There are two accessible "peaks" of mountain you can choose: First, the 2500-m altitude that hosts Gantong Temple, Zhongho Temple and "Cloud Traveler's Path" that lies between the two temples. To reach here, you have options of:
- taking a cable car from the city (near Guan Yin Temple) to get to Gantong Temple; or riding a horse to Zhongho Temple from Dali Tianlongbabu TV City; or walking up (1½ hours) to the somewhat middle of Cloud Traveler's path from Dali Tianlongbabu TV City; or
- riding a horse or walking up (1½ hours) to Zhongho temple from the city (from the gate across Ren Min Lu street).
Second, the 3700-m altitude that hosts Horse Washing Pool. To reach here, you can use the cable car from Dali Tianlongbabu TV City or use cable car in direction of Gantong Temple and walk the Cloud Traveler's Path for around 3 km until you find a chairlift service and then take chairlift to Horse Washing Pool.
As the cable car to get to Horse Washing Pond is really pricey (¥285 for return as of January 2014), the most economical (yet still fascinating) hike to the mountain is to hike to and walk the Cloud Traveler's Path with the following route options:
- The northern route of 6 km of path offers one of the sharpest cliff views of the entire Dali valley, and on a clear day you can see Jizu Mountain well beyond Erhai lake. At the bend in the main valley it also offers a path up the mountains for 2 km which ends at a mountain pool where you can take a swim on a warm day.
- The southern route winds down for 11 km through a few valleys to Gantong temple. This hike will lead you to most of the sights mentioned below and will take 4–5 hours. You can even turn this into an 8 hour hike if you continue southwards Xiaguan along good paths (with several early exit points down the mountain) and enjoy the spectacular view.
- A suggested route would be to hike to Zhonghe Temple (by walking or riding horse), take the northern path for 3 km enjoying the clearest view of the entire valley, then head back south past Zhonghe Temple towards Gantong Temple. You can buy refreshments at the temple, so take a break, then keep walking the full 11 km until you reach Gangtong. If you are not up to the full walk, you can exit the mountain about 3 km past Zhonghe Temple down a well made stairway behind Dali Tianlongbabu TV City. If you are planning to get down using cable car at Gantong Temple, make sure you reach there before 16:30 (the cable car service closes at 17:00 but they may close earlier than that), otherwise there is a path to climb down (even though the map on your ticket only shows that the only way to get down is by cable car) to get back to city for about 1–2 hours hike down.
Entrance to the Mountain Park costs ¥30 and the cable car from/to Gantong Temple: ¥80 round trip or ¥50 one way. A taxi to/from Gantong temple (about 8 km south of the old town) is ¥30. If you are particularly dedicated, you can gain an access (also ¥30) to the mountain by taking a longer route behind the One Pagoda (follow the stone road) and up the stairway behind the Dali Tianlongbabu TV City.
