Explore Jinfo Mountain, the Summer Resort in Nanchuan, Chongqing – Experience the Fairy-tale Natural Scenery

Even though Autumn has begun, the scorching summer is not over yet. The sun is still shining brightly outside, and escaping the heat remains the top priority for summer vacation trips! Where to go around Chongqing? After much thought, Jinfo Mountain is a good choice, whether for a family trip or landscape photography—it's a mystical paradise!

As soon as summer arrives, Chongqing is nicknamed the 'furnace.' I never imagined the mountain temperature could be so cool, especially on the night we photographed the Milky Way, shivering from the cold and regretting not bringing a down jacket! This was the first time in a long while, living deep in the city, that I saw the Milky Way—a sky full of stars visible to the naked eye. Elsewhere, such weather is rare, but on Jinfo Mountain, every night was like this...

Since we didn't scout the location during the day, we had to search in pitch darkness at night. Jinfo Temple is a landmark building, so I took these two photos from the north and south.

The distinctive tree in front of Jinfo Temple was also frozen forever under that starry sky. If you can't find a good foreground, a person is the best. This photo of my little one standing under the brilliant starry sky is probably her first group photo with the Milky Way. I hope to have more opportunities in the future to show her a bigger world and richer natural landscapes. Personal experience is always more real and fitting than textbooks!

Day 1: Chongqing - Tianxing Town - Check into Tianxing Holiday Hotel

Day 2: Tianxing Town - Shenlong Gorge Scenic Area - Check into Tianxing Liangjiang Holiday Hotel

Day 3: Tianxing Town - Jinfo Mountain Scenic Area - Check into Liangjiang Hilltop Hotel

Day 4: Jinfo Mountain Scenic Area - Check into Liangjiang Hilltop Hotel

Specific Attractions - Tianxing Town

Every holiday is a time for kids to have fun. This time, we chose Jinfo Mountain Scenic Area in Nanchuan District, Chongqing, as a summer resort. It was also our first visit to Tianxing Resort. 'Healthy slow living' is the true motto here. Tianxing Town is at the foot of Jinfo Mountain and is the first stop for many tourists visiting Jinfo Mountain. The elegant and quaint original town has a commercial street where entertainment and food fill every corner.

Besides strolling around Tianxing Town, you can also taste various dishes featuring square bamboo shoots. If time permits, visit the Karst Museum, experience Tianxing Hot Spring City, or enjoy starry camping—this is the perfect vacation life!

As the sunset glow fades and lights turn on, the simple and quaint town becomes colorful and vibrant. The waterfront camping music festival is in full swing, and the true excitement of Tianxing Town begins. Compared to the ordinary daytime, nightfall here feels like a different place.

The Waterfront Camping Music Festival is a special theme held during this period. While exploring the town, you can listen to music and dance with your kids on this leisurely weekend, adding some color to an otherwise ordinary holiday! Don't forget to wake up from your nap the next day and experience the unique rafting at Shenlong Gorge.

Karst Museum: Located next to the town, this museum interprets the typical platform karst landform and unique ecosystem of Jinfo Mountain. 260 million years ago, it was an ocean. Through the collision of the Eurasian plate and hundreds of millions of years of geological movements, the Jinfo Mountain we see today was formed.

Rare high-altitude caves, a long history of saltpeter mining, and karst landscapes such as stone forests, rock pillars, waterfalls, canyons, and cuestas are all explained by the guide. Various weather wonders like ice, rime, sea of clouds, and sunrises are also great subjects for photography. It's amazing to discover such charm in Jinfo Mountain!

Oh, and don't miss the man-made cave in the museum, which is very realistic. The little knowledge games designed there are great for kids—they not only spark interest in geography but also teach a lot about nature.

Tianxing Hot Spring City: At the end of the commercial street in Tianxing Town, you must not miss Tianxing Hot Spring City. The environment is clean and tidy, with many entertainment facilities.

Music, wave-making, bubble shows... it's paradise for kids! Choosing to spend the holiday at Tianxing Town was definitely the right decision. Even soaking in the kids' pool with the children feels natural.

