Degree of Difficulty: 3 (easy for regular hikers)

Pick up: 8:30 am outside Starbucks at Lido Hotel or 9:00 am at Capital Paradise (front gate).

Return: 5:00 pm

Where: Ping Gu County, east of Beijing.

Driving time: one-and-a-half hours.

Walking time: three hours.

About the village:

Over the hills from the war tunnels, through a landscape that rolls like the Yorkshire Moors sits a not-quite deserted village.

There are a couple of old shepherds there, but most of the houses are in ruins.

Actually it's not surprising its deserted, it takes a six-kilometre ride up a dirt road to get there, and there is not enough farmland to support many people, especially as the stream has dried up.

But it is a great place to take photos, especially at dusk when the ruins look ghostly on the skyline.

Heading on from the village, through a valley overgrown with giant weeds you go up the hill then go down a prickly slope passing holes in the rock face.These were small gold mines, worked by individuals.

The holes are deep and if you go in you do not come out, unless you are a local. The holes are not high enough to stand up in,which is why everyone around here walks with a stoop if they are over four foot tall.

There is a big mine at the other end of the village that sits at the bottom of the hill. This mine is so big they drive trucks into it.

The route: You will visit the war tunnels first. They were built to fight guerrilla war with the Japanese, but they never came down from the mountains. So the tunnels were never used, and they are there to this day, a nice weird place to go on a rainy day.

You can run around the narrow maze of tunnels under the village, coming up to the surface in all sorts of unexpected places.

Cost: 150 yuan (US$18) per person.

To join BJ Hikers and sign up:

Please mail to huilin@bjhikers.com or Call Huilin at 1370 100 3694. Reservation is essential.

Cancellation: If you signed up for a trip and couldn't make it, please cancel 24 hours before the trip, so that the organizer can give the seat to someone else.

Safety: BJ Hikers is not responsible for any accidents, injuries or losses incurred on the hikes and on the bus.

(Beijing Weekend December 17, 2002)