Longqing Gorge: The elevated lake

Our days with the car are coming to an end.  Today, we went somewhere very out of the way, Longqing Gorge, which 1.5 hours away from our condo.  Our Plan A was to go horse back riding, but the place for horse back riding is known to be shady (a lot of bait and switch sort of happening), so we fell back to Plan B, the Longqing Gorge.

When we got there, we had to take the Dragon Elevator, which was really just a giant escalator inside a giant metal dragon.  It looked really cool on the outside next to the Longqing Dam, in my opinion.

The Dragon Elevator

I noticed that this tourist spot wasn't too crowded despite being the weekend, which made it easier to spot all the locals staring at us.  They didn't even bother to hide it, they just outright stared.  It makes sense since we're a family of eight, but this doesn't usually happen in tourist-y spots, it's definitely more common in residential areas.  Father gets asked all the time if all the kids are his, and he happily replies "yes".  

Our big family!

After coming out of the dragon, we made our way up to a scenic spot on the side of one mountain. There were two options to get to the top, take the cable cars or walk.  There was a sign on the path to the top that said no admittance, but Father read reviews online and learned that you could take the path despite the sign instead of spending money for the cable cars.  We took this option, since we thought that we wouldn't have to walk too much, but it was longer than we anticipated.  I was so tired once I reached the top, even with frequent breaks.  I rested a little and drank some water before continuing even higher.

We walked all the way up that...!

While on the way up, the mountain offered amazing views of the surrounding mountains and aerial views of down below, although I didn't go all the way to the top, since I got tired. Some of the Brothers and Father got to the top while Mother and the Baby didn't even attempt it since Mother was tired and the Baby was suddenly scared of heights.

Aerial view

Brother #4

Coming down was a lot quicker, but that doesn't mean it wasn't tiring.  We got down and quickly made our way to the boats, which took you around the lake in the gorge.  The water was a very pretty shade of green, not dirty at all, and the mountains completely surrounded you the whole time. It gave off a kind of isolated feeling, you couldn't even tell that this area was touched by man.  I think the aerial shot conveys this best.  The scenery was nothing like you see in the States.  This scene definitely made me feel like I am in China.

Brother's #1, 4, the Baby, and Father

Brother #2 and me!

We skipped out on the other activities after the boat ride, which lasted around 40 minutes, and decided to head back home.