Will do, no worries. Depending on the weather either this or next weekend, just a saturday to sunday thingy.
Went to Heilongtan on a whim yesterday and have good and bad news about the place.
Good news are that the river and the swimming holes are great, did a bit of river tracing with Chung, which happened to set up camp next to me - and that was without anything arranged beforehand!
Facilities are OK, but old. There’s a shop of kind, where they have the msot basic stuff.
Bad news are that the owner of the campsite has rented a piece of land to some gangsters (expensive cars, big dragon tatoos, young chicks hanging around, the works), who have built their weekend getaway there. Their outdoor stereo would be sufficient for a Rolling stones concert. They had a party there yesterday. The party started with burning of ghost money(?!? - one of their pals drowned there in a C-meth fuelled swim?), after which they put on crappy Taiwanese tecno - setting very loud - ate some C-meth or extacy, and partied to 10AM. It was very very very very noisy. They kept loud music on almost continously to around 4 PM.
Therefore, if you ever go camping there, don’t camp anywhere near the place with the huts. Keep driving on the concrete road for as long as it will take you and camp in the rear, where there’s a toilet and a water source. You will have a ridge between yourself and the gangsters, and that solves the noise problem. Chung found another closer place, but I still think that you would hear the bass from there.
Adn a word of warning. Don’t even think of camping near the ugly red hut with white corners. They party hard there, and they start that when the rest of us go to bed.
Thanks. That’s one place I will never bother going to except for a day hike. Let’s see how long business lasts with that kind of shit going on. 
[quote=“Mr He”]
Bad news are that the owner of the campsite has rented a piece of land to some gangsters (expensive card, big dragon tatoos, young chicks hanging around, the works), who have built their weekend getaway there.[/quote]Good grief, how can these people be so goddam stupid? 
Taiwan, where the greed of the few always comes before the needs of the many. 
I think the gangsters are paying a fair bit of money for the privilege, Rent, cleaning, entrance etc. The campsite owner therefore does not have a real incentive to keep them under control. When it comes to the rest of the campers, note that most markers pointing toward any campsite in the area starting from Pinglin point toward Heilongtan - IE if you end up anywhere near Pinglin, you will see signage on the official road signs pointing toward them. No other campsites have that privilege.
That should ensure a supply of one night stay suckers.
Also, right at the turnoff, you will see that they have put up a huge white wood board singing the praises of the place - I thought that odd, given the fact that the only ones driving there were people headed for the campsite.
Is there any kind of shop or store at HLT? If yes what can I buy there?
There is a kind of store there.
They have instant noodles, a bit of barbecue stuff, beer and the like.
It’s OK for camping, if you really go to the rear.
[quote=“Mr He”]There is a kind of store there.
They have instant noodles, a bit of barbecue stuff, beer and the like.
It’s OK for camping, if you really go to the rear.[/quote]
No, I’m not going to camp there, but will be passing through on my Muzha to Daxi hike. If they have any food it will be handy so I don’t need to carry so much. I’ll camp further down at the junction of the two rivers at the Zhang Family campsite.
BBQ stuff? You mean the stuff to BBQ with, or meat and veggies?
meat would be limited to canned pork and similar stuff, you can call a day in advance and ask them to shop for you.
Veggies - they do a bit of cooking there, they might have some - I had problems separating their cooking stash from their selling stash.
How many days do you reckon the hike will take?
[quote=“Mr He”]meat would be limited to canned pork and similar stuff, you can call a day in advance and ask them to shop for you.
Veggies - they do a bit of cooking there, they might have some - I had problems separating their cooking stash from their selling stash.
How many days do you reckon the hike will take?[/quote]
4 days.
Their cooking stash? Does that mean they have a little restaurant there?
If you order ahead, something could be arranged.
At least that was what they told me.
[quote=“Mr He”]If you order ahead, something could be arranged.
At least that was what they told me.[/quote]
Good to know. Thanks.
MM, I visited the Zhang family campsite, and really the HLT site is much nicer. Think about it.
Brian
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]MM, I visited the Zhang family campsite, and really the HLT site is much nicer. Think about it.
Brian[/quote]
Think about what? Having gangsters keep me awake all night? No thanks.
Besides, I am only using the campground to sleep in. I’ll be arriving late, and leaving early. And the Zhang is right by the massive swimming hole.
Mucha man, the camp site is huge, you can go down near the back, and there will be a mountain ridge between you and the gangsters. So yes, you can hide.
Note that I don’t have any empiric evidence that it’s every friggin weekend. I don’t plan to try it out, but it might just be 1-2 times per month or year. I don’t plan to brave it though, so will be camping near the back.
I’m pleased to report, that two years later there were no dance parties when I went there a few weeks ago. It was great.