I didn’t realize how much yesterday’s hike up 会稽山 took out of me. I hit a wall today, before noon! Anyway, your intrepid traveler pushed through and caught some decent stuff like 柯岩景区. I wrote about one part of the Keyan Scenic Area a while back when I recommended 镜湖 for a Weekender. Jinghu is basically a bunch of reclaimed land which has been landscaped, greenified and turned into a very nice park replete with its own water town (鲁镇), which, by the way, is like a mini Disneyland for Lu Xun fans as the place is supposed to capture the essence of the settings of his most famous short stories like Homecoming.

Keyan

This time, however, I hit柯岩 where I found two things of beauty and one thing of total coolness. 柯岩大佛, the Big Buddha of Keyan, is truly mesmerizing. Sculpted over 1500 years ago out of a big chunk of vertical, free-standing limestone, it sits in the middle of a small pond. It’s got to be at least 10 meters tall and is in great shape. Close your eyes and listen to the cooing of pigeons echoing in the hollow of the cave where the Buddha sits and smell the incense perfuming the air. That right there is worth the RMB100 entry ticket.

The second thing of beauty is the waterfall. At least 80 feet high, it’s the biggest waterfall I’ve ever seen in China. It’s so sudden, so surprising, and surprisingly robust! It plunges into a pool and the water is totally clean. I dipped my hands in and splashed some water on my face. Cold, crisp and wonderful.

The waterfall, of course, is courtesy of these quite large limestone cliffs. The area must have been used as a quarry in pre-modern times, because the mountains are sliced off at crazy angles, leaving behind soaring overhangs above deep pools of dark turquoise water. The “Danger” signs (of which there are many) suggest the pools to be as much as 65 meters deep.

The authorities have tried to wall off a lot of the crevices and hidden pools and cliffs, but you can circumvent them if you try. But be careful! I didn’t have time to clamber up to where the waterfall plunged down, but that would require some serious equipment and safety precautions. So tempting! Hardly any people today, which is always nice.

Anchang

The rest of 柯岩 is pretty dull, so I took off for 安昌古镇, Anchang Old Town. This is the water town my guidebook suggested was unspoiled. To spare you the drama, there are plenty of tour groups that traipse up and down this one river town, so it’s not like some immense find, but you get what you came for: some of that old timey feeling as you sip bowl of huangjiu along the canal. It’s also a pretty decent spot to do your 乌篷船, wupeng chuan, trip. The乌篷船 is the traditional style Shaoxing boat and something that everyone has to do once. Also, buy some 拉白糖, labai tang, which is the locally-made candy. There are three kinds and the yellow kind (peppermint!) is the best. There’s a very big temple complex being built in Anchang, the back of which abuts the main canal. Although there are already monks there, it’ll be another year before the entire thing is ready for tourists. It looks impressive though, even at this stage.

On my way back into Shaoxing, I passed through industrial wasteland hell (the entire area has grown rich off textiles). But just down the street I discovered THE place to stay, if you want to do Shaoxing in style: 绍兴饭店, the Shaoxing Hotel. Done up in traditional style, here you can actually get a decent hotel room right on a very pretty canal. I’m told it’s four stars.

Anyway, tomorrow is my last day on the road.