We keep returning to China because we love the dramatic landscapes and the fascinating culture. After starting our trip in a city, we couldn’t wait to escape the chaos and head to a scenic area – and the one we picked was Sanqinshan. It’s a mountainous area filled with spiky granite peaks where hiking paths cling to the cliffs. 

Further north is Huangshan, which offers very similar scenery, on a grander scale, but with that comes much bigger crowds. We visited Huangshan on our first trip to China in 2016 and we barely saw any views as thick fog enshrouded us. It was a pretty gruelling experience because we got a cable car up, spent hours walking around, getting soaked in the rain and sleet, seeing nothing, and then when we went to take a different cable car down we discovered it was closed. 

I can’t remember how many thousands of steps we had to descend, but I remember it being so brutal on our knees that we were taking one step at a time. Our knees took a long time to recover, and we had to use knee supports on our future hikes. 

Anyway, Sanqinshan is said to be Huangshan’s little brother, and, most importantly, that meant it would be less busy. 

To get there, we headed to Yushan, a small city where we stood out like a sore thumb, causing locals to point and gossip in the supermarket because two tourists were wandering around. 

A wiggly hour-long bus ride took us north to the foothills of the park where we based ourselves in a little guesthouse run by a lovely couple who cooked us delicious meals and drove us to the scenic area and back, which was very convenient. 

We actually delayed our visit by a day to avoid the busy weekend, and boy did we make the right decision. 

Our host dropped us off at the ticket office where we were first in line. We also purchased a return ticket for the cable car, costing an additional £13 per person – but money well spent as we needed to protect our feeble knees. 

A couple of young girls insisted we join them in the cable car and we were whisked up beside forested slopes. As we approached the top, we had fabulous views of the granite spires, rising from an area of buildings which housed accommodation, shops, and even a police station. 

It was a beautiful blue sky day so we stopped to enjoy the endless view of the distant rolling hills and close-up rocky spires before setting off on a 10km loop hike around the mountain. 

Just as we began, a huge drone began rumbling between the peaks, building material dangling from it by a rope. This is modern-day China now – where coffee can be flown to you in the cities and building supplies can be delivered with ease in the mountains. 

Technology isn’t flawless though, and these drones have a weight limit, which means anything too heavy is carried up or down the mountain by people. We saw a huge engine being carried down by two men, the item was strapped to a wooden pole and the men rested either end of the pole on their shoulders. 

A series of steps gained us elevation very quickly and we were soon walking along what’s known as the West Coast Boardwalk. It was a fabulous section of path clinging to the cliff edge. Part of it was a glass walkway, but they hadn’t removed the plastic film from the glass, so it was all misty and lacked the fear factor of walking over the abyss. 

I was shocked at how quiet the hike was, for the first hour it was just us enjoying the tranquillity. It’s very rare to be in a scenic area in China without crowds so we were absolutely loving it. The sun began to pierce above the peaks and shine down on us as we headed towards a Taoist temple set in a forested area of the mountain. 

As we veered onto the Sunshine Coast path along the east, we came across more people, but it didn’t become crazy until we reached the famous Python-shaped rock. 

Many of the rocks in the park had been named after resembling something. There was the ‘Monkey King Presenting Treasures’, ‘Penguins Offering Peach’ and ‘Oriental Goddess’. We needed to use our imagination for most of them. 

A couple of the rocks, like the python one, had large signboards below them stating that they had the world record certificate for the ‘highest natural python-shaped peak’ at 128m tall. It wasn’t designated that title by Guinness, so maybe they have their own one in China. 

The Python area was where another, busier, cable car joined the mountain so we expected it to be busier, but it was still very manageable because walking any direction away from the Python avoided the masses. 

The leaf-covered ground beside the trail was often filled with dense bamboo forest and the sound of tweeting birds. When we stopped to see the culprits we spotted a beautiful bird. We’d seen posters around the park so we knew it was a Red-Billed Leiothrix. They lived in groups so we saw a few of them together which was lovely.

It was a fabulous park to explore and a thousand times more enjoyable than our experience at Huangshan. The views were incredible so it makes no sense to deal with the big crowds at the more famous park. Sanqinshan, for now, feels like a bit of a hidden gem, at least by Chinese standards.