience that I really enjoy, but after an exhausting hiking day and not seeing the mountain, I was a bit spent. But on Friday nights this villages hosts a performance at 8:30, so after a local Guizhou dinner I went to check it out.
Read my experience at the Dong Village in part 2!
My Hiking Time Schedule on Fanjingshan
- 8:30 Leave Tongren
- 9:30 Arrive at visitor center, pick up ticket
- 10:00 Wait in line for the van
- 10:20 Get on bus
- 10:40 Get off bus, wait in cable car line
- 11:32 Cable car
- 12:06 Hike up to Cheng’en temple
- 12:20 Lunch
- 12:55 Begin hiking up the mountain
- 1:40 PM Reach the Mountain Top
- 2:30 PM Reach the bottom. of the mountain
- 4:00 PM Walk to the Mushroom Like Stone
- 4:25 PM Begin hiking to Old Golden Peak
- 4:56 PM Reach the top of Old Golden Peak (SO MANY STEPS!)
- 5:10 PM Hike down and head back to cable car
- 5:56 PM Take cable car down (note: beware. ofthe cable car closing time and having to wait in line)
Fanjingshan Instagram VS. Reality
I thought this experience was quite funny because of my expectations vs. the reality. And that’s how traveling goes sometimes right? So I made an Instagram vs. Reality video and post about it. I think most travelers can sympathize with the experience of bad weather messing with your plans!
This is all in good fun. Obviously these things happen, and I’m still really glad I got to visit Fanjingshan. I’ll just need to visit again sometime!
