19Xina 12LMN to Gaocheng 告成

I walked this on 2019-04-16. This is part of my 4-week China walk in 2019. It continues a walk I started 2018 in Wuhan. Both times I stayed in China about 1 month with a tourist visa. I hope my tracks inspire you to do your own road-walking project - on your own route or following my routes.

Previous day "19Xina 11KL to Dahongzhai 大鸿寨", Wikiloc ID = 35288385
Next day "19Xina 13NO to Dengfeng 登封", Wikiloc ID = 35673876
Overview "19Xina 4-week walk Henan Mt. Song 汝南焦作", Wikiloc ID = 39858057

In my planning, for the way from Zhanglao'an/Dahongzai("L") to Gaocheng("O"), I had forseen a nightstay in Xuzhuang Zhen ("M") or before. When doing this planning, I didn't know that "L" was not just a temple site, but a mountain park. Actually one of the structures I couldn't identify in the satellite view was a long glas bridge. Neither Google Maps nor Baidu maps showed a way across the mountains from "L" to "M", but the satellite photos suggested there could be a path, climbing up in a northernly direction, then following along the ridge to the east and finally joining a path and road to continue north. The access to that road looked like closed by a wall on the ridge. I imagine that mountain path could be like the previous year, when one day I had a part, too, where only the satellite photo showed a possible path. That was nearly unpenetrable:
31 km / 18Xina 09GH to Qianjin xiang 千斤乡 / Wikiloc ID = 38443132
It turned out that the path from "2019L" was already indicated on an overview panel at the park entrance: partly in white, partly in red, but with no indication if it was possible to walk out ot the park to continue further north.

Km 0.0. I left the hotel early, before breakfast (paid less), just in case. When I climbed up the first part (white on panel), I found it was even equipped with emergency cameras (photo #1, 06h43). From a viewpoint (km 1.8, photo #2, 07h12), I continued on the ridge (red on panel), wondering if there would be any difficult fence to hinder entering the park "from behind" without paying. Km 3.2 When I came to the point where I had to leave the ridge down along the north slope, I found that what I had seen on the sattelite photo ("path", "road", "wall") was a second mountain park, under construction. It was near completion, they ways were completely finished and nowhere did the construction works hinder my walk. Loudspeakers were already sounding soft background music. Km 6.0 a luxury country side hotel I had forseen in the planning in case crossing the mountain would take very long.(Winyards west of the hotel). I didn't foresee the 2nd mountain park, but in my planning I had seen the next one on Baidu Map, the 3rd in just a few hours! Km 7.6 car access to mountain park. Km 8.1 ticket office. Km 8.9-9.0 glass bridge (photo #3, 09h47), neither the first nor the last one on my 2019 trip. It was the only one I crossed with my backpack. To make it more scare, it was very windy and they were renewing a metal rope in the lower part of the bridge structure. Km 9.7 hopping over the water. Km 11.0 lower park exit.
Km 16.0 At this road there are some accomudation options, according to my planning. Villages are nearby, but at that point you don't see them. As I had advanced much quicker than expected, I continued no to stay here ("M") but to continue to ("N"). On the next few kilometers, a car driver met me twice and tried to convince me that the way to Gaochend is along the road. Actually this dirt road leads to a co industrial site (km 18.2-18.5) and then come some 2 or 3 km of sandy roads which are OK for walking (no rain), but not for cars. More industry around km 25, then main road to Gaocheng. Next morning I wanted to historical site of the astronomical observatory, but it was closed for renivation.