Live Your Best Lives
Route: Chengdu---- Dujiangyan---- Yingxiu---- Wolong---- Siguniang Mountain---- Jiajin Mountain---- Bamei (Daofu), Tagong-------- Xinduqiao---- Kangding---- Ya'an---- Chengdu
Accommodation: Panda Station Theme Cultural Hotel, Holy Land Image Boutique Theme Hotel, Kangding 360° Impression Hotel, Ya'an Yudu Hotel
Attractions: Dujiangyan, Yingxiu epicenter site, Wolong Giant Panda Garden Shenshuping Base, Siguniang Mountain, Tagong Grassland, Mugecuo Tianchi Scenic Area
to eat: hat vegetables, sauerkraut elbows, wild mushrooms, yak meat, Yayu, ice powder.
Explore the road untraveled with curiosity!
The small ring line in western Sichuan refers to Chengdu---- Dujiangyan---- Yingxiu---- Wolong---- Siguniang Mountain---- Danba---- Bamei (Daofu), ----Tagong---- Xinduqiao---- Kangding---- Ya'an---- Chengdu. The ring line consists of National Highway 350 (Dujiangyan-Bamei), National Highway 248 (Bamei-Xinduqiao) and National Highway 318 (Xinduqiao-Ya'an), with a total distance of about 800 kilometers. National Highway 350 is also called Panda Avenue because it passes through a panda habitat and many panda bases. the section from National Highway 248 Yamei to Xindu Bridge is a grassland on the plateau; National Highway 318 is the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, which is the most popular route for self-driving and cycling from Chengdu to Lhasa, Tibet. The small ring line has beautiful scenery, passing through mountains above 4,000 meters above sea level, and you can watch snow-capped mountains and grasslands on the way, and enjoy the unique scenery of the plateau. There are many scenic spots on the Small Loop Line that are worth seeing and exploring. It should be reminded that this route belongs to a relatively high altitude route, and you need to consider altitude sickness, prepare some chocolate and other foods and prepare some items to prevent altitude sickness, such as oxygen cylinders, according to your physical condition. It is best to rent a car with a turbocharged T, which also guarantees sufficient power when going to the plateau or climbing mountains.
Book a car online in advance and pick up the car near the airport when you arrive in Chengdu. Many car rental companies have service points at or near the airport, and you can arrange to pick up the car directly at the airport or pick up the car, which is very convenient. You can complete the formalities in a few minutes and drive away. This time, I would like to thank the two handsome guys of Yihi Company for arranging the pick-up and dropping us off at the airport.
From Chengdu to Dujiangyan, the whole journey is high-speed, and it only takes more than 1 hour to drive. We departed from Guangzhou, took a flight at 8 o'clock in the morning, arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport at nearly 11 o'clock, and then went directly to the car rental company store to pick up the car, and immediately set off for Dujiangyan after picking up the car. July is the rainy season in Chengdu, and it has been raining lightly from Chengdu to Dujiangyan, and the visibility is not very good. Fortunately, there was no rain after Dujiangyan, and it was cloudy, so the viewing and taking pictures were a little blurry. After arriving in Dujiangyan, we first parked the car at the hotel and dropped off our luggage, and then had lunch at a noodle restaurant near the hotel. The hotel we booked is in the ancient city of the scenic spot, and there are many restaurants nearby, making it very convenient to eat.
To visit the Dujiangyan Scenic Area, it is best to enter from the Qinyan Tower on the mountain, then walk down the mountain, pass the Erwang Temple, the rope bridge, the fish mouth, the treasure bottle mouth, the flying sand yan and other most worthwhile attractions, and finally come out of the lidui park is the ancient city, and you can walk back to the hotel after passing the ancient city. There are few people at the entrance of Qinyan Tower, and it is easy to walk down the mountain. The Dujiangyan Water Conservancy Project, organized and built by Li Bing, the governor of Shu County, was built in 256 BC and has been playing a role in flood control and irrigation for more than 2,000 years, nourishing the Chengdu Plain. This project contains the wisdom of the ancient working people, and adopts the water control method of diversion instead of building embankments and dams according to local conditions. They made full use of the vast advantages of the plain and used the construction of fish mouths to carry out the first diversion, dividing the inner river and the outer river; The second diversion of the outer river water is carried out by carving rocks at Yulei Mountain (Baopingkou), so as to introduce water into the vast Chengdu Plain, which not only avoids flooding caused by excessive concentration of water but also flows water to different places for irrigation, killing two birds with one stone. After lunch, we went to Dujiangyan Scenic Area, from the hotel to the entrance of Qinyan Building in the scenic area, and the fare was 6 yuan. Book a ticket online the day before and swipe your ID card directly to enter the park. Qinyan Tower is the highest point of the scenic spot, where you can overlook the entire water conservancy project and have a wide view. Walking down from Qinyan Tower is the Erwang Temple, which is a thousand-year-old temple. After passing through the Erwang Temple, you will come to the river at the foot of the mountain, and walk across the rope bridge to the fish mouth. It is about 1 km from Yuzui to Baopingguchi, and if you don't want to walk, you can take a sightseeing car. At the mouth of the treasure bottle, you can also enjoy the scenery of the flying sand weir. After passing the Waijiang Rope Bridge at the mouth of the treasure bottle, you will arrive at Lidui Park. Coming out of the park is the ancient city, lined with shops and antique. There are also many restaurants here, and when we came out, it was already past five o'clock in the afternoon, so we found a restaurant for hat dishes and had a sumptuous dinner. After coming out of the restaurant, I arrived at the hotel where I was staying within a few steps.
