Rocky. Rugged. Ridged. It might only be 300 meters tall, but this mountain is majestic. This honorary peak is a very special mountain: it’s our friend, Fushan.
It was a photograph of this mountain that convinced us to take a job in Qingdao. History repeats itself: much like my mountain-motivated move to Seoul ten years ago, I simply couldn’t resist the sunny south face of Fushan. We signed our contracts within hours of receiving a snapshot from a mutual friend.
And, as I’ve detailed elsewhere, this mini but mighty mountain was key to our ongoing happiness in Qingdao. Fushan was both training ground and playground. We lived at the foot of the mountain, and gazed out at it from the windows of our workplace. Fair weather or foul, Kent and I climbed up to Fushan’s rocky ridge several times a week. We were on its slopes at dawn, at dusk, and many times in between.
During the eight month period we resided in Qingdao, we did a total of 60 runs on Fushan! Our first took place less than 48 hours after our arrival, and the last just a few days before we left for (what was the world’s longest) lunar new year vacation. In between, our outings included hard climbing intervals and overnight training runs, plus the occasional picture-perfect picnic.
It’s really no wonder we fell for Fushan. It’s jagged spine is known as Dragonback Ridge – granite spires reminiscent of our beloved Seoraksan in Korea! Only: Dinosaur Ridge is just the spikiest of Seoraksan’s features. Fushan is all relentless ridge.
Features of Fushan
The trails
Fushan is a beautiful feature of the landscape of Qingdao. From the seaside, it’s a dramatic massif rising from an urban jungle. You can see Fushan’s rugged ridges as you arrive or depart the city by air. But perhaps the very best thing about Fushan is that you can explore it on foot!
I could go on about the trails indefinitely. There’s a little bit of everything: paved roads for speed training or when you want to keep it casual with a stroll, technical climbs up Dragonback Ridge, and quiet, rolling dirt trails connecting it all together. There are natural rock formations that capture the attention with their unlikely shapes and sheer verticality – and there are red-painted inscriptions that add a splash of colorful culture. Race to the top or spend hours enjoying the scenery: the choice is yours.
On weekdays, Kent and I would often race each other to the ridge on an overgrown road on the south face. On weekends, we’d clamber along the ridgeline or invent elaborate routes over and around the mountain. Sometimes we’d even sneak away midday for a picnic lunch on Fushan’s slopes!
The tunnels
Perhaps Fushan’s biggest claim to fame are its tunnels. Purportedly built during Qingdao’s German occupation in the early 1900s, these subterranean shafts also later hosted the Japanese army and Chinese special forces.
These tunnels are deep, long, and best of all, virtually unknown to non-locals. With a headlamp, you can explore a cool, underground world unchanged since it’s last occupants left it. There are heavy, thick blast doors – but also windows on the city and its surrounding sea.
These tunnels are definitely worth exploring! En route to the top from Fushan’s north side, you’ll pass through two massive former road tunnels before reaching the main network of smaller portals. These were a favorite feature on our regular runs – the ‘funnels’, as we called them. Some of the most accessible pedestrian tunnels have entry points just below the summit saddle.
(For more on what lies below Fushan’s rocky surface, check out this excellent article!)
Sunsets and sunrises
Naturally, Fushan makes an excellent place from which to enjoy twilight at the margins of the day. Qingdao is oriented to face southeast, which makes possible both sunrises and sunsets. Although weather-dependent, sunrises are particularly striking. Most of the year, the sun appears to rise from the sea. The best vantage point for viewing this phenomenon is from Fushan’s summit saddle – or just below on the south side.
For sunsets over the cityscape, head to the western edge of the massif. You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see ‘the lighthouse’ (and then run out of trail!).
Training on the mountain most days, we saw many a memorable sunrise, and a few sunsets too. Some of the most unforgettable of these were our NYE-NYD combo: the night we bid 2019 goodbye and the morning we welcomed 2020.
Some people go to parties, some light fireworks and some watch the ball drop on TV. For Kent and I, there was never any doubt about how we would ring in the new year. With our friend Fushan, of course!
Other discoveries
Spend long enough exploring a place, and you’re likely to find lots of sights and secrets! The watchtower on the summit saddle is a classic photo stop – but if you venture just slightly off-trail, you can also find the floodlights that light the mountain at night! Fushan also hosts an immense graveyard and some small shepherd’s camps – if you know where to look.
Some of these things are permanent, but others, less so. On one autumn run after a typhoon, we discovered a massive rockfall that temporarily blocked the trail!
My favorite encounters with man-made things on the mountain were cave temples and prayer flags. Much like the tunnels, Fushan’s temples are carved out of the rock, and striking.
