Siguniangshan – The four daughters mountains the best hostel I have been in with amazing walks! – Part 9

Heading off once again I made the 6 hour bus ride to the beautiful forbidden mountains of Siguniangshan, where people train to climb Everest. Once out of the city there was lots of building work going on. This area suffers from a lot of mudslides and the last earthquake was devastating. I had trouble finding accommodation at first and a kind Chinese English speaking teacher helped me out but the hotel had no toilet, no running water, no heating and didn’t even have a lock on the door. I was pretty worried so rang around and found a hostel were they sent a driver to collect me. Aleeben turned out to be the nicest hostel I have stayed in so far. I had my own balcony with free tea.

After a day hiking in the Chongqing I spent a pleasant evening chatting to fellow travellers, drinking tea, eating sunflower seeds and watching it start to snow. Hiking in the snow the following day was magical. Due to being out early the snow was still on the trees and I was the first to make footprints. The scenery was too spectacular to put into words. I got invited to do an overnight hike but gutted I had to refuse, I just hadn’t the right gear and would have frozen – my Biffy bag wouldn’t have sufficed.

Reluctantly I left early the following morning and waited at the bus stop with a Chinese girl. At the side of the road next to us there were cows being carved up, the blood dripping in to the road where their brains had been removed and their hide was being hacked away. A third cow was still alive in the truck behind and could hear his friends being turned in to beef.