Exploring Mountain, River, and Gorge Scenery, Enjoying Ancient Town Charm – Appreciating the Autumn Beauty of Southeastern Chongqing (Yu-Dongnan)

“Boost the dual-city economic circle, enjoy autumn and winter tours in southeastern Chongqing.” In order to deeply implement the “Chengdu-Chongqing Dual-City Economic Circle” strategy and Chongqing's “one circle, two groups” development spirit, the Yu-Dongnan Regional Tourism Collaboration Organization held a three-day large-scale media gathering activity from October 31 to November 2, 2020, showcasing the latest achievements in the integrated development of culture and tourism in the Wuling Mountains area of southeastern Chongqing, and displaying the ecological beauty, life beauty, and production beauty of southeastern Chongqing.

Come and see with me where we went in southeastern Chongqing during these three days~!

Qianjiang – China Gorge City, Wuling Reception Hall

Qianjiang City Grand Canyon is the only urban grand canyon in China, with a rare conglomerate karst cave group in the world. It is 8 kilometers long, with an average depth of 200 meters, the deepest part nearly 500 meters, peaks over 600 meters high, and a drop of 900 meters. It forms a unique urban landscape rarely seen in the world and unique in Asia: “city on the canyon, canyon in the city center.” Integrating “mountains, water, gorges, karst caves, pavilions and temples, and Guanyin statues” into one scenic area, it features a 123-meter-high giant cliff-side Guanyin statue and a suspended glass walkway, earning Qianjiang the reputation of “Oriental Luxembourg, Qianjiang Gorge City.”

Located in the Zhuoshui section of the Puhua River in Qianjiang District, it is a tributary of the Apeng River. The underground river part is about 2 kilometers long, composed of Black Dragon Pool, Ten Thousand Swallow Cave, Three Natural Bridges, and an underground river. Visitors can take a boat tour through the underground river. There is also a large funnel-shaped pit called “Black Dragon Pool” inside the scenic area, with strangely shaped stalactites and stalagmites that seem to be the work of nature itself.

We have always believed that rivers flow from west to east, but the Apeng River is a very special river. It flows from northeast to southwest and meets the Wu River at Gongtan Ancient Town. It is also the only river in China that flows from east to west.

Zhuoshui Ancient Town is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is a rare Tujia water town in the Wuling Mountains area. It is a thousand-year-old ancient town that integrates Tujia stilted diaojiaolou clusters, water transport docks, and commercial market towns. History has left Zhuoshui Ancient Town with numerous cultural relics and local cultural heritage. The interweaving of Ba-Chu culture, Tujia culture, Daxi culture, and Chinese civilization here has formed Zhuoshui Ancient Town’s unique folk customs.

Zhuoshui Ancient Town witnessed the rise and fall of the Ba people and the military campaigns of the Qin people. As a typical old town in Chongqing, Zhuoshui Ancient Town not only has many historical sites and related historical stories but also has accumulated rich cultural connotations over the long course of 4,000 years of history.

The most intact buildings remaining are the residential houses built along the river, that is, the huge Tujia stilted diaojiaolou clusters on the lower street of the ancient town. These diaojiaolou are built on the embankment of the Apeng River. The four-to-five-meter-high embankment is built with stone strips. After more than 200 years of river erosion, those stone embankments have not tilted at all.

Qianjiang has many delicious foods, such as the famous “Qianjiang chicken gizzards,” an essential culinary experience for tourists visiting this place.

The Wind and Rain Bridge (covered bridge) of Zhuoshui Ancient Town in Qianjiang spans the Apeng River. It is 303 meters long and 5 meters wide, said to be the longest covered bridge in Asia. It consists of three parts: bridge, tower, and pavilion.

The bridge body is made of pure wood structure, with building materials connected by mortise and tenon joints, straight and diagonal interlocking, making the structure strong and precise. The bridge has a three-story tower pavilion, with about a hundred carved wooden windows that can be freely opened and closed on both sides.

When the lights are on at night, looking into the distance, a colorful dragon appears in the sky, very spectacular.

Youyang Stacked Stone Flower Valley

Stacked Stone Flower Valley is located in Banxi Town, 12 kilometers south of the urban area of Youyang County, Chongqing. The climate is mild, with no severe cold in winter and no intense heat in summer. The terrain is mainly mountainous and gently hilly, with many stones on the surface and ups and downs, creating the Stacked Stone Flower Valley scenic area with stone as its bone and flower as its appearance. Stacked stone wonders are scattered all over the park, and there are countless delicate flowers.

Stacked Stone Flower Valley covers an area of over 3,000 mu (about 200 hectares), shaped like the character “一” (one). It is divided into two parts: “Stacked Stone Flower Valley” and “Art Tribe.” It features the December God Pillar Stone Array, Stacked Stone Magic Pit, Zipline Canyon Scenic Area, Three Emperor Terrace, Wu Nuo Altar Site, and 24 Opera Gods Bonfire Platform, among others. It is the only stacked stone art theme park and Wu Nuo culture exhibition park in the world.