next morning, after breakfast at the hotel restaurant, after about half an hour's drive, we got off the Duwen Expressway to Yingxiu Town.Yingxiu was severely damaged in the 2008 earthquake, and all the houses were basically collapsed to the ground, leaving Xuankou Middle School, which was slightly damaged, as the epicenter site. The site is free to visit and has a special explanation. I am very happy to see the new Yingxiu Town built with the aid of Dongguan, Guangdong, with well-planned roads, clean streets, beautiful houses, small courtyards, and flowers and plants. Many houses have opened homestays for tourists to live and play.
It took us about an hour to visit the epicenter site, and immediately went to the Wolongyuan Shenshuping Panda Base via Panda Avenue (National Highway 350), arriving at about half past ten. Go to the ticket office to pick up your ticket first, and then drive up the hill to the ticket gate yourself. As a special reminder, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic this year, you need to show a health code and take your temperature when arriving at the attraction. The parking lot at the ticket office is free, but the ticket office is about 2.3 kilometers away from the scenic spot, and there is a sightseeing car to sit on, 20 yuan per person. Drive yourself to the private parking lot at the ticket gate, and the parking fee is 10 yuan. The best time to visit the panda base is 9:00~11:00 a.m., 14:30~17:00, which is the time for the cute gods to eat bamboo and drink panpan milk, and the baby panda is most active at this time. Yuanshen Shuping Base is located in Gengda Town, Wolong Nature Reserve, on the side of National Highway 350, at an altitude of 1,700 meters, the base covers an area of 150 hectares, strolling in the giant panda garden, green mountains are hidden, green water flows for a long time, full of negative ions, what an enviable living environment. There are many homestays and hotels on the road from the ticket office to the ticket gate, and the roadside is full of flowers and plants, which is very beautiful and a bit of a paradise.
The panda base is divided into a giant panda breeding and breeding visit area, a captive giant panda rewilding training area and a wild release area, as well as a panda museum. What we can visit are the breeding visit area and the museum. There are many pandas here, and since our arrival time is close to 11 o'clock, many pandas have already eaten and slept, and some are still eating bamboo and grass. Whether they are eating or sleeping, the cuteness of the babies is very attractive.
After visiting the panda base, when we came out, we consulted the handsome guy at the ticket gate about the restaurant where the locals were eating, and he introduced the Liu Sange Hongyun Restaurant in the town, and from the base to National Highway 350, it was about 150 meters in the direction of Siguniang Mountain.Sure enough, it's a good restaurant, there are locals eating the wedding banquet, we ordered sauerkraut elbow, pickled pepper beef and greens, the taste is very good, the price is affordable. Leaving the restaurant, we continued to move forward along Panda Avenue towards Siguniang Mountain, increasing in altitude and going uphill all the way. There are high mountains on both sides of the road, the water at the foot of the mountain is panting, and the mountain is shaded by green trees. After crossing the mountains and passing through the tunnel, we arrived at the hotel in Changping Village, Siguniang Mountain at around four o'clock in the afternoon. After checking in, we found a nearby restaurant for dinner and then went back to the hotel to rest.
