Jinling Ancient Stone-Paved Trail

The walk begins at the east edge of 斤岭下村, at the small 牛角桥 (Ox-Horn Bridge) that every account names as the formal start — two enormous old maples flank the path like gatekeepers, their boughs meeting overhead. From here the old road climbs properly: irregular flagstone steps laid by Song-dynasty hands, worn slick and mossy in the hollows, rising through dense bamboo that shuts out most of the light. A stream runs with the path, crossing and re-crossing below it, and every few minutes the canopy opens on another slab of the old 卵石 cobbling. Named landmarks come in order — 小洋岩, the 凿字岩 boulder where a Ming monk is said to have painted 斤岭 in vermilion, the 石门槛 step — before the first rest pavilion, its stone benches a reminder that this was a working road for 挑山工 pack-carriers, not a park path.

Photo suggestion: The lower steps through bamboo, with the stream switching sides of the path, set the whole trail's character — shoot in soft morning light.

Above the first pavilion the trail commits to its steepest sustained run — the roughly one thousand steps that field accounts count before 它山殿. The shrine sits at half height, where the old road met the mountain's shoulder: a Northern-Song hall honouring the water-conservancy god of 它山堰, the same cult as the famous鄞江 weir, with the god, judges and guardian kings inside and a through-pavilion outside where walkers have rested for centuries. Opposite, a small spring-fed pool, the 神泉井, supplies the cold water that generations drank from a bamboo ladle. It is the natural first long stop: stone benches in the shade, the stream audible below, and the upper trail still hidden above the shrine's roof.

Caution: The thousand steps are the hardest stretch of the day — steady rhythm rather than sprints; the stone is steep and slick after rain.

Photo suggestion: The shrine's through-pavilion with the worn steps rising past it reads as the trail's halfway landmark.

Past 它山殿 the character of the trail changes: the accounts say the upper stone lies easier, the pitch gentler, the breeze arriving as you climb toward the ridge. Where the 1982 荷梁线 road cut the old line, walkers follow a worn path between surviving paved sections before the steps return for the final pull. At roughly 480 m the trail breaks out onto the pass, 斗风岭岗 — locally 斤岭顶 — where the ancient rest pavilion site now carries the little 仙姑娘娘庙, and beside it the newer 鹿回头 hexagonal pavilion built for exactly this view. On a clear day the reward is the classic two-way panorama: north over 四明湖, the big reservoir below 梁弄, flat and silver with 余姚's skyline faint on the horizon; south across the folded Siming crests that local writing calls the seventy-two peaks.

Photo suggestion: The pass is the money shot: the hexagonal 鹿回头亭 against the 四明湖 panorama behind it.

斗风岭岗 is a three-way junction with the whole ridge system at your feet. Left and east, the trail descends the far flank to 中姚村 in 鹿亭乡 — the classic through-hike exit, where bus 666 waits on the 荷梁线 below; right, the crest runs toward 东岗山 and the longer forest-park loops. Even if you are doing the out-and-back default, it is worth stepping a few minutes down the east side: the tread changes from the worn 梁弄 stone to a rougher descent, the bamboo thins, and the view turns toward the deep 鹿亭 valleys. This is where the through-hikers' day diverges and the out-and-backers turn for the gentler return they already know.

Caution: If you continue down to 中姚村, confirm the 666 return is running first — the 2026-08 roadwork interrupted the route across the pass.

The way down is the way up, which is the honest trade of an out-and-back on a real ancient trail: you earn the same steps twice, and the second pass gives you what the climb hid — the shrine roof from above, the stream's crossings in the right light, the maples of 牛角桥 appearing through the bamboo as the village sounds return. The descent asks more care than the climb on the worn upper stone; poles help, and the walkers who linger at 它山殿 one more time are the ones who remember the trail as a place rather than a workout. Back at the bridge the village shops sell cold drinks, and 梁弄's farmhouse tables are half an hour down the road.

Photo suggestion: Late afternoon on the lower steps, bamboo light and the maples at the bridge, closes the loop nicely.