Xiao Shi Men [小石门]

Last weekend we went to Xiao Shi Men [小石门], not too far from HangZhou [杭州]. We left Shanghai on the Friday night in a mini bus kindly organised by Jack and Doreen (who also sorted out where we were to stay over night). The hotel we stayed in put 2 of us each in a room designed for 5 on the first night and then we move for the Sat night into rooms with 3 single beds each but with a much-needed en-suite shower room (with glorious hot water). Anyway for 2 nights accom including breakfast and dinner we paid 110RMB each, shocking.

Saturday the weather was beautiful and sunny, and since we had already noticed another few bus loads of climbers heading up to Xiao Shi Men [小石门] last night, we thought an early start would be good. The climbing routes were about 10mins walk from the road, across a river with some huge boulders in it and skirting around fields.

Xiao Shi Men [小石门] - small stone gate

Short walk to Xiao Shi Men [小石门]

[Left] in the small stone gate on the new platform built to prevent drowning from high water levels [Centre] Another face with more climbs [Right] The main wall on Xiao Shi Men

About an hour after we arrived we were swamped with a big group of climbers (mainly newbies) who proceeded to do some very interesting versions of top roping, and later, abseiling. Most of the routes were bolted but there was plently of opportunity for some trad too. All the walks to the climbs had had stairs installed and areas concreted which allowed access to the climbs which started higher up the cliff. There were guys constructing some small reservoir while we were there, who were lugging big rocks and cemet bags up the hill whilst other people were taking lots of wood down off the hill.

A little stream runs in between the small stone gate itself, and recently a concrete platform was built in between the two main faces of the gate. This was apparently because not too long ago there was a very impromptu storm which ended up in the stream level reaching waist height and making a good attempt at drowning the people who were belaying at the time.

Joe showing us how crack climbing is done

A bit of a rest on the stairs...

Haberdashery!

Not too far from Gu Cheng Gardens [古城公园] I stumbled into a HUGE haberdashery market called Shanghai Tan Mall [Shanghai Tan Shangsha 上海滩商厦]. It's at 388 RenMing Road, HuangPu District [黄浦区人民路388号].

The Ground and first floor are full of little stalls selling all kinds of buttons, straps, elastic, thread, leather, feathers and loads of the rhinestone things to stick on to fabric. The odd stall sold a bit of cloth and webbing or reflective strips for safety gear and some selling packaging.

Ferry across the Huang Pu

A short walk from our appartment is a ferry terminal which lets you cross the HuangPu River [huang pu jiang 黄浦江] for the tidy sum of 0.5 RMB [wu jiao 五角], if you are on foot, 1.3RMB if you are on a bicycle [zi xing che 自行车].

There are two ferrys constantly running from east to west side of the river, taking no more than 15mins from the time you arrive and buy your little token (if you are paying by cash) or tap your transportation card on the appropriate reader until you pop off at the other side. There are always lots of scooters, usually laden with their load rushing to get off, long with a good few people on foot enjoying the view while they cross.

Donut-saur

HangZhou [杭州]

Our first venture in to the outdoors for climbing took us to HangZhou [杭州], about 1h40mins out of Shanghai. Losang, a fellow climber, had very kindly organised our train tickets out of Shanghai (63RMB one way on the fast train, second class), as well as gathering a few other climbers to join us and figuring out where we should go. Once we got to the station we grabbed a taxi to take us to the crag, which took about 30mins and 25RMB... (the bus stop at the entrance to the hiking/climbing area suugest that the Y3 bus also goes there)

We had a short walk up a hill, which was basically a paved stone stairway, past some tea plantations until we reached a slightly wider part of a path with climbers generally loitering around. this part was a bit busy, with not so many easy climbs but they all seemed well bolted and with some decent anchors at the top. Afterwards we moved on to a more secluded area, more off the path, which was much more peaceful with nicer longer and easier climbs.

It was actually sunny and rather warm despite the fog which seemed to be covering the mountain...you could just about make out the tea bushes through the trees.

We got to the station about 6pm and tried to queue to get tickets home, at which point we were told that all the seats on all trains to Shanghai were full, however there were standing tickets on trains available. We ended up taking the last train back (a rapid which took 1h22mins from Hangzhou [杭州站] to Shanghai South Railway Station[上海南站]) .

Waiting for the train back to Shanghai