Changping Village, where the hotel is located, is about 3,300 meters above sea level, and when we checked into the hotel, the waiter specially reminded us not to take a shower and wash our hair that night to avoid altitude sickness. The hotel is equipped with a wooden plate for soaking feet and medicinal liquid, which can soak your feet, and also provides us with rhodiola water to prevent altitude sickness when checking in, and the service is thoughtful. The waiter advised to get up the next morning and take a shower. We all followed the waiter's advice, but at night I still had symptoms of altitude sickness: chest pain, but my companions didn't, probably because I wanted to catch a cold, just get up and take some cold medicine, and then sleep until dawn, get up to take a shower and eat breakfast. We were all very worried that if we didn't get better, it would affect the next day's trip. Fortunately, after checking the relevant information, altitude sickness usually improves the next day, and I was fine that night. I saw several tourists from Guangzhou at the hotel, most of whom did not have altitude sickness, and only one young man felt unwell.
There are three ditches in Siguniang Mountain: Shuangqiaogou, Changpinggou and Haizigou. The scenery of Shuangqiaogou is the most beautiful, but the road in Shuangqiaogou Scenic Area was washed away by the flood on June 27 and was closed and not yet open, so we had to choose to go to Changpinggou. Our hotel is just in Changping Village at the mouth of Changpinggou, only about 300 meters away from the Changpinggou ticket office. Why did we choose a hotel in Changping Village? The reason is that the low potential here is wider than that of Shuangqiaogou, which is convenient for parking and there are more hotels; In addition, we are also worried about mudslides on rainy days, so we look for hotels located in open areas for safety.
After breakfast at the hotel, walk to the ticket office in Changpinggou, book tickets online without picking up tickets, and directly swipe your ID card to take the sightseeing bus of the scenic spot to enter the scenic spot. The ticket office is about 8 kilometers to the scenic spot, take the scenic sightseeing bus to enter the scenic spot, and after getting off the bus, there is a plank road about 8 kilometers long. At the end of the plank road is a dirt road, which is more difficult to walk, and ordinary tourists will not continue to move forward, so they can choose to ride horses to the foot of Siguniang Mountain, which is relatively expensive. Some donkey friends who hike or climb will continue to move on, and they will need to purchase a separate hiking ticket and register. At the end of the plank road, you need to return the same way, of course, you can also consider riding a horse back, riding a horse needs to be charged separately, the cost is about 150 yuan/person.
Siguniang Mountain is located in Rilong Town, Xiaojin County, Aba Prefecture, and is composed of 4 peaks covered with snow for many years, like the first batch of four handsome girls with white gauze makeup. It stands on the two galaxies of Changpinggou and Haizigou in turn, and the highest peak, Yaomei Peak, is 6,250 meters above sea level.Get off the sightseeing bus, enter the plank road, go upstream along the water flow of Changpinggou, pass by the Chongchongjiao Waterfall, dry tree beach, and enjoy the water, waterfalls, primeval forests and snow-capped mountains along the way. The whole journey takes 5~6 hours, and there are no restaurants or canteens in the scenic area. We have dry food and water on hand to replenish energy and water during breaks. It's a bit of a pity that the snow-capped mountains have always been foggy, and the girls are shy and always wear veils, which failed to let us see the beauty. We finished the tour at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, took the sightseeing bus to the door of the hotel, and had dinner at the hotel restaurant in the evening, and the food was wild mushroom chicken hot pot.
The next itinerary was originally to follow National Highway 350 via Danba to Bamei Town in Daofu County, and along the way you can see beautiful attractions such as Siguniang Mountain, Yala Snow Mountain, and Tibetan Village. When setting up the navigation, it was found that Xiaojin's National Highway 350 could not be walked due to the collapse, so it was necessary to take a detour to Ya'an, pass through Kangding and then to Daofu, and take National Highway 318 in advance, with a total distance of about 330 kilometers and 9 hours and 50 minutes. Leaving Changping Village, turn to National Highway 351 in Shuangqiaogou, passing through Jiajinshan Forest Park and Jiajin Mountain, the first snow-capped mountain climbed by the Red Army's Long March. There were many landslides along the way, one of which waited for about 30 minutes for construction and cleanup, and when I was about to reach the Muya Pass at an altitude of 4,114 meters above sea level in Jiajin Mountain, there was a more serious landslide, and I waited here for more than 2 hours. After crossing the mountain pass, I went to Ya'an on the highway through Baoxing County, and it was already more than five o'clock in the afternoon to Kangding. It is already dusk when you go up to the viewing platform of Zheduo Mountain, and you are fortunate to see the beautiful scenery at dusk. Then concentrate on the road, passing through the charming Xindu Bridge and Tagong Town. Arrived at the hotel at 9 pm. Dinner is barbecue and copying.