Prayer flags are strung up in secret, and often quietly removed shortly thereafter. I think they’re a symbol of affection or perhaps even reverence for Fushan, which is something I understand. Bonus: they make for pretty pictures, too.
Our raddest runs
The first time
We basically hit the ground running. We landed on a Sunday afternoon, fasted for a lengthy medical checkup that took the majority of Monday, and were on Fushan’s trails on Tuesday morning. It was May 14th, 2019.
But we had only gone a short way up when we arrived at a gate. Closed, and determined to be locked as well. This was not the way our Fushan adventure was supposed to begin!
Luckily, we weren’t the only folks climbing Fushan that day. As we reluctantly headed back downhill, we spotted a Chinese man in hiking garb. This guy didn’t bother with the gate, and ducked instead into a bush. We quickly followed in his footsteps and found a network of folk trails!
Tiled stairs led into a vegetable patch. Then we were climbing above that on wood and earth steps. Before we knew it, we were on Fushan’s first ridge!
Beyond the viewpoint on this ridge, a thin dirt trail led down to the road we started on – only higher, and past the gate! Back on a main route, we climbed all the way up to a high notch in Fushan’s main ridge. The sweeping views of the city from there stole our hearts. Now that we had found a friend, we were home.
The summit
Not a week later, and we’d already run many miles on Fushan. But we hadn’t yet been to the summit. We saved that for Sunday!
We’d identified a reliable entrance to the trail network, and were growing familiar with the exciting ridge trail. All that was left to do was plant our feet on the peak!
As we discovered on that sunny spring day, it wasn’t so easy. The ridge has numerous sections of technical trail: long boulder assaults and scrabbly downhill slides. The very hardest section was, naturally, the part up to the mountaintop. The exposure was dizzying, and the route was made even more difficult by how many hikers were attempting it with us!
We eventually reached the peak and took a moment to celebrate our success. Then I skidded down the opposite side inelegantly. A section of no more than a few hundred meters had taken us nearly an hour. We had to rule this bit out as a regular running route – but we vowed to return to the summit, with more confidence, early on an an off day one day.
However, we never had the chance. Although we explored every other trail in the months that followed, we never made it back to the summit! Now that we’re approximately 6,000 miles away, that’s something I regret!
Night trains
If you want to climb the summit, go in the day when you can see your footing. But if you want another epic, off-the-beaten-track adventure, run on Fushan at night!
There are many factors making Fushan an exceptionally awesome place to conduct nighttime training. For us, there was the proximity to our home. But in general, being right in the city makes this mountain really accessible. Easy on, easy off, and easy access to snacks and shelter if necessary. That takes the frightening factor down a notch or two as well.
But it’s not all practicalities. The views from Fushan are incredible at night! Qingdao’s skyscrapers light up after dark, displaying colorful patterns, flashing messages and even rendering traditional scenes. The mountain slopes are the best place to get a bird’s eye view of the urban night scene.
And Fushan itself is all aglow for a few hours after sundown every night! There are huge floodlights that shine on Fushan’s south face at dusk. It’s a dramatic and beautiful scene.
Despite running a fair number of early evening runs, there’s one that stands out as a definite favorite. It was the run in the middle of a back-to-back-to-back training weekend in June – preparation for Lavaredo. This run had us heading out the door at 11 pm for a four hour, 20 kilometer run which wound up one of my favorites of all time.
The big one(s)
Two more of the my favorite Fushan excursions were two of the longest! One of these long runs was in June, the day right after the night run described above. The other took place in November during our prep for Izu.
Proving how one can do truly monster training on a mini mountain, we logged 30 kilometers and 1600 meters of vert in just over five hours on both occasions! We were able to rack up the distance by repeating our favorite ridge sections. In November, we ran so long we outran a smoggy morning and jogged ourselves into a sunny afternoon!
The one with the goats!
Then there was the time when we ran into goats! One misty morning in May, weren’t alone on the trails. We’d been exerting ourselves to stay warm in the damp drizzle, but slowed to navigate a rocky segment. There was a clatter on the rocks overhead that made us both stop and look up. There, perched high above us, was an entire herd of four-footed friends!
The last time
We didn’t know it would be our last time. On Monday, January 13th, 2020, we headed out on a routine, weekday Fushan run. Kent had planned a unique route that would have us hit many of our favorite highlights in a short amount of time. We were tapering for the Hong Kong 100 at the end of the week, and didn’t want to spend too much time on our feet.
It was a wonderful, windy run – but the cold zapped my aging phone battery, and we didn’t take as many photos as usual. No matter, we thought, as we’d soon be back to run on Fushan again. A few days later, we left on vacation, never to return to our old lives in Qingdao. I can only hope that one day we’ll be back again to visit our friend Fushan.
