Huzhu Beishan (互助北山) or North Mountain Forest National Park is located in Huzhu county, 40 kilometers northeast of Xining, Qinghai. To get here you can catch a bus from the Xining bus station and get off at the entrance to 北山国家森林公园 (Beishan Forest National Park).
The scenery is very nice and there is a small river on the north side of the main valley as you enter the park. You will need to pay at the gate btw. As you follow the river west you will see more and more guest houses and a few farm houses. You can stay at any of these guest houses and most of them also serve food.
(We scored the China Post hats from my buddy’s dad who works for China Post).
Where To Stay
When I first stayed in Beishan Park we met some Tibetans who offered to let us stay in there home for the night (actually it was their guesthouse they had opened which doubled as a home). After taking a look around the valley our Tibetan friend led us to the guesthouse with little problem. He was a little tipsy and told my friend he was sorry to be drunk in front of me, a foreigner, and asked my friend to apologize for him. I told him it was alright many times but he didn’t seem to understand.
Hike To Heaven Lake
Heaven Lake is a two to three hour hike into the mountains from the end of the main road that runs through Beishan Forest Park. We hiked it in July but it was still pretty cold and also sprinkling most of the time. On the trail we saw lots of goats and some shepherds.
Near Heaven Lake we met some Tibetan shepherds and they offered us some food. We were very grateful for the warmth of their house and the soup and noodles they gave us (we gave them some money after). The husband, who’d also had his tongue cut out when he was a boy due to infection, led us to Heaven Lake at the top of the ridge we were on. It was a wet climb through the fog. But fog just makes mountains all the more majestic in my opinion, anyone else agree?
Not much else to tell. This is an untouched, accessible, remote mountain hike. If you can read Chinese, this blogger, He Yuan Long, does a good job documenting the climb: http://www.17u.com/blog/article/275509.html. Even if you can’t read Chinese the pictures help tell the story.
If I had more time I would love to come back here and camp up in the hills and hike around more. If you can speak Chinese, the locals are a great source of information.
Map of Huzhu Beishan Forest National park Area (click the blue markers to read details about each place):