From the dock area and other environs of Xing Ping, you can see a unique mountain, which seems to be made up of a full circle of walls and towers, all jutting from the same center. It's impossible to miss, both for its distinctive shape and its deep fissure which cuts down into the tallest of the rock walls. I noticed it from the first moments in town, and named it the Colosseum, for its circular shape and great size. The Colosseum doesn't appear on the small maps of the area as other mountains do, and at first I confused it with Chaobanshan, which is actually more of a pillar, and stands next to the water. The Colosseum's actual name, according to a local fellow we asked, is Glove Mountain, alluding naturally to its multiple fingers.

In hiking I've always found that the most enjoyable days, the days which I remember for more than the views up top, are the ones exploring areas where few people go. It's a little bit of a gamble of course, because the payoffs of searching out a path and checking out a rarely-traversed hill can be the wasted hours of looking for a way up, and not finding one. Since we had all day to explore the Colosseum, I didn't worry about the latter possibility, and ended up being able to explore its inner portions as well as an outer wall. We even had a few locals helping us out, and eventually walked an uncharted path across the middle of a cliff. If you care to explore the wonder of the Colosseum also, the following directions will help you out.

The belly
You hardly need directions to the Colosseum if you’re already in Xingping. Take the bridge by the dock across the river, and turn left, in the direction of Chaobanshan and Huashan on your map. After a few minutes down the little road, you should pass by Chaobanshan Middle School to your right, just before the road winds left toward the river again. The middle school is actually at the foot of the Colosseum, though I didn't bother trying to enter its gated grounds to find the way up. We just continued along the road, which squeezes between the cliff and the waters in a section where the precautionary signs warn of rock falls. It turns out the signs are there for very good reason, as the day we passed by there was a desk-sized chunk of rock on the path, which appeared to have broken off about fifteen feet up the cliff.

Just past this little strip of river you will pass a wooded area to your right, this is the entrance into the Colosseum. A few small signs in the woods announce a tree farming area, and several paths lead within. The belly of the mountain should open up to view shortly after you walk into the woods, and you will be surrounded by the full circle of its walls and its peaks. In front of you the imposing back wall, with its enormous fissure jutting down the middle, seems taller than the rest. On either side you are encircled by the peaks of neighboring towers, some of them jutting mildly outward. Being encompassed in this flowering grotto is comforting and awe-inspiring all at once.

You can explore the whole central area, a gradually rising plateau dotted with clumps of evergreens and boulders, and with a covering of low bushes. Since you don't want to squash someone's plants in here, you will have to find or improvise a path. We found a small dried up stream bed somewhere in the leftward area, and followed its irregular path upward. It is likely that there are more such paths, as we later caught sight of a village woman coming into the plateau, and leading her goats off to the right.

Climbing straight up towards the back wall is easy enough with a path, and you will eventually get a good view of the Li River and its bordering peaks as you ascend. There are several pleasant stopping points if you want to chill out on a rock, and a large number of curious violet flowers grow in the plateau. If your goal is to get up to the immense back wall, things will get more difficult within a hundred feet. By this point the brush thickens up, and finding a route may be tricky.

Instead of going straight for the base of the back wall, we took a very narrow path to the right, cutting between it and the smaller tower next to us. Just fifty feet or so in this direction the brush thins out and you will find an open, flat plain with a scattering of narrow evergreens. It's a nice comfortable place to take a rest if you care to. You can catch a glimpse of the Li River from here, you can take another right through a little brush, and you'll find a broad platform looking out over a portion of the water, where the Li and its tributary wind in what looks like rectangular form. A quick scramble up some boulders on your left might offer a better view.

The villager path
You can stop at this platform if you like, but this mountain has more secrets than its bedded interior. If you descend back to your shaded entry-point and keep on going down the same road, you'll find that the Colosseum's towering left wall is quite possible to ascend. We learned this from asking a few of the locals, and even got help from a wonderful village lady, who took us out on the wall herself. Her simple purple house slippers actually got much better traction than our shoes. In the old days (20 years or more ago) it was normal for the villagers to climb many of these towers looking for firewood. There was no gas. As impossible as some of these peaks seem, there is often a way up if you look, and villagers frequently either find one or make one. In the case of the Colosseum, the villagers used to walk along a narrow winding ledge across the curved cliff of this outer wall. Just have a look at this cliff once you get to it. You will see several lines running across its face. One of these is the villager path.

Finding this villager path, should you care to accept the mission, might take a little searching. Fortunately, we had some help from our villager friend who lives right at the base of the foothill, so we didn't waste all afternoon on the search. Basically, once you reach this leftward cliff, head down the narrow road running next to the mountain. You should pass a few houses the first minute or two, and then the hill beneath the mountainside should be on your right. This pine-bedded foothill, if you take it all the way to the top, offers its own areas to explore, but to find the villager path you only need to ascend about halfway. The portion of cliff with the narrow ledge is to your right as you ascend, and when we were finally led to it, it merely started out as a tiny path behind some bushes, before quickly turning into a rock walkway.

Going out on this ledge may not be a normal experience for your average hiker, and it certainly wasn't for me. Just a few yards down the path and the right side of the hill begins gradually to drop off, and then sharply to drop off until you are out on the rock with a sheer drop beside you and the tall, cold face of the cliff above you. If you are disturbed by heights, it is best to go home now. If you do not plan on being very careful, go home now as well. The first short portion of this ledge is fairly narrow, and when we were on it had a few damp and slippery spots. Not far out the cliff and the ledge take a sharp left. You may get the urge to hug the rock on squeezing past here, and it just might do you some good. Once you get past this sharp turn, the ledge broadens out a little, feeling much more like a path and feeling much more stable to walk on. With the cliff at your back, the Li River is just before you, the village and farmland unfold off to your right.

This hanging path continues for another hundred feet or so along the cliff, and then finally reaches a wooded and steeply-rising hill. We never got that far, however, since my companion was stuck at the bend, clinging to the rock and not wanting to go an inch further. If you do choose to head all the way to the top peak (500-foot altitude maybe) you want to take the villager ledge all the way to the hill, and then turn left and ascend the hill until you reach the base of the next tall cliff. Follow the cliff along to the right, and at its end make a sharp left. Here you can ascend the final steep, rocky pillar. We confirmed this complete route later with our villager guide's father, though it's fairly intuitive if you just have a look.

It’s a beautiful hike, but beware, portions of this climb are potentially life-threatening. It should not be taken in inclement weather or without the proper footwear.
 

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