The Eastern Discovery Tour
Day 9

On my 9th day I headed over to one of the attractions I've read about on the Western edge of the City called Badachu. It's a huge park area containing a couple of mountains, with a number of temples and other holy Buddhist sites on it. For the thrill seeker it also has a very memorable Bobsleigh run, and a large zip line between the two valleys.

I could probably have spent the whole day at Badachu, but a combination of fatigue from all the walking today and yesterday, and the temptation of a number of rides I hadn't done yet, meant I decided to head back to Shijingshan amusement park for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

These directions I'm about to give are based on when I visited in October 2009. I can't guarantee these won't change. I would recommend double checking what bus to catch (perhaps before going in to Shijingshan Park) before you visit, as I didn't spot anywhere obvious to get a taxi back from Badachu.
To get their I got the metro to Bajiao Station (line 1) and walked West along the main road to the bus stop on the main road outside Shijingshan Amusement Park. There should be a bus stop their. most of the signs are in Chinese, but it should have the bus number (389) and the final destination (Badachu) in English on it. You can get this bus to a station near Badachu itself.

Here is the beautiful entrance area of Badachu.

Further in is this great food court, that was serving a great range of Chinese snacks and food.

Badachu translates as Eight Great Sites Park. This is because there are eight sacred temples and sites on it. I think I managed six of them on the main route through the park, skipping two the two more out of the way ones.

This is one of the more spectacularly beautiful areas on the way up.

On the way up are a number of beautiful temples where followers of Buddhism come to prey, and to light candles and burn incense.

A game like this appeared in a number of locations, where you take a pile of metal discs, decorated like old coins, and have to try to ring a bell by throwing a coin at one and hitting it.

One thing that made Badachu area so beautiful was the whole area was set in a spectacular forested area.

There's a lot of climbing and walking to get up to the top of Badachu, and to see all the sites on the way up, but it is well worth it.

This was Baozhudong Cave, a site located near the top of the park. I was expecting a much larger cave on the inside, but it was much more humbling in how it was a small temple, not much taller than me, set in this cave.