Liming (黎明) Rock Climbing

2022 update note: It is best to download the rakkup guidebook that Mike Dobie has compiled and continuously updates (see link below). As of February 2022 there were more than 300 trad and sport routes covered by Mike’s Liming guide. These Mountain Project pages cover just a few of the trad climbs and trad climbing sectors. More recently, there has been substantial development of Limning sport crags. For example, of the 300+ climbs in the guidebook nearly 120 are sport routes, including many open projects.

Gorgeous sandstone walls rise above the village of Liming, featuring beautiful cracks that beg to be climbed. And with recent exploration, a wealth of high-quality sport climb has been developed on a few different rock types. With over 450 pitches established and a massive wealth of untapped potential, there is no shortage of world-class climbing.

In contrast to the cracks of Indian Creek, the cracks of Liming usually vary in size from jam to jam, piece to piece and actually have difficult crux moves. It's not rare for a single crack to have everything from fingers to off-width. There is everything from hard, clean single pitch routes to adventurous multi-pitch routes that demand the full arsenal of crack techniques. While vegetation climbing is integral to the Li Ming experience, established classics have cleaned up beautifully. Whether you are looking for full-out adventure, punishingly difficult trad or sport lines or casual roadside cragging, Li Ming has the goods.The climbing here is extremely varied. There are many fun routes in the 5.7 to 5.9 range, making Liming a good place to begin a crack climbing career. The majority of established routes are in the 5.10 to 5.11 range, many of which are clean and classic. There are dozens of beautiful 5.12s that demand a diverse skill set - from perfect finger cracks to offwidth roofs, from technical face to sustained dihedrals. And for the crushers out there, Liming has many high-end testpieces offering some of the hardest continuous crack climbing in the world and modern technical lines following discontinuous cracks. There are countless new hard lines waiting for discovery. Some are already cleaned and equipped just looking for a free ascent. And for the climbers that prefer long adventurous routes, there are many top-out routes between 150 and 200 meters with a lifetime of potential yet unexplored.

Beyond the Danxia sandstone, there are additional rock types that have been developed in the area, including a type of dolomitic sandstone and even granite. The new type of sandstone can be compared to the steep sport climbing in La Mojarra, Colombia. A newer mega-crag named El Dorado has been started and could become one of the largest sport climbing walls in China.

Liming is truly unique in its variety of rock types and styles of climbing. Pack the rack and the quickdraws and bring an over-sized crack shoe and a well-sized sport shoe and climb lots of great rock in one of the gems of the globe.

The most recent guide book is now available as a mobile app and can be purchased at rakkup.com.