In Stacked Stone Flower Valley, visitors can admire various novel and precious flower species – Mexican feather grass, pink muhly grass, kochia, chrysanthemums, etc. Immersed here, you can feel the traces of time, listen to the voice of art, overlook the mysterious and ancient sculptures, and appreciate the wisdom and talent of ancient craftsmen. With the deepening autumn atmosphere, the stacked stones and pink muhly grass form a sea – it has become a popular check-in spot in Chongqing!

In the rural art area, you can take a sightseeing car or ride a bicycle to tour around. You will find interesting artistic scenes everywhere, as if you are in a painting. There are art installations made of local firewood; works like “Star Chart,” which places a large number of man-made stone balls in natural stone landscapes.

Xiushan is the prototype of “Border Town” by Shen Congwen, known far and wide for its long history. It is a cultural tourism city in the Wuling Mountains area and an important tourist destination.

The Four-Season Tourist Mountain – Chuanhe Gai Scenic Area is located 15 kilometers northeast of Xiushan County, Chongqing, covering an area of 28 square kilometers.

On the plateau, there are rolling alpine meadows covering tens of thousands of mu, with an average altitude of 1230 meters and an annual average temperature of 12.1 degrees Celsius.

Besides the vast alpine meadows, Chuanhe Gai Scenic Area also features spectacular natural landscapes such as Golden Toad Seeking the Phoenix, General Rock, Comb Mountain, Zhu's Grandmother, Lu Ban Making the Saw, Lotus Blessing Village, Chuanhe Sleeping Buddha, Divine Cave Icefall, Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Divine Turtle, Three Monkeys Gathering, Dragon Cave Terraces, and Four-Cave Gate. It is also a place where the Red Army fought, and the standing Red Army Battle Monument records a piece of red history.

Since 2016, Chuanhe Gai Scenic Area has been built according to the standard of a national 4A-level scenic spot. It has completed projects such as a fast road from the county to the scenic area, a cable car to the top, a tourist center, walking paths, a ring road around the plateau, Starry Sky Hotel, camping base, and colorful slide. It receives 1.3 million visitors annually.

Chuanhe Gai has unique scenery in all seasons: in spring, see the blooming azaleas; in summer, enjoy the cosmos flowers; in autumn, the silver grass flies like snow; in winter, appreciate the northern scenery.

Following the winding mountain road with 45 turns all the way to the top, you can see the vast alpine meadows on the plateau. The flat top is like a natural tabletop given by nature, earning it the name “China Table Mountain.”

In addition to many natural landscapes, the Chuanhe Gai Scenic Area also has the Chuanhe Gai Starry Sky Hotel, which is well worth staying in for an experience. It is a great place for leisure vacation, photography, and sightseeing.

Shizhu, a green ecological pearl embedded at 30 degrees north latitude, with its development concept of “transformation for health and green rise,” relies on the county's 66.48% forest coverage rate and natural advantages such as 3000 negative oxygen ions per cubic centimeter of air, to build a national ecological health resort.

The Wanshou Mountain Scenic Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction, located at the magical latitude of 30 degrees north, on the golden corridor of the eastern Chongqing tourist area. It is conveniently located only 10 kilometers from Shizhu county town. The tourist area covers 308 hectares, with an altitude of 1250-1500 meters, dense vegetation, pleasant climate, and a year-round temperature of 15-25 degrees Celsius.

The scenic area takes the Qin Liangyu Military Camp Site Park as its core. It features the iconic urban landscape of Shizhu County: “Male and Female Stone Pillars”; the ancient battlefield site where Qin Liangyu, the only female general recorded in official history in China, led the Tujia white-spear army to build a camp and defend against enemies; a cliffside plank road about 1000 meters long; and the Shouxian Zen Path scenic spot, which combines danger, wonder, and grandeur, with the largest longevity statue in southwestern China standing tall, surrounded by remnants of Buddhist cliff carvings and countless strange natural caves.

Wanshou Mountain Scenic Area is a mountain cultural ecological sports resort integrating tourism, cultural innovation and inheritance, pastoral experience, site protection and exploration, health and wellness vacation, and forest sports and leisure.

Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County is the only autonomous county in Chongqing with a Miao majority and the largest Miao population in China. It is the Miao village of Chongqing, the Miao village of China, and the Miao village of the world. The national AAAAA-level scenic spot “Ayi River,” the national AAAA-level scenic spots Chiyou Jiuli City, Mowei Mountain, Wujiang Gallery, and other famous attractions are well-known, becoming shining business cards of Pengshui tourism.

The Ayi River Scenic Area is a national AAAAA-level tourist attraction. It has won honors such as “Top Ten Emerging National Ethnic Cultural Tourism Brands,” “Top Ten Golden Self-Driving Routes in China,” and “Top Ten National Cultural Eco-Tourism Scenic Spots.” The scenic area integrates mountains, water, forests, springs, and gorges, combining grandeur, wonder, danger, beauty, and seclusion. The natural scenery here is incomparably beautiful, and the regional customs are uniquely charming.

