Self-driving Trip to Mount Jiuhua during the 2022 National Day Holiday

In August 2022, I booked the long-awaited accommodation at Mount Jiuhua for the National Day holiday, hoping to travel during the holiday.

In the month before the holiday, I diligently prepared. Every day, I browsed the "Travel to Jiuhua" WeChat mini-program to check if my city was in the restricted area for online ticket purchases. I also opened the official website of "Mount Jiuhua Scenic Area" daily to see the latest nucleic acid testing regulations and locations. Then I checked Ctrip's entry and epidemic prevention guidelines.

On the evening of September 29, 2022, I didn't dare go to bed early. I stayed up until midnight, and as soon as online ticket sales for October 1st opened, I placed an order. Currently, online ticket sales for Mount Jiuhua only allow purchasing tickets for the current day and the next day.

Finally, I was able to set off.

It is 830 kilometers from Jinan, Shandong to Mount Jiuhua. It was possible to arrive in one day, but based on the increasingly severe traffic jams when leaving Jinan during holidays in previous years, I resolutely decided to depart on the evening of September 30, foregoing the free expressway. That night, I stayed in Zaozhuang.

On the morning of October 1st, I set off along the Jingtai Expressway to begin my journey to Jiuhua: Zaozhuang - Xuzhou - Suzhou - Bengbu - Huainan - Hefei - Tongling - Qingyang.

The picture above shows refueling at Junwang Service Area.

When driving toward Hefei on the Benghe Expressway, I saw a long traffic jam on the opposite side. Later, I learned that on the first day of the National Day holiday, there was a massive traffic jam at the Wushan Toll Station heading out of Hefei. At that time, I estimated the slow-moving traffic stretched over 20 kilometers.

When merging onto the Jingtai Expressway from the southern section of the Hefei Ring Road, I encountered congestion ahead, which was the first traffic jam of this trip. After passing the Fengle Service Area, traffic returned to normal.

Above is a picture of my first time driving across the Yangtze River.

Above is the Tongling section of the Yangtze River, truly a great river flowing eastward with hundreds of boats racing.

At 2:45 PM, I arrived at the Dayuan Cultural Park. I first visited the Ksitigarbha Saint Statue. It was extremely hot that day; the outdoor temperature displayed 39°C. I took the park's shuttle bus to the base of the statue. I needed to transfer along the way, which I felt was a clever idea by the scenic area to expand business—transfer points included a wish-making project.

It was solemn, majestic, towering, grand, stunning, and awe-inspiring. Without doubt, hundreds of years later, the Ksitigarbha Saint Statue will be a world-renowned attraction, cultural relic, and historical site. This feeling is hard to grasp without being there in person.

The only regret was that it was extremely hot. I couldn't walk around much, so I decided to go up the mountain to the accommodation first.

At the scenic area's visitor center, I took a bus up the mountain. The mountain roads of Mount Jiuhua are not extremely rugged, although the bus was hung with plastic bags, but no one seemed to get motion sick.

The bus stopped directly at the ticket checkpoint. One thing to complain about: after passing the checkpoint, there was about 100 meters of stone-paved road with anti-slip grooves. But for tourists pulling two large suitcases up to the accommodation, the clicking and clacking noise was very unfriendly. My poor suitcases!

The accommodation was at Jinxin Minxing, right next to the east of Qiyuan Temple. It required climbing about three stories, but the cleanliness was excellent.

Above is a night view taken at the homestay. The magnificent hall is the Huayan Hall of Zhantan Forest.

On October 2nd, early in the morning, I went to the Moon Body Palace (Yueshen Baodian), about a 10-minute walk. Many people climbed from the back entrance. We still chose to walk about 100 meters forward and enter through the main gate at the Shenguangling Square.

After entering the main gate, we passed the Amitabha Hall and the Ksitigarbha Zen Temple. Then we climbed 99 steps to reach the Moon Body Palace. It is said that beneath the seven-story wooden pagoda inside the hall lies the incarnation of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, the physical body of Kim Gyo-gak.

