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Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Author
southern china limestone

francesca
2-Mar-2005
1:41:14 PM
A bunch of us went up to Jiulong, about two hours north of Guangzhou (or 3 from Hong Kong) on the
weekend. It's like Yangshou but much closer and besides a couple of trips up in recent weeks and very
occasional bits of old gear or bolts it's pretty much unknown and unclimbed. But it's a couple of hundred
limestone towers sitting in farmers' fields with everything from short overhung sport routes to long multi-
pitch trad routes.

I wrote about it on my website,
supernaut, and we're off there
again this weekend. There's a small but active climbing
scene in Guangdong provence (and a big one in Hong Kong). Also we're spending a week up there at the
start of May. Hundreds of new routes, cheap and good hotels and food, no tourists and a spit away from
the big cities.

nmonteith
2-Mar-2005
1:58:40 PM
It looks a little wet!
deadpoint
2-Mar-2005
6:31:26 PM
I spent a bit of time around Zuhai and GuangZhou in 1998 and 1990, no climbing all work. There was heaps of potential for granite bouldering in Zuhai and some huge cliffs around GuangZhou, the weather was the bummer with 40+C 100% humidity sucking the life out of you. Winter would your best option.
One morning I went for a run round the town about 15km, I had a taxi driver following me the whole way round, he must have though that all westerners were nancy boys and would catch a taxi back to the Hotel.

Paulie
2-Mar-2005
11:52:56 PM
That looks like a whole lot of fun :)

francesca
5-Mar-2005
8:46:34 PM
You wouldn't happen to know where the cliffs are near Guangzhou, I heard about them, but noone knows
where they are (formidable lack of map-readin skills in these parts). what about Zhuhai? We're always
looking for somewhere new to go.

haha the stalking taxi routine. at least he didn't try to run you over. the city has changed heaps since
them (no more public executions in tianhe... pity). anyway off there tomorrow to a different tower.

Neil, more like soggy like a loaf of bread left in the sink for a month.
deadpoint
7-Mar-2005
12:05:34 AM
Typo on my part should have read 1998 and 1999. Pretty open then, no problems with strange people following you round. The cliffs at Zuhai are pretty much everywhere in town. Heaps of granite on the coast road from Macau to Zuhai central. Plenty of granite around town. There was an old limestone quarry behind the 120 centre (000 emergency centre) near the hospital. I can't remember the name of the road which tunnels straight through a massive granite mountain. There are 200m+ granite walls above the tunnel.
The cliffs near GuangZhou were pretty obvious, 20-30km after the big bridge on the Pearl River delta (GuangZhou side). This bridge looks to be an exact copy of the Anzac bridge in Sydney except two or three times bigger.
The amount of development there is just staggering, they literally throw people at engineering projects. I visited 4 or 5 times over a year or so and they had built 8 lane freeways 100's of km long.

francesca
7-Mar-2005
2:12:16 PM
oh yeah, i know the bridge, i'll check it out on the map, and tell Eman about the Zhuhai stuff. (I thought
you meant 99, not 89 :o) never been followed either). the local climbers are a bit wierd, they think only
baiyun shan is worth climbing and then the next place with any climbing is yangshuo ... weird, so all the
places like zhuhai and that wall near the bridge are empty and unknown.

if you haven't been here in the last five years, well... it's a different city. the suburb i live in from my old
apartment in one year they threw up 14 thirty-storey buildings - that i could see. the highways are going
everywhere, the subway is on its way to seven lines... it's spring now and kinda nice.

we went back to jiulong yesterday, it was sunny, low 20s, blue sky (yep in south china - blue sky!) put up
the first pitch of a new trad crack line (route needs cleaning of some dangerous blocks before going
higher) the place is just awesome. i saw the main area. a massive wall, maybe 200 meters long and 100
high of beautiful yellow limestone is right in the middle of town opposite a hotel being built and behind a
bunch of shops - you could belay from your chair in the restaurant while drinking tea haha, and that wall is
one of dozens visible from the road - who knows whats behind...
deadpoint
7-Mar-2005
3:05:55 PM
Yeah I can understand that, the Chinese don't worry about Environmental Impact statements and such. They just do it and fast. My god you saw the sky, must have been a windy day!!! Is that jiulong in sichuan? or somewhere closer to GuangZhou

