This morning, Judy, Michael, Tina, Heidi, and I hiked up the Mount Si of Shenzhen, Tang Lang Shang.   This was a far cry for the wilderness experience of Mount Si.   Putting the words   “wilderness experience” and “Mount Si” together is normally wrong, but compared to Tang Lang Shang, it certainly is true.   But, regardless of the presence of progress everywhere, I enjoyed it and was a even little sore the following day, so it’s a good workout too.   This is a popular walk among the locals and features a paved road all the way to the top, like a miniature Pikes Peak.   I would say that the elevation gain is maybe 1500 feet, maybe a little more, so it’s certainly less demanding than Mount Si.   Also, this was a winter ascent (in comfortable sunny weather in the 60′s).   There is the option to take rough dusty trails that often are steeply cut dirt steps, but we stuck to the road for most of the time.   Part of the mountain is being chewed apart by heavy machinery and some of them were sitting dangerously close to the edge of an artificial cliff cut out of the mountain.   These particular machines were drilling straight down into the earth and I was half-expecting part of the mountain to cleave off.

Here’s one of the shortcuts.   This one starts out as a very steep dirt stairway then turns into this comfortable concrete staircase.   You also can get cell phone reception:

I got my first look at some of the real foothills (I guess) of China from near the top of the mountain.   Despite the haze, the pictures turned out clear.   We continued on to the top only to have the road end and the final stairway with a board across it warding off the hikers, I mean walkers, from continuing on.   Normally, I would have gone off the trail here, but figured it best to follow the rules.

A view of the foothills from the slopes of Tang Lang Shang:

Here’s a shot of my two colleagues and me:   Michael and Judy.   I look like a giant barbarian invader.   Peace, man.