Morning - the drive to Fairy Mountain
The Wulong karst is not only gorges and arches. South-east of Chongqing, the road climbs to Fairy Mountain, a plateau at 2,033 metres with around 33,000 mu of forest and 10,000 mu of open natural grassland on top. Chongqing calls it "the first pasture of the south" and, a little optimistically, "the Switzerland of the East". For a city of thirty-odd million people it is the nearest thing to an alpine meadow, and in summer it is ten degrees cooler than the basin below.
Late morning - the grassland
The scenic area's small train runs across the grass, so you see the meadow, the grazing cattle and the windbreak of firs without a long walk. There are marked paths across the plateau if the group would rather walk, and the viewpoints along the western edge look out over a huge sweep of karst hills. Horse riding and an artificial ski slope are available at the site in season and can be arranged locally - neither is included in the price.
Lunch
A restaurant on or near the mountain, with local highland dishes, smoked bacon and a hot soup. Vegetarian and mild options are arranged in advance.
Afternoon - the Furong Cave
Roughly an hour's drive away, and an entirely different experience, the Furong Cave is one of the three great show caves of the world and the only cave anywhere to have been inscribed as a World Natural Heritage protected site. It was formed in the Quaternary period, in Cambrian dolomitic limestone, and its scale is extraordinary: the main chamber runs about 2,700 metres, of which roughly 1,860 metres are open to visitors, and the largest hall reaches 69.5 metres across and 48.3 metres high, with a floor area of about 37,000 square metres. The temperature inside is a constant 16 degrees.
A path and a cableway take you in. Inside, the stalactites, curtains and columns are dense and heavily coloured by iron and manganese, and the two set pieces every visitor remembers are the Giant Screen Waterfall - a wall of flowstone that looks exactly like a frozen cascade - and the Greater and Lesser Wild Goose Pagodas, two towers of dripstone several storeys high. Your guide explains how dripstone grows, and why the growth rings in a single column can be read like a climate record.
Late afternoon - the return
You leave Wulong in the late afternoon and reach Chongqing in the evening. Dinner is not included, so the group is free to eat near the hotel; the guide will leave a list of suggestions.
Meals
Lunch
Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.