The picture above shows the 99 steps, but these steps don't face the Moon Body Palace directly; they are on the west side of the main hall.

Later, we went around to the back of the main hall to descend the mountain, passing the Shangchan Hall, which contains a Water-Dripping Guanyin.

After visiting Shangchan Hall, we walked down step by step and arrived at the back entrance of the Moon Body Palace, where many people were climbing up earlier.

Considering the nucleic acid test requirement, we walked another 100 meters from the back entrance to Shenguangling Square to take the nucleic acid test.

After that, we returned the same way and visited Zhantan Lin (Zhantan Forest) along the way. It contains the Great Compassion Hall dedicated to Guanyin Bodhisattva.

The weather was still extremely hot. We returned to the homestay for a noon rest.

In the afternoon, we walked 100 meters east of the homestay and took the Baishui Palace cable car to Baishui Palace.

The Baishui Palace cable car is a large cabin type, carrying about 30 people standing, and it quickly arrived at the upper station.

After getting off the cable car, there was a sign; just a bit behind was a platform for viewing the Sleeping Buddha.

The picture above shows a certain resemblance.

Then we went to Baishui Palace, about 200 meters on flat ground.

Baishui Palace is built against the mountain, with protruding rocks both in the courtyard and inside the rooms. Above Baishui Palace is the 500 Arhat Hall.

I always felt the cable car ride up was very short, so I chose to hike down. This turned out to be a mistake; the descent took about half an hour. I recommend everyone take the cable car both ways for Baishui Palace.

Walking down, I arrived at the stone-paved road near the ticket checkpoint of Mount Jiuhua. On the east side of the road was Qiyuan Temple, quite large.

After visiting Qiyuan Temple, I enjoyed a vegetarian feast at the Shangketang near the exit. It was commendable: a spacious and clean hall, various mushroom dishes called "Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere," tofu "iron plate beefsteak," and Polygonatum rhizome soup—all delicious.

On October 3rd, the plan was to go to Tiantai (Heavenly Terrace). Walking 100 meters from the homestay, I arrived at the Huxingshan bus stop. The uphill bus ticket allowed one round trip to the core scenic spots.

To go to Tiantai, I had to take the cable car round trip. The Tiantai cable car is a small cabin type, holding about 6 people. From the cable car, Baishui Palace looked increasingly small, with nice scenery.

The two white dots on the distant hill were the upper station of the Baishui Palace cable car and Baishui Palace itself.

After getting off the cable car, there was still nearly 700 meters of strenuous climbing. First, I passed the Ancient Worship Platform, then climbed to Tiantai.

From Tiantai, I had a panoramic view of the holy scenery of Mount Jiuhua. Truly, "In the subtle realm of the sacred mountain, the wondrous peaks of Jiuhua open."

After descending the cable car, I followed the signs to the Minyuan Nunnery Group. If not for the extreme heat, this place would be worth a leisurely walk and exploration—very beautiful and a large group of nunneries. Of course, I went to see the famous Phoenix Pine. I suggest that if you have spare time, spend 2-3 hours here to fully experience the beautiful scenery and unique culture. But it was too hot to take photos.

After returning to Huxingshan by bus from Tiantai, I had to visit Huacheng Temple. It is located among a cluster of residential houses, with a narrow temple gate, but unexpectedly, there were tall halls inside. I saw the legendary "Diting" (mythical beast). See picture below.

There was also the "Blood Sutra" of the monk Wuxia in a glass case, but it was only a photocopy, which was disappointing.

Above is the release pond of Huacheng Temple. What a beautiful Jiuhua!

I heard that Huangshan to the south was overcrowded, but my trip to Mount Jiuhua, with plenty of stops, was very comfortable. Key point: Qiyuan Temple is very large; because I hiked down from Baishui Palace, I didn't have enough time to fully explore it. This temple is worth careful and time-consuming appreciation. On Jiuhua Street, any small pavilion or nunnery may look tiny from the outside but is surprisingly spacious inside, usually with a tall and deep hall. Except for climbing Tiantai, other attractions on Mount Jiuhua are suitable for the elderly and children, being relatively easy.