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From Qingliangfeng Toll Station to a Foggy Night at Taizijian
Leaving Qingliangfeng Toll Station, the author drives into fog, stops near Taizijian Station, and camps in the car, wondering about tomorrow's cloud sea.
- Journey details
Date
September 15, 2026Distance
31 kmDrive time
1 h 1 minStops
2 stopsPhotos
1 photosCoordinates blurred to county/township level — only the approximate route is shown.
Photos
The story
The moment the barrier lifted at the Qingliangfeng Toll Station (Qingliangfeng, a mountain in Zhejiang), the air outside the car window changed its smell—damp mountain air mixed with the astringency of pine needles. Just over thirty kilometers, about sixty minutes, more than nine hundred meters of ascent, and the road kept burrowing into the clouds.
Passing Qingliangfeng Town, I could still see eaves and shop signs; the farther in I went, the sparser the signs of people became. Taizijian Rest Stop (Taizijian, a peak in Zhejiang) flashed past, and I only had time to make out a road sign and a small patch of open ground. Higher up, the fog came down.
The fog was absurdly thick. When the headlights reached out, the light was swallowed, and ahead was a blank white; I could see nothing. Ridgelines, woods, distant valleys—all were pasted over by the same dense white. I parked near the Taizijian Rest Stop and simply stopped there, camping in the car.
When the car door opened, cool air burrowed in along my collar. It was only 16°C on the mountain, much colder than down below. Lying wrapped in a sleeping bag, I could hear the wind scraping over the roof, and now and then a sound or two I couldn’t identify. The fog pressed right against the outside of the glass; everything looked blurred. I couldn’t help muttering to myself: would there be a sea of clouds tomorrow?
On my phone I still had a photo of a sea of clouds from before—dark silhouettes of pine woods along a ridgeline, clouds churning layer upon layer, a golden sun piercing through a gap in the clouds and dyeing the sky a blend of blue-purple and warm yellow. The scene was so quiet it seemed like another world. I pulled it up and looked at it for a couple of glances, then felt that today would probably just be like this.
This wasn’t so bad either. I couldn’t see the mountains, but they were there behind the fog; I couldn’t see the stars, but the sky was still overhead. Some nights are simply meant to be unclear—just a little cold, a little quiet, and a car parked halfway up the mountain.