Dajue Mountain: Riding the Cliff Train

Most mountains in China move you uphill with a cableway and leave it at that. Dajue Mountain, in the small county of Zixi on Jiangxi’s border with Fujian, built a railway instead — 11.8 kilometres of narrow-gauge electric line bolted to the side of a gorge, running between roughly 850 and 1,150 metres, with more than a third of its length carried on piers off the bare cliff face. It is the reason to come, and once you have seen it you understand why the scenic area put ¥1.38 billion into it.

中國的山，多半用一條索道把人送上去，也就到此為止。地處贛閩邊界資溪縣的大覺山卻修了一條鐵路——11.8公里的窄軌電氣化線路釘在峽谷側壁，行於海拔約850至1,150米之間，其中三分之一以上的路段由立柱撐出，懸在裸露的崖面之外。這是前來的理由；親眼見過，也就明白景區為何為它投入13.8億元。

What it actually is

The Chinese name is xuanya dongche — literally “cliff EMU” — and the description is fair. This is not a funicular or a toy park train: it is a purpose-built mountain electric multiple unit, developed with CRRC Zhuzhou over more than a decade of trials, applying control technology from China’s high-speed network to a tourist railway that climbs grades no ordinary train could hold. Locals call it the off-road Fuxing. Six articulated cars carry 56 passengers, the line can move up to 25,000 people a day at capacity, and because it is pure electric there is no engine noise and nothing in the air but the smell of wet forest.

中文名叫「懸崖動車」，名副其實。它既不是纜索鐵路，也不是遊樂園小火車，而是一列專為山地打造的電動車組——由中車株洲參與研製，歷經十餘年試驗，把高鐵的控制技術用在一條爬坡能力遠超普通列車的旅遊鐵路上。當地人稱它「越野版復興號」。六節鉸接車廂載客56人，線路滿負荷日運力可達2.5萬人次；純電驅動，因此沒有引擎聲，空氣裏只有濕潤山林的氣味。

What the ride is like

You board at the base station beside the mountain town and the train climbs steadily out of the trees. The first stretch is forest — close, green, unremarkable — and then the hillside falls away and you are running along the outside of the gorge with nothing under the window but air and canopy. The carriages are glazed almost floor to ceiling, so the view is the whole point; sit on the valley side if you can. Allow about an hour end to end, with stops along the way where you can get out, walk a section and pick up a later train.

自山鎮旁的始發站上車，列車穩穩地爬出林間。最初一段只是森林——蔥鬱、貼近、平平無奇——隨後山坡陡然退去，列車便貼著峽谷外緣行走，車窗之下唯有空氣與樹冠。車廂幾乎落地全玻璃，看的就是這片景；若可選，請坐靠谷一側。全程約一小時，沿途設站，可下車走一段，再搭後續班次。

Two moods are worth planning for. On a clear late afternoon you get depth — ridge behind ridge, the valley floor a long way down, the train’s own track curving ahead of you around the rock. After rain, cloud fills the gorge to the height of the line and the train appears to be running along the top of it; the photograph everyone comes home with is taken on exactly that kind of morning.

有兩種天氣值得專程等待。晴朗的午後看得見層次——嶺後有嶺，谷底遠在腳下，軌道自己繞著山岩在前方畫出弧線。雨後則雲霧填滿峽谷，恰到軌道的高度，列車彷彿行在雲上；人人帶回家的那張照片，正是拍在這樣的清晨。

What the train opens up

The line was not built as a fairground ride. It strings together the parts of the mountain that were previously a long climb apart: the temple, the ridge-top shopping street known as Tianjie or “Sky Street,” and Butterfly Valley. Getting off at the temple is the one stop worth building the day around. Dajueyan Temple sits inside an enormous granite cave — 69 metres deep, 99 wide, 19 high — with the halls built into the mouth of it. It was founded in 326 AD and takes its name from a Tang-dynasty Chan master from Hangzhou’s Lingyin Temple who wandered here to get away from the world; today it holds Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian halls under one roof, which is unusual even in China.

這條線並非為遊樂而建。它把山上原本相隔一段長途攀爬的幾處串在一起：寺院、山脊上的商業街「天街」，以及蝴蝶谷。其中最值得為之安排一整日的，是在寺院站下車。大覺岩寺坐落於一座巨大的花崗岩洞之中——洞深69米、寬99米、高19米——殿宇便建在洞口。寺始建於公元326年，得名於一位自杭州靈隱寺避世雲遊至此的唐代大覺禪師；如今佛、道、儒三殿同處一寺，即便在中國也屬少見。

The rest of the mountain is real wilderness rather than scenery with railings. Dajueshan covers 204 square kilometres against the western flank of the Wuyi range, average elevation around 900 metres, with Hedong Peak the high point at 1,364. Botanists count some 2,483 higher plant species here and 387 vertebrates — clouded leopard, black muntjac, golden eagle. The air is the local boast: annual mean 16.9°C, nearly 1,930 mm of rain, and the county forested to something like 87 per cent.

山的其餘部分是真正的荒野，而非加了欄杆的風景。大覺山面積204平方公里，倚武夷山脈西麓，平均海拔約900米，最高的鶴東峰1,364米。此間記錄有高等植物約2,483種、脊椎動物387種——雲豹、黑麂、金雕皆在其列。空氣是當地最引以為傲的：年均氣溫16.9℃，年降雨近1,930毫米，全縣森林覆蓋率約八成七。

The other thing Dajueshan is known for

Before the train, this mountain’s fame rested entirely on its raft run — 3.6 kilometres of gorge with a total drop of 188 metres and a single fall of nearly 14, run in about an hour, and genuinely wet. It operates in the warm months only and usually on an afternoon schedule, and it books out on summer weekends. Pairing the two is the standard full day here: the train in the cool of the morning, the water after lunch. There is also a glass walkway on the cliff and two cableways of different lengths serving different parts of the mountain — worth sorting out in advance, because which one you want depends on where you intend to end up.

在動車之前，這座山的名聲全繫於漂流——3.6公里峽谷，總落差188米，單級落差近14米，全程約一小時，且是真的會濕透。它只在暖季開放，通常安排在午後，夏季週末一位難求。把兩者相接，便是此地標準的一整日：清涼的上午坐車，午飯後下水。山中另有崖壁玻璃棧道，以及長短不一的兩條索道分別通往不同區域——建議事先理清，因為該搭哪一條，取決於你打算在哪裏落腳。