Return along National Highway 248 the next day, passing through Tagong Grassland. The road from Bamei to Tagong is a grassland on a plateau, where there is abundant water, gurgling streams, and herds of cattle and sheep.It was dark the night before, so I couldn't enjoy the view. In the morning, the sun rises, the fog gradually dissipates, and the beautiful scenery on both sides of the road is presented one by one, so we slow down and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way. Park and climb to the top of the hill in the Tagong grassland, where the beautiful scenery of the grassland is in full view, and the Yala Snow Mountain in the distance also shows its true face.
Lunch in Xinduqiao Town at noon, and entered a restaurant in the town to find locals to eat, and ordered yak meat wild mushroom hot pot. The owner of the restaurant is a native of Chengdu, who used to work in Houjie, Dongguan, and now has a successful career, his son is doing a small business in Chengdu, his daughter is in college in Chengdu, and the two couples are running a restaurant in Xinduqiao Town, a very happy family.
After lunch, enter the photography paradise Xindu Bridge and experience the beautiful scenery along the 318 line. The magical light, endless grasslands, winding streams, and rolling mountains form a colorful world. The traffic on National Highway 318 is like crucian carp, and tourists are surging. There are many observation decks on both sides of the national highway for passing vehicles to stop and take pictures. We stopped as we walked and returned to Kangding at 4 p.m. to check in to the hotel.
The next day, I got up very early, had breakfast, and left Kangding city before going to work to go to Mugecuo Scenic Area. Kangding City is located in the eastern part of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province and is the capital of Ganzi Prefecture. Kangding has a long and splendid history and culture, and is the throat of Sichuan and Tibet. The urban area is located on a ravine between the mountains, with limited space, few parking spaces, and crowded roads. So we need to leave the city before the rush hour to save time on the road. It is about 20 kilometers from the hotel to Mugecuo Scenic Area, and it takes about 30 minutes by car.We arrived at the ticket office of the scenic spot at 8 o'clock and bought sightseeing tickets in the ticket hall. At this time, there are not many tourists, so you can park your car directly at the door of the ticket hall, which is very convenient. Kangding is an area built with the support of Jiangmen, Guangdong, so the scenic spot has discounts for tickets for tourists with household registration in Guangdong.
It takes about 30 minutes to take the scenic sightseeing bus from the ticket office directly to the top of the mountain. Listen to the tour guide explain the poignant love story of Tashi and Dolma on the bus. Mugecso is the largest mountain lake in northwest Sichuan, with an altitude of 3,780 meters. Take a car to the lake at the top of the mountain, take pictures and enjoy the lake and mountains, you can also take a boat tour of the lake, and then walk down the trail, passing by the Meditation Pool, Rhododendron Gorge, Medicine Pool Boiling Spring, Waterfall Group, Seven Colors Sea, Sandie Spring, Welcome Stone, Songluo Viewing Area, etc. are all excellent attractions. Due to the large drop, the water rushed down and thousands of horses galloped. There are many wild mushrooms on both sides of the trail along the way, and we are not locals who dare not pick them, but many of them can be seen in front of the restaurant. It is about 8 kilometers from the top of the lake to the Seven Colored Sea, and it takes about 3 hours. The boiling spring of the medicine pool can soak our feet, due to time constraints, we did not stop, we went directly to the Seven Colors Sea Restaurant for lunch, and after lunch, we took the scenic sightseeing bus back to the foot of the mountain. Then drive to Ya'an.
From Kangding to the Yakang Expressway, the first thing you pass through is a 30-kilometer tunnel group.Yakang Expressway is a masterpiece in the history of roads and bridges. The bridge-tunnel ratio is more than 80%, from more than 2,000 meters above sea level in Kangding to about 1,000 meters above sea level in Ya'an, the whole process is downhill, with a drop of 7.5 meters per kilometer. After more than 2 hours, we arrived at Ya'an Yudu Hotel, which is a hotel with a history of more than 20 years, the hardware and software are good, and the stay is very comfortable. After parking the car at the hotel and checking in, we went to Ya'an city to visit the city, and ate the famous local snack ice powder. Then I went back to the hotel for dinner and ordered the most famous Yayu set, which was delicious. Ya'an has three Ya: Yayu, Yanu and Yayu. Yayu is because Ya'an rains more than 280 days a year, so it is also particularly suitable for the growth of tea, rich in tea; Yanu has a humid climate here, and girls' skin is particularly good; Yayu is a local specialty fish that is delicious.
Enjoy a sumptuous breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant the next day before driving back to Chengdu. After returning the car at the store, go directly to the airport and take the afternoon flight back to Guangzhou to end the journey successfully.
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