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Hike Zhejiang's most beautiful Hangxuan Ancient Road, explore Dusong Pass, explore the natural spirits deep in the bamboo forest, and decipher the code of the majestic pass

D1

Day 1 Shanghai → Futuo Temple → Dusong Village → Shanghai

All day

7:00-7:30 In the morning, gather downstairs at Mingshen Center Building, No. 3131 Kaixuan Road, Xuhui District, and get on the bus on time to set off.

7:30-10:30 The team leader will take the children to participate in activities, introduce themselves, and practice courage in public; there will be a talent competition to inspire the children's self-confidence; they will learn to tie magic scarves. The small magic scarves can be used by the team leader to make hats, belly bands, and of course small underwear, etc. The children have a lot of fun and the parents are laughing all the way.

Around 10:30, amidst laughter and joy, we arrived at Butuo Temple at the junction of Yuhang and Anji. The ancient trees at the temple gate and inside the temple have a history of 500 years. Let's climb to the highest point of the temple with our parents to look out and pray.

11:30-12:00 You can eat the food you brought with you, or you can eat vegetarian food in the temple and experience the feeling of not eating meat for a day.

12:00-15:00 Led by our team leader, we'll head deep into the bamboo forest. Children, please pay attention! The adorable little fairies are in this beautiful bamboo forest. How do spiders weave their webs? Why are there green caterpillars? Why are butterfly wings golden? There are many more little fairies waiting for you to dance with them.

3:00 PM - 3:30 PM Along the ancient trail, Dusong Pass exudes the aura of "one man guarding the pass against ten thousand." "Daddy, don't stop me! I'm traveling back in time to the Song Dynasty to help Song Jiang fight his battles." Three famous generals from "Water Margin" also share a common trajectories along this route. Along the way, we explain to children how to hike safely.

16:00 Take a short break in Dusong Village and say goodbye to the cute elves in the forest. We will come back to participate in the forest dance next time.

We will return to the city around 18:00 and we will come back to date the elves next time.

 

 

The Hangxuan Ancient Road has been rated as one of the eight most beautiful ancient roads in Hangzhou. It has mountain streams and bamboo forests, and the scenery is very beautiful, making it suitable for parent-child hiking.

There are two major historical sites on the road, one is Dusong Pass and the other is Butuo Temple.

Dusong Pass has high mountains and secluded streams to the east and west, and narrow valleys to the north and south. It was the throat of the ancient Lin'an through Guangde to Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), and was a place where surprise attacks were deployed.

During the Jianyan period (1127-1130) of the Southern Song Dynasty, to block the southward advance of the Jin army, a stone fortification was built at Dusong Ridge. Five kilometers south of the pass, Baizhang Pass (located on Baizhang Ridge) lies to the left, and Youling Pass (located on Youling Ridge) lies to the right, collectively known as the Three Passes of Dusong (see color map). From Dusong Pass southeast to Xikou lies a 20-kilometer-long valley. Xikou, situated at the mouth of the valley, is considered a key route among the Three Passes. In the first year of Deyou (1275), the Yuan army marched from Jiankang through Guangde, breached Dusong Pass, and marched directly to Lin'an. By 1279, the Southern Song Dynasty had fallen. In the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty's Zhizheng (1352), the Red Turban Rebellion seized Dusong and occupied Anji. The Yuan army advanced northward from Shuangxikou, breached the Three Passes of Dusong, and defeated the rebels. In the tenth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign (1860), the Qing army attacked Tianjing (now Nanjing, Jiangsu). Taiping Heavenly Kingdom general Li Xiucheng took the Dusong shortcut from Hangzhou and quickly marched north. Together with other Taiping forces, he defeated the Qing army and lifted the siege of Tianjing.

Futuo Zen Temple was founded by monk Juehai in the second year of the Qianhua reign of the Liang Dynasty (912) and renamed in the second year of the Zhiping reign of the Song Dynasty (1065). It was destroyed by war in the late Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt in the early Ming Dynasty, renamed Futuo Temple. In the 12th year of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1655), it was rebuilt and renamed Baolong Temple. During the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns (1862-1908), the abbots Gensheng and Qingshan raised funds to rebuild and expand the temple, creating a considerable scale. Today, only the main hall remains. Futuo Temple, named after the mountain, is nestled between the mountains and the water, offering tranquil scenery and towering ancient trees. It is a renowned Buddhist holy site, known for its "ten-mile bamboo sea, hundred-foot spruce trees, thousand-year-old temples, and eternal Tiaoxi River." Futuo Temple boasts beautiful scenery, surrounded by mountains, like the support of a pot, with a depression in the middle shaped like a pot, hence the name Futuo Temple. Strolling along the winding mountain path, you'll find lush bamboo groves and vibrant mountain flowers. The hall is tall and spacious. The beams, rafters, and supporting arches are intricately carved, creating a majestic atmosphere. In front of the temple stand dozens of towering Chinese cedar trees, each four or five meters in circumference, and a towering ancient golden pine stands on the side of the road, each of them approximately four or five hundred years old. Green bamboos blanket the mountain, pine and fir trees line the path, and a meandering stream flows. Futuo Temple was designated a municipal cultural relic protection site in 1986.

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