Legendary Journey - 2021 Encountering Autumn in Henan Travelogue Special: Exploring Longtan Grand Canyon

2022-01-01 Added a video, the first time to include a video in a Ctrip travelogue.

Preface -- Legendary Journey - 2021 Encountering Autumn in Henan Travelogue (including 6 5A-level scenic spots, total cost for two people including food, accommodation, and activities: 2,100 RMB, great value, lucky and happy)

It has been 21 years since I registered as a Ctrip member, and I haven't written any travelogues for over 6 years. I've become lazy. Among the 44 travelogues still on Ctrip (four of which are now unreadable), most of the photos are gone, losing a lot of charm. Hundreds of thousands of views and over a hundred comments are all beautiful memories of the past.

This October, I took a spontaneous trip. Looking back now, it was an extremely lucky trip—great fun, low cost, and most importantly, we perfectly avoided the epidemic.

The trip was from October 16 to 24, 2021, during which a new wave of the epidemic broke out in Inner Mongolia and other places, later affecting Henan and Shanxi. After returning to Dalian, just a few days later, on November 4, a wave of epidemic hit Dalian, locking us in for a whole month. Now thinking about it, this trip was incredibly fortunate.

Because of this special luck, on November 20, 2021, I decided to pick up the pen again. I first wrote an outline and a straightforward account. If anyone was interested, I would slowly add my experiences and photos. Unexpectedly, within a week, the post had nearly 5,000 views, and after a month, it exceeded 10,000. People actually read it! So I wrote a special chapter about Laojun Mountain, which turned out even more popular—over 5,000 views in two days, and more than 30 comments. I felt flattered and decided to stay home on Christmas to write a few more travelogues.

Hence the following piece:

Legendary Journey - Special Chapter of "Encountering Autumn in Henan 2021": Exploring Longtan Grand Canyon

Longtan Grand Canyon was our first stop on this trip to Henan.

We don't fight a battle unprepared. I did a lot of homework before the trip, and I'll organize and post it later.

As the saying goes, professionals look at the details, while amateurs watch the excitement.

This is the first time I've written a travelogue in dictation form. On the way to and from work every day, I'd pick up my phone and dictate a segment on WeChat, then convert it to text and edit it. It was quite fun. It felt like I had seen authors using a voice recorder before, speaking into it. Now ordinary people can also use this technology! Very interesting.

Regarding Longtan Grand Canyon, the time for sightseeing from the main entrance to taking the electric cart out is about four to five hours at a normal pace. This time we spent about seven hours, including lunch and rest, leaving plenty of buffer time.

The electric cart costs 20 RMB per person. I think it's quite necessary. It saves energy and time. On the way back, if you walk on the asphalt road, there isn't much scenery worth seeing. There is a spot with a lake in the middle; the photos look nice. We took a distant look when passing by and felt it might not be worth a special visit. There is a stop for the electric cart on the way back at the scenic area entrance.

From the entrance of Longtan Grand Canyon, the landscape is stunning. The canyon has both length and depth, with constantly changing scenery. Especially the rocks on the cliffs, which are of moderate intensity. There is a waterfall with a modest flow but very elegant. We also saw a rainbow under the waterfall. The entire walk wasn't too tiring. For the most famous attractions, do some homework in advance and don't miss them. The ripple stones can be seen in many places in the canyon.

If we hadn't felt that there were still places in the old town of Luoyang that we hadn't explored enough, and delicious food we hadn't had enough of, our itinerary would have followed the original plan: stay one night in Luoyang, then go to Longtan Grand Canyon, then without returning to Luoyang, directly go to the foot of Laojun Mountain to find accommodation. After returning to Luoyang's old town, we enjoyed a very tasty meal (as shown above).

This nine-day trip passed through Henan, Shanxi, and Shandong provinces, traveling 2,100 kilometers by car, with a total cost of 6,347 RMB for two people. Excluding transportation, food, accommodation, and activities cost 2,086 RMB. The detailed breakdown is explained in the main post.

This very first stop gave me so many surprises and also boosted my confidence for the rest of the trip.

2021-12-26 Gradually adding photos; 2022-1-1 uploaded a short video. The detailed travelogue is to be continued...