Date: 1 Jan – 7 Jan 2024
I said before the best way to travel is to have no plans and just follow the locals’ suggestions. So after a laid back Christmas and New Year in Kunming, we followed our Kunming friend Haiya’s suggestion and went to the Gudui Trail (谷堆山路線) about 60 kilometres south of Kunming. We drove to the Daxiantang Village (大陷塘村) and spent the night in our van so that we could start hiking first thing the next day.
Gudui Trail has the best of three worlds as one gets to admire three lakes from the top of Guidui Mountain – Lake Fuxian (撫仙湖), Lake Xingyun (星雲湖) and Dianchi (滇池). It’s a circular trail which starts at 2,330m from the Daxiantang Village and elevates just over 300 metres.
I had to pace myself to avoid getting out of breath. The loose gravel made the hike rather slippery. But all the puffing and sweating was all forgotten when the panoramic vista of the glistening lakes appeared right in front of my eyes as I reached the top. It took us almost six hours to complete the circle and back to where we started.
We camped in our van for another night and then we drove to the nearby Chengjiang (澄江) to see the Lake Fuxian up close. The lake is huge and windy in winter. The wind was so strong that I thought I was on a beach braving the rough wind and choppy waves.
We took a short break in Chengjiang (澄江) after the hike. Then we resumed vanlife in the small Guanglong Town (廣龍鎮) right next to Lake Fuxian. Guanglong is a well-developed tourist spot with many hotels and restaurants. Since it’s the off season, there were not many tourists and we found a quiet spot to spend two nights in the van.
In the morning, we took Daisy with us and strolled along the lake. She was very curious as the sand and the wind were all new to her.
Fuxianhu is also famous for its fossil site that is dated back to 518 million years during the Cambrian explosion which marked the sudden evolution of complex life. This site is so significant that it became the UNESCO world heritage site in 2012. We visited the Chengjian Fossil Site Natural History Museum (澄江化石地自然博物館) and learned about palaeontology and how we all evolved from single-cellular organisms millions and millions years ago.