Phil Box
7-Mar-2005
4:02:10 PM
A user by the name of guangzhou on rockclimbing.com is into climbing in a big way over in China. He is a westerner not one of the locals. He may be a good person to hook up with. He is looking for people to hook up with for development trips.

francesca
8-Mar-2005
1:11:10 PM
not windy - warm like a spring day in melbourne, the air seems to be getting better despite the pollution
increasing, probably coz they are moving the factories further from town - they have even started dredging
the canals in guangzhou and cleaning them, it's going to be a regular amsterdam in a couple of months.

and jiulong (same characters as kowloon in hong kong) is a mere 1 1/2 hours north of guangzhou on the
guangqing expressway (well 1 1/2 hours if they fix the road after qingyuan, but 2 1/2 at the moment -
about 150km or so). it's the same rock formation as yangshuo about 10 hours east but is totally
overlooked... still a shit-poor farming town.

the person on rockclimbing.com is the guy i hooked up with. i saw guangzhou and hit the message button.
he's a very cool guy who's been climbing for years and put up alot of the routes in okinawa, and totally
mad keen on climbing as many new routes in jiulong as possible in the next four years.

also alot of the hong kong people have started coming up too, it's only 4 hours drive from there, so even
(long) day trips are possible, but lots of weekend trips in the next couple of months. but i miss out, i'm on
a plane back to melb in 12 hours for six weeks... anyone wanna climb?
deadpoint
8-Mar-2005
4:25:20 PM
I have been told Wabbit Woks Wok. Just kidding....
rockeys
10-Mar-2005
10:51:47 PM
I've been helping out here at Chinaclimb (an Australian owned company) in Yangshuo for the past 6 months and the potential of this whole region is mind blowing. Very interesting to hear about Jiulong. Also echo the views about Zhuhai, some awesome boulders scattered all over that city. Not sure if you are allowed to climb on them though as many of them are in parks.

Unfort i gotta go back to Oz next week but i think Aussie climber Simon Weill will be coming back soon to keep on with the route development. Maybe 150-200 boulted routes here now, double the amount this time last year. As Frances has found out for herself, you dont have to go to far to find a classic line never been climbed before. I'll back here before long to to try and get something set up in Xing Ping, this cool friendly old fishing town about half an hour up the Li River from Yangshuo. Would be great to see some more Aussies up here next summer, Sept-Dec is the best time to be here. There is also a new Bangkok-Guilin (1hr from Yangshuo) flight run by Bangkok Air which makes a Krabi-Yangshuo climbing holiday too easy (and cheap). DO IT!
deadpoint
11-Mar-2005
1:05:34 PM
You should have a chat to

Sports Bureau of Beijing
Xian Nong Stadium
Beijing
Post code 100050
CHINA

They have contacted us the CCA - Canberra Climbers Association hopeing to to examine future business and sporting opportunities relating to climbing. They sounded pretty supportive.

martyb
14-Mar-2005
9:29:42 AM
The climbing around Yangshuo is pretty cool. I would include it in any climbing trip to South-East Asia.
Here's a link to a photo I took there in July last year.

http://www.rockclimbing.com/photos.php?Action=Show&PhotoID=38263

IdratherbeclimbingM9
14-Mar-2005
10:43:57 AM
Excellent photo martyb.
It captures a lot of the essence of this game we play.

francesca
30-Mar-2005
11:53:46 AM
In a bid to fill Guangdong province up with foreign climbers, the locals are using sex to sell the place. We
could mention that it's sandstone cliffs in a park that looks like a tropical Grampians, or that it's two hours
drive from Guangzhou (about 3 1/2 from Hong Kong), but the picture says it all anyway.



There are 16 messages in this topic.

 

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