Mount Fanjing

After a 5-hour high-speed train, I arrived at Tongren late at night, hastily settled down, and waited to go to Mount Fanjing early in the morning. It's more than an hour's drive. The entrance loudspeaker was saying something, but since I was in a hurry, I went straight for the cable car. I shared the car with a group of college students, four boys and three girls, who packed the cabin to its limit. As the cable car ascended, the trees were adorned with hanging snow, and halfway up there was a frozen waterfall, crystal clear. Further up, the sun came out, and below mid-mountain was a sea of clouds. The kids got excited, their mouths full of nothing but praise, using words like 'beautiful' and 'wow', just like the jokes on the internet. After getting off the cable car, we all took the mountain path. The sky was clear, with fog occasionally covering the distant view, and one or two solitary branches were decorated with snow, resembling white plum blossoms. Soon we reached the Mushroom Stone, where everyone gathered. It was then confirmed that both golden summits were closed. There's gain and loss. The prayer platform was still under construction, and the newly built layout of the temple at the foot of the Red Cloud Golden Summit was small, offering little besides the contrast with the abrupt boulders. On the way back, someone was feeding birds that did not shy away from people and landed on hands to peck lightly. There were also squirrels in the fallen leaves by the roadside. When I tried to feed them, the birds hesitated to come. The whole trip took less than three hours. I changed my ticket and arranged for a ride to Tongren South. I arrived early and sat in the square at the entrance, basking in the sun, watching the white smoke columns rising from the cooling towers in the distance. It turns out that bird is called the magpie robin.