The Western Hills form the ridge that rises immediately west of Kunming and drops steeply to the shore of Dianchi Lake, and they are the city's traditional outing. The forested slopes hold several temples, but the reason people climb is the Dragon Gate: a complex of grottoes, shrines, passages and terraces cut directly into the cliff face high above the water. The work is attributed to a Taoist monk who began carving in the eighteenth century and to patrons who continued it into the nineteenth and twentieth, and it is one of the more improbable pieces of landscape architecture in China.
The Dragon Gate
The way up runs through progressively narrower passages blasted and cut through the rock, past carved figures and inscriptions, and out onto small terraces built out over the drop with stone balustrades. The celebrated feature is a rock-cut platform that projects from the cliff, reached by a short tunnel, where a carved arch frames the view down over Dianchi Lake. The scale of the lake from that height is the point: at more than forty kilometres long, it reads as an inland sea, with the city at its northern end and farmland on the far shore. The passages are tight, and in busy periods the flow of visitors through them is one-way and slow.
The rest of the ridge
The hills hold several other attractions: the Huating Temple and the Taihua Temple among the trees, a grove of ancient trees, and a small Taoist shrine at the summit ridge. The walk between them follows the contours rather than the shoreline and takes a few hours. A cable car crosses from the lakeshore to the ridge, and a chairlift serves the upper section, which makes the hill accessible without committing to the whole climb.
Practical notes
The Western Hills are reachable from central Kunming by bus or taxi to the base and then by cable car or by a long set of steps; the whole excursion takes most of a day. Altitude is moderate - the ridge is around 2,300 metres - but the climb is steep and the steps are uneven. Go early: the carvings are crowded by mid-morning, and the light on the lake is better before the haze builds. There is also the option of visiting the lakeshore by boat at the foot of the hills on the same trip. Admission is charged for the Dragon Gate, with extra fees for the lifts.
