Linzhou Taihang Grand Canyon

Go to Linzhou Bus Station and take the bus to Gaojiatai (￥6, about 1 hour), where you can stop at Taihang Grand Canyon (ticket ￥80 + scenic spot ticket ￥60). I didn't expect there to be so many tour groups. It took almost half an hour to queue up for the scenic spot bus to enter Taohua Valley in the 32-degree heat. Fortunately, there are streams and waterfalls in the canyon, so it's relatively cool. Hiking is not difficult. No wonder the reviews say it's suitable for family travel. There are no peach blossoms in Taohua Valley, but there are a bunch of fake peach blossoms in the scenic area, which is a bit funny. However, the 30-kilometer tour of Taihang Sky Road by the scenic area bus was not very pleasant. I was looking forward to seeing the magnificent scenery of Taihang Mountains, but it was very time-consuming to queue up for the scenic area bus. The most terrible thing was that you had to get off the bus at different viewing platforms. Either there were additional paid tours such as suspension bridges, zip lines, sky trails, etc., or you had to go around a section of vendors before you could queue up again to get to the next viewing platform. The five or six parking spots along the way were spent in a cycle of getting off and queuing. You could not skip them and was not allowed to go down the mountain directly (you could only go to the terminal to take the return trip). In order to "cheat" tourists to get off the bus, the driver would say that there was a parking lot at the corner. So I heard tourists in the car cursing along the way. I really don't know how the highly rated 5A scenic spot was achieved. It takes too much time to queue up for the scenic area bus (a journey that should have taken less than an hour by car took two and a half hours). Moreover, the final stop of Taihang Sky Road is right next to Wangxiangyan, but we are not allowed to go there directly (it is part of the package but is divided into two scenic areas). We have to queue up in sections to go back to the visitor center, and then find transportation by ourselves (about 3k, not included in the scenic area bus). The round trip of the mountain climbing takes about 3-4 hours. I was worried that there would be no car to go down the mountain and return to the city, so I had to give up and walk (about 1.7k) to Shibanyan Town to catch the bus back to the bus station. The ticket is valid for two days, but unfortunately I have booked a bus ticket to leave tomorrow. It seems that I can only hope for the opportunity to hike in Taihang Mountains in Shanxi in the future. #AprilGoodDestinations2025