Take your dog with you when you go chasing waterfalls
So many waterfalls in China have signs that prohibit swimming. For me this really sucks, I love swimming under waterfalls. Luckily, there is an area not too far from Shanghai in Zhejiang province that has swimmable waterfalls. Best of all you can take your pooch with you and enjoy the day doing some hiking and waterfall swimming.
I do have to rephrase; I used the word hiking. It’s not really a hike. It is a paved path to each waterfall and most parts are flat. At the beginning and end of the trail, there is a decent number of stairs. We decided to make a day trip of it, I’m sure you could easily find an Airbnb close to the park and make a weekend of it. The park is definitely worth going to and was gorgeous. Best of all there is no entrance fee. We basically parked at a little restaurant on the side of the road and started our journey there.
The waterfalls are located in Zhong Po Shan Forest Park (中坡山森林公园) in Zhejiang Province.
The park starts on the side of the highway. There is also a bathroom where you can change. I believe it is well known to the locals. I have been to this location a few times and every-time I go it seems to becoming a tad more touristy, albeit the last we went was during dragon boat festival.
At the beginning you will get to a little area where you can get into the water. There were no waterfalls, but for some reason this area is usually the busiest. If you keep going a little further, you will get to some beautiful waterfalls. When we headed even further into the park the people start to die off and we had many waterfalls to ourselves.
The park’s main waterfalls are very large and beautiful, but not swimmable. We walked to these waterfalls and took pictures, but the best part is that along the way there are many smaller waterfalls that you can stop and swim in. We always end up hiking a little and stopping to swim and repeat. It makes hiking in the summer heat and humidity bearable. The water is cold and refreshing on a hot day.
There are signs throughout the park to help you navigate and a very distinct path to follow. Even with that there are many forks in the road and not all exits will lead to the same place. Maybe best to drop yourself a pin to where your car is parked. The first time we went we were lucky that the exit we exited from was only 200m from where we entered. Not too much extra walking required.
Important note: The pathway has a lot of stairs, and these can be slippery. I don’t recommend flip flops! I always wear my water shoes and never have a problem.
