DAY 3

Silver Fox Cave (Fangshan)

The ferrymen who ply tourists along two of Silver Fox Cave's subterranean streams enhance the caverns' Hades feel. These waterways flow 160 meters underground, like a Chinese answer to the River Styx.

Also ghostly is its namesake - the apparitional Silver Fox stalactite. It appears as an underworld rendition of the canine from which it takes its name.

The frosty formation is one of Earth's only such structures.

Visitors exit by hopping aboard a train that clatters over underground tracks.

Stone Forest Canyon (Pinggu)

Perhaps the best vessel aboard which to view Stone Forest Canyon is Beijing's "UFO". The glass sightseeing platform that hovers over the scenic site takes its nickname from its resemblance to a flying saucer.

It truly is out of this world - or at least exceptionally high above this slice of unearthly terrain.

And it does feel like you're flying. (And may instill a strong fear of falling if you fear heights.)

The ravine in the Huangsongyu Geological Park takes its designation from the thickets of stone spires that resemble groves of tree trunks. The trunks of actual trees twist horizontally from the vertical-rock juts, seeming to defy gravity.

These rock daggers are geology's high rises in the capital's outer trajectory.

They slice the skyline to house the allure of Beijing's hinterlands, which protrudes far from the skyscrapers near the city's nucleus.

Not to say downtown towers aren't great. But the municipality rises above, outside.

Contact the writer at erik_nilsson@chinadaily.com.cn

China Daily explores three-day itineraries in cities around the country in this series.