Hi! If you wanna avoid steps, definitely take the east entrance (Jinsha Ropeway) as the south entrance is lower down the mountain and you will have to climb more. The route is like this - when u start from the ropeway, there r some options u can take, looping clockwise or anti-clockwise back to the rope way. I can't remember what direction was mine but we walked for about 20 to 30 min on flat ground then many stairs up to the python. Thereafter if u wanna move on to sunshine cost and west coast where there r lots of flat ground u can, but do rem there r always staircases and the whole loop take 6 to 7 hrs. yes u can always do part of the trail and then go back the way u came...u would still see nice scenery. time yourself, assess ur fitness level and decide on a turn back point. in my case I hadn't planned on completing the whole loop. but as I progressed I felt like i would rather climb in a new place than go back the way i came. Take it easy, even going up the steps, I rested every 25 steps. it really does test ur perseverance.

The usual hike up the mountain and back to the cable car area is around 90 minutes.

HI there r certain stretches of Sanqingshan tt have flights after flights of stairs...however u can always slow down like we did....rest every 25 steps....this mountain needs perseverance...at one stretch the stairs were steeper but there were chains to hang on to. There r many senior folks fr China there so it is doable for a 70 year old. But be prepared to sweat. There r also long stretches where it is just flat ground and u enjoy the stunning scenery...give ourselves at least 7 hrs to complete the whole loop...

can do, but will be a hurried tour

If you mean "Shanghai," the answer is that it's about 2.5 hours on the train to Shangrao, and then an hour or so by bus/car/shuttle to the mountain. Well worth it, however.

On the south side, from the bottom to where the cable car goes would take between 1 and two hours to walk at least. From the top of the cable car on the south side, there are two loops. We did the West one in the morning and the East one in the afternoon. We went pretty much everywhere, but it took from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you have half a day, I would recommend taking the cable car, hiking around the east loop, and taking the cable car back down. I wouldn't spend less than half a day there.