Hukou Waterfall (壶口瀑布 - Hǔkǒu Pùbù)

Rem Sapozhnikov / April 2014

Hukou is the second largest waterfall in the Celestial Empire after Huangguoshu in the province of Guizhou, where I was in 2011. Hukou Waterfall is located on the river Huanghe (黄河 - Huǎnghé) at the border of the provinces Shanxi and Shaanxi.

Not long ago, to get to the waterfall was a long and uncomfortable trip. At best, the trip took 4 to 6 hours each way, and even more. Now the way from the hotel to the tourist center of the waterfall on the new toll road took 1 hour 50 minutes (and that's with a 10 minutes stop!)

Exit to the toll road from the city of Linfen.

For a trip to the waterfall, I bought a tour in the company, located right in front of the old train station. The tour cost is 210 yuan (1,240 roubles or 34 USD). The price includes transportation from the hotel to the waterfall and back in the minivan, as well as an entrance ticket. The tour was Chinese. Neither the guide nor 7 Chinese tourist-fellow travelers spoke Russian or English.

The first ten kilometers the toll road runs along the new high-speed railway lines, which I could not help but take pictures.

Point of rest with a toilet, small shop, and something else (I did not go see). On the opposite side of the road there is the exact same point for vehicles moving in the opposite direction.

In 70 kilometers in the direction of Huanghe I saw another identical to this point of rest.

Tourist center. From this place, the tourists are taken on electric vehicles along the Huanghe river to the Hukou Waterfall.

Here I was surprised by one short bald man. In the photograph he is in a light jacket on a bench on the right. This Chinese is able to speak one sentence in Russian: "China and Russia are great friends". He pronounced it with absolutely no accent, perfectly pronouncing the Russian snarling letter R. Alas, I could not figure out how he knows this phrase and how he learned that I was Russian.

Entrance ticket. Since it is for the tourists in the group, the price is not indicated.

It is believed that April is not the best time to visit Hukou. To admire the waterfall, it is preferable to come in the summer - in the rainy season, or shortly afterwards, when the Yellow River, which originates in the Tibetan plateau, is further filled with water by melting snow there.

Electric vehicle brings tourists to the parking lot in front of the entrance gates to the waterfall, where they check tickets. The guide gave an hour for seeing and said by what time it is necessary to go back.

This hill is the entrance to the cave. A spiral staircase leads down to the observation platform, carved in the rock slightly below the middle level of the water fall.

Entrance fee to the observation deck is 20 yuan.

At the platform there are a lot of tourists, and even more sprays from the falls. There are official photographers there, who can capture the memory of tourists, who came without a camera on a Hukou background. One of my fellow travelers of the group of tourists kindly offered to take my picture on my camera on the background of a waterfall.

Hukou Waterfall. Height is 20 meters. The name translates as "the kettle nose". The power and the force, with which the water falls here from the rocks, reminded the author of the name the boiling water pouring from the kettle.

Video of Hukou Waterfall. Size: 14Mb.