March 1, 2005
Jiulong - you ain't in Hong Kong anymore
A while ago, I saw some photos of a place just north of Guangzhou that looked so like Yangshou, the current mecca of slumming-it climbers in China I couldn't believe it was almost untouched. Soaring limestone spires rising up out of terraced fields with roaming water buffalo, and sheer, clean faces just screaming to be climbed. This Sunday, with a bunch of climbers from Hong Kong, Shenzhen and the Guangzhou guy who started the current frenzy, we went on an adventure where the drive up was as memorable as the climbing.
There are two ways to get to Jiulong. One is direct, on good mostly roads and gets you into town in around two hours. The other, and if you reach Yingde you know you've screwed up, is a six hour haul along a muddy two lane river-bed. Our driver excelled in the sodden conditions despite losing the rear-bumper on a more exuberant pot-hole traverse, and kept us laughing all the way after drenching an already wet and cold family on a motorbike, then stopping to ask them for directions.
the walk-in scares off the sport climbers
The increasingly surreal haul into Jiulong ended about the same time as the rain, and we were greeted one of those clichéd traditional Chinese ink-paintings come to life. Deep-green, tree covered towers shrouded in mist and wisps of lifting cloud, conical-hatted farmers driving water buffalo in rice paddies gently terraced on the flat plains, and a four-wheel-drive with a bunch of interloping climbers from Macau.
the road into townJiulong town is alot like Yangshou, except the tourist boom in the latter was at the expense of this region, which is still like any small, poor farming town anywhere in Southern China. Having eight climbers on one crag beside the road meant a whole days entertainment for the town as well as highlighting the differences between a place where tourism is a way of life and where foreigners are still a weird and seldom seen.
two interlopers with drills and bolts
But we came here for the rock. Despite our continual amazement at how good this area is from what little we saw, Eman who brought us up insisted this was nothing and the walk-in to all that was too far compared to the good-stuff down the road. But sighting Paul from Macau who put up many routes at Yangshou drilling and bashing in hangers, we started the busiest afternoon the place has seen.
A short, muddy scramble up to the face, conveniently provided with a small dynamited cave and there it was. A pitch of smooth yellow and white limestone in need of no cleaning, lots of small pockets and edges, and plenty of star-worthy vertical and overhung climbing. Followed by a fearsome, curved roof sitting above a horizontal crackline which was also a fine traverse, and then on up through more exceptionally good climbing to where the rock went black and chossy.
first ascent of thiefThe quartet of Paul and fellow Hong Kongers had been there since Saturday and had drilled two routes on the left, Love at first sight (5.8?) and Thief (5.10a?) leaving us to work the middle. We arrived late and by the time Eman had bolted the top of the new line it was time to go. Still, a run up Love is a great introduction to this face, with some great balancey, fingery moves through the overhanging crux. About 15 obvious lines are awaiting a quick bolting, not including anything that goes up over the roof into the second pitch.
the main wall - one of hundreds
The drive back was quick along the excellent Guangqing Highway, and with some road-works took 2 1/2 hours back to home. It's also possible to get a train to Qingyuan then bus or hire a driver to Jiulong, or get a bus all the way there, something I'll be checking out this week in preparation for next week's return. So, wanna climb phenomenal limestone in Southern China, put up lots of new routes, be at the start of a new climbing mecca? Come on up to Jiulong.
the road to climbing paradise