-- A quest for waterfalls, beauty and pearls in Zhuji

A boat terminal, the entrance of the Wuxie national park.

Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Make an escape from the scorching summer of bustling Shanghai to the green mountains and bubbling brooks? It must be cool! And it was!

Over the past few weekends, I have taken a bus to the Zhejiang city of Zhuji, on a quest to discover the renowned waterfalls of Wuxie, hometown of the legendary beauty Xishi and the source of cultivated pearls.

A three and a half-hour bus ride took me there, 250 kilometers to the south of Shanghai.

My first port of call was the Wuxie national park, 'wuxie' literally meaning 'five waterfalls' in Chinese.

After some 10 minutes' jog along a dry riverbed, I reached the park's entrance and headed along a walkway ascending the mountainside to a boat terminal.  Standing on the bridge linking to the boat terminal, I came upon a huge lake, and, turning round, I could see that the other side of the bridge was the deep valley I had jogged up. The bridge was in fact a dam, and the lake was in fact a river.

A boat with traditional carvings and decoration put in, and I jumped on-board and commenced the voyage upstream. The tourists around me were so captivated by the scenery along the river that the clicking of their cameras was a constant accompaniment.

Views along the boat trip to the foot of Wuxie.

The green mountains are not high, but delicate and graceful with their inverted reflections in the water.  At that moment, it brought home to me why Chinese love mountains and water so much.  A mountain, solid and un-moving, is regarded as the symbol of strength and wisdom, while flowing water indicates delicacy and wisdom also.  The juxtaposition of the two is seen as representing a refined and exquisite beauty.

Upon disembarking, it was recommended I take an electric vehicle to the foot of the waterfalls. I demurred, and as an alternative took a walk on a mountain path through the forest.

It was the right decision, as the 20-minute walk on the even path was not too strenuous and very enjoyable.

Enchanted as I was by the vistas of grass, trees, flowers, mountains and everything green encountered along the walk, the sense that the park was a little over-groomed was ever-present.  With a few gardeners weeding the lawns and trimming the peach trees along the way, I felt the mountain had been robbed of its natural beauty.  The lawns are well-manicured and the trees too regular in their arrangement.

Anyway, it didn't matter too much.  Approaching the end of the path, I knew I was reaching the foot of the falls from the roar of plunging and splashing water.

The waterfall squeezes between the stones over 30 meters above and plunges into a pool.  It is the fifth and the lowest of the five waterfalls.

The fifth waterfall.

To my surprise, I didn't feel as excited as I had expected to be at my first view of the waterfall.  It is not stirring at all, just blending-in with the delicate features of the Zhejiang landscape.

The pool is cool and clear, but not as enticingly green as that of the Emerald Valley of Yellow Mountain.

In short, the view is just so-so.

Many visitors jumped into the shallows to take shots with the waterfall as the backdrop.  A young and fashionable lady almost lay on two big, half-submerged and slippery stones, stretching out her long legs, to pose for a picture, before thinking better of it. 

Children waded into the pool to catch fish with the fishing nets sold nearby at the shopping stalls.  Their laughter and cries echoed in the hollow valley, marking a sharp contrast to the serenity of the mountains.

People are fishing in the shallows.

Rejoining the stone stairway, I quickly toured through the four waterfalls above, but there was nothing more thrilling than the already-seen number five.

The second waterfall.

Compared to the waterfalls, I found the brooks to be more attractive for their ripply flows and sub-aqua greenery that nearly extends up above the water. This is where I would best like to escape to, in the cool, green, tranquil and beautiful expanse of nature.

A brook with ripply water flows and sub-aqua greenery.

There are wooden huts available for accommodation. I didn't opt for them, though I believe it would be very romantic to stay-over there.  They would surely offer a taste of primitiveness, as well as of mosquitoes.

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