It had been a long time since I’d gone hiking, and for some reason that made me feel overconfident again.
Mangshan National Forest Park in Beijing had been closed for quite a while, so it was a surprise to find it suddenly open when I checked on Friday. With nothing much to do that afternoon, my wife and I grabbed a bottle of water and headed over. We took the subway to Changping Dongguan, then a taxi to the ticket office for about 15 yuan. Admission was 30 yuan per person.
We hadn’t done any planning beforehand, so we just picked the route with the 1,299 stone steps. The mountain itself isn’t especially high, but since I haven’t been exercising much, the climb still felt a bit demanding. I had to stop every so often on the way up.
We kept checking the map as we walked. Because we started fairly late, we ended up taking the yellow route: stone steps on the way up, then down via the long wooden boardwalk.
If we’d had another three hours, I probably would have taken the larger blue loop at a slower pace. As it was, we brought only a tiny amount of water, so the vending machine at the top felt like a lifesaver.
When we reached the long corridor, it became clear that the area across from it belonged to a different scenic zone, which meant we could only continue along the yellow route.
Looking from a distance, the covered corridor on the Mangshan side isn’t open for walking.
After passing through the corridor, there was a small rest area. The shop window there was locked and the place was completely empty. We lay back on the chairs for a while, soaked up some sun, and then got ready to head down.
The descent on this side was easy going. The path is wooden, which makes it much kinder to the knees.
One small plant along the way looked especially lively. It belongs to the genus Euphorbia, commonly known in Chinese as "zeqi." It’s a very common wild plant and mildly toxic.
What stood out to me was that the wooden boardwalk on the way down had much better views, while the route up offered almost no scenery at all.
Without the heavy fog, the overlook toward the Ming Tombs Reservoir would probably be excellent. In the late afternoon light, the reflection on the water had a soft, matte shimmer.
The descent took about an hour. The sunset that day was perfectly round.
At this fork, going straight on the left leads toward the 1,299 stone steps, while the path to the right heads to the wooden boardwalk.
Mangshan’s biggest advantage is how uncrowded it is, especially considering how easy it is to reach from the city. One inconvenience is that taxis can’t go all the way to the fourth parking lot, so if you actually want to start hiking, you still need to walk farther in. Also, there’s road construction happening in the mountains recently, so the sound of machinery follows you during the hike and takes away some of the quiet.
Even so, this trip was a good one. We ran into fewer than ten people the entire afternoon. At that point, it almost felt like having the whole mountain to ourselves.