Hidden treasure: Shengmaoshu Waterfall

A wide, wooden boardwalk makes for an easy, relaxing stroll up the impressive gorge. Look into the depths on the right about ten minutes into the walk, and you’ll glimpse the impressive fifty meter drop of Zhongshan Waterfall (中山瀑布) several hundred meters below. It’s an impressive drop, but to get a closer look entails some serious river tracing.

In about thirty minutes, the path descends a long flight of stairs, passes a viewing platform opposite the tall, thin plume of Dragon Palace Waterfall, and after losing some more height and descending finally to the level of the stream, it reaches a junction. Turn left here, upstream and the whole character of the gorge changes, the grand, huge open spaces of the lower canyon shrinking to a smaller, densely wooded, craggy-walled glen.

The wooden path, elevated high above the thick undergrowth covering the sides of the glen, climbs ever upwards as the stream beside it drops in a series of cascades and minor falls. Then finally, when it seems like the steps will never end, a tributary stream plunges over a tall, sheer cliff of bare rock to the left of the path, falling in a narrow plume into a large, shallow pool.

On our visit, the mountains above hadn’t been doing their job as rainmakers for some days, and the water in the fall was reduced to a trickle, but Shengmaoshu Waterfall must be quite a spectacle when in flood.

Whatever the condition of the falls however, the introduction of a good path up to the waterfall hasn’t destroyed the wonderful peace and seclusion of the place, and as we took advantage of being the only people around to lay back and take a much-needed rest, the gentle sound of the falling water was balm to our aching legs.

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