The natural scenery here is incomparably beautiful, and the regional customs are uniquely charming. It is a famous love healing destination, known as the River of Love for drifting.

Step onto the suspended plank road, overlook the secluded river valley under a line of sky from high above; climb up the thousand-foot precipitous cliffs, look back at the valley from the cliff top, and playfully imitate the cry of apes; ride the first all-outdoor sightseeing elevator in Asia and feel the thrill of rapid descent.

Take a bamboo raft, go upstream, and feast your eyes on the primitive and simple beauty of the Muzi Grand Canyon. Amidst the green water, blue mountains, sparkling waves, and surrounding emerald bamboos, listen to Miao folk love songs echoing in the valley.

Here, you can experience Miao village customs: eat local food, listen to folk songs, dance Miao dances, and perhaps meet a beautiful “Jiao A’yi” at the bonfire party. Here, you can enter a sweet world of love, hang a love lock with your sweetheart, set adrift a message in a bottle, or tie a red ribbon.

You can also put your love message into a wind chime and let it spread in the wind; you can experience exciting drifting, feeling “the heartbeat of men and the scream of women,” and splashing your joy around; you can also choose a sightseeing tram to travel on winding and narrow roads, experiencing a different kind of scenery.

The Baima Mountain Tianchi Lover Scenic Area is located in the southwest of Wulong District, Chongqing, with an average altitude of 1300 meters. The mountains are winding, the sea of clouds is vast, like a fairyland, with an annual average temperature of around 20°C. The pleasant climate produces the well-known “Fairy Red” series of organic teas, famous both at home and abroad.

The scenic area faces Fairy Mountain across the river, with cliffs a thousand feet high and overhanging precipices. The thousand-year-old folk love story of the White Dragon Horse and the Blue-clad Fairy originates here. Standing on the high cliff of the scenic area, you can look down at the rolling green waves of the Wujiang River and fishermen boating; in the distance, you can see the strange peaks of Fairy Mountain and its fairy-like appearance.

The Kiss of the Sky is the core large-scale recreational experience facility in the scenic area. It is the world's only twin interactive flying island. It is built on a cliff edge over 1300 meters high. Each flying island's sightseeing cabin can accommodate 60 people. The two flying islands operate simultaneously, rotating 307.5° counterclockwise and then clockwise back to the original position.

Its exterior design is a couple, namely “White Horse” and “Fairy.” As the main body rotates and rises, the “White Horse” and “Fairy” will rise to a height of 54 meters above the ground, meeting in the air, completing the highest, most affectionate, and most romantic kiss in the sky in the world, with a very beautiful meaning. Boarding the Kiss of the Sky, the two flying islands slowly rotate and rise to a thousand meters high, from where you can overlook the beautiful scenery of Baima Mountain and experience the visual shock brought by the height.

The scenic area takes the love story of the White Dragon Horse and the Blue-clad Fairy as its carrier, Chinese traditional culture as its connotation, and aims to create the fifth major folk love story experience destination in China as its cultural context, building “Baima Mountain in the World” into a national 5A-level scenic spot and an internationally renowned tourist destination, to promote the overall tourism development of Wulong.

The world's unique 8D cinema has an exterior shape like a flying saucer, using a steel frame structure, with a building height of 8.4 meters and a floor area of about 650 square meters. It consists of a 360-degree dome screen, a dynamic platform, and projection equipment, and can accommodate 120 people at the same time to watch the show. Using advanced spectral stereoscopic technology, combined with an advanced dynamic rotating platform, it can realistically simulate flight, dive, fall, rotation, and other stunts. Visitors will be immersed in the scene, following Long Xiaoma and Wu Xiaoxian to travel through the void, shuttle between heaven and earth, and witness their epic love story.

The scenic area also has adventure jungle and other projects suitable for children, making it a good place for family trips.

The Wuling Mountain town cluster in southeastern Chongqing is the region with the most abundant natural ecology, cultural tourism, and health resources in Chongqing. With its beautiful natural landscapes, unique historical culture, and rich ethnic customs, it has gradually developed into a nationally renowned tourist hotspot. It is the face of Chongqing tourism and an important part of the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor.

During the three-day gathering activity, we went deep into the six districts and counties of Wulong, Pengshui, Qianjiang, Youyang, Xiushan, and Shizhu in the Wuling Mountains area of southeastern Chongqing. We deeply experienced representative scenic spots including Qianjiang Zhuoshui Scenic Area, Wulong Baima Mountain Scenic Area, Pengshui Ayi River Scenic Area, Youyang Stacked Stone Flower Valley, and Xiushan Chuanhe Gai Scenic Area. We enjoyed the magnificent and colorful mountain, river, and gorge scenery, the rich ancient town charm, distinctive tourism projects, and cultural and creative products in the Wuling Mountains area of southeastern Chongqing. We also felt the beauty of autumn rhyme shrouded in clouds and mist, and the charm of crystal-clear morning dew, showcasing the elegance of Wuling.

Great beauty in southeastern Chongqing, a tourism and health resort – the Wuling Mountain town cluster in southeastern Chongqing is waiting for you~!