Shenxianju Scenic Spot

That's especially when crossing sections where the platform is constructed with reinforced bars spaced just an inch apart, meaning there's more empty space beneath your feet than solid support, not to mention glass-bottomed viewing platforms that offer even clearer views of how far it is down to the ground.

Those who brave the hike are rewarded with views of colossal columns crowned with snarled evergreens.

If not the Home of the Immortals, Shenxianju is at least their rockery, replete with bonsai.

But Xianju's appeal extends beyond geology to anthropology. Perhaps the most celebrated is Potan, a Tang Dynasty (618-907) port settlement along the Yong'an River that peaked in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), after which railways and mega bridges purloined its glory as a logistics hub.

It was a bustling commerce center and something of a sin city, with its famous Spring Flowers brothel, pawnshops and casino clusters. It also hosted temples for atonement after stints of depravity.

[Photo/zjshenxianju.com]

Today, it's a sleepy community for elderly farmers. Despite Potan's history as a commercial livewire, nary a store is to be found among the crumbling buildings. The only retail seems to be the occasional hunched granny hawking fresh eggs from basins.

That, plus its scarcely renovated houses constructed from uncut stone and rough wood planks makes it a delightful antithesis to the Disney-fied "ancient" towns found throughout the region－where original buildings are demolished and rebuilt, and residents relocated to make way for kitschy shops pushing mass-produced trinkets.

Its authentic allure is truly natural－like the rest of Xianju.