After playing until tired, you can soak in real spring water hot springs, relieve fatigue, feel the gentle night breeze, and let the warm spring water wrap every cell of your body—this is the ultimate enjoyment!

Scenic Spots Around the Town – Shenlong Gorge Scenic Area

Shenlong Gorge is the most thrilling rafting I've ever experienced, bar none! It's 2.8 kilometers long with a total drop of 76 meters, and the entire rafting trip takes about 40 minutes. Especially the first section, it's so intense that you're caught off guard. The icy spring water chills you to the bone instantly, and splashing water hits your face. The urge to give up is so strong that you want to stop immediately! Now I think it's a good thing I persisted, otherwise I wouldn't have experienced the enjoyment after adaptation! For little Duomi, it was probably a profound experience too—from initial fear to wanting to raft again afterward. It's a kind of exercise. Some things you won't understand until you do them.

Tips: It's recommended to bring your own slippers, change of clothes, and toiletries. Taking a hot shower after rafting is the perfect ending.

Shenlong Gorge Scenic Area is located west of Jinfo Mountain. It's a primitive ecological canyon, and rafting is its biggest feature. Shenlong Gorge ticket: 40 RMB/person; rafting ticket: 130 RMB/person on weekdays, 150 RMB/person on weekends; sightseeing car one-way 15 RMB/person, round trip 30 RMB (rafting ticket does not include entrance ticket).

Town Cuisine: Square bamboo shoots are a specialty of Jinfo Mountain. They are autumn bamboo shoots, with the picking season from August to September each year. They grow on mountains above 2000 meters. Due to the climate and other reasons, they are square outside and round inside, like copper coins, so they are called square bamboo shoots. Restaurants in the town all feature square bamboo shoots, but each has its own signature dish! Square bamboo shoot and cured pork rib hot pot, square bamboo shoot and beef with greens hot pot, square bamboo shoot and old duck hot pot, square bamboo shoot beef noodles, whole bamboo feast (Jinfo Mountain mushroom soup), square bamboo shoot dry pot (barbarian lamb trotters), square bamboo shoot and bean curd beef... truly as the guide said, 'Everything can be paired with square bamboo shoots'...

Don't miss the square bamboo shoot and lamb trotter hot pot. The medium portion is about two lamb trotters cut into ten to twenty pieces, making a delicious and non-greasy hot pot! The whole bamboo feast is a pot of stewed local chicken, wild mushrooms, and other ingredients—you can smell the aroma from far away!

Also, square bamboo shoot lamb noodles are 15 RMB per serving. Grandma's wontons come in clear or spicy broth, 7 pieces for one tael, 15 for two taels, 20 for three taels...

Jinfo Mountain is also known as the 'Chinese Medicine Treasury.' The free-range lambs eat Chinese herbs, so the meat is naturally more delicious. In summer, whole roasted lamb is a must-try specialty here!

The Star Gazing Pavilion opposite the hotel is great for barbecue or hot pot. At night, enjoy the cool summer breeze, delicious barbecue, and wonderful performances—how can you not love such a town life!

Jinfo Mountain is known as a summer resort. As soon as we arrived at Tianxing Town at the foot of the mountain, we felt the temperature was about ten degrees Celsius lower than in downtown Chongqing. We stayed at the Tianxing Liangjiang Holiday Hotel. On the first night, we turned on the air conditioner, but we woke up shivering from the cold. The first thing we did was turn off the air conditioner, put on a bathrobe, open the window, and found that the temperature outside was about the same as inside...

Jinfo Mountain Scenic Area

Our first encounter with Jinfo Mountain Scenic Area was very fortunate. Because of the continuous good weather, we could capture such beautiful scenery of Jinfo Mountain in our memories: the sunset glow on the cliffside plank road, the fairyland composition at the entrance of Swallow Cave, the visible star river at 11 p.m... These unintentional displays of beauty are the most precious natural scenery of Jinfo Mountain.

Jinfo Mountain has a typical karst geological landform. Due to its special geographical location and climatic conditions, it has relatively well-preserved ancient and different geological ages of primitive natural ecology. The mountains are majestic and beautiful, and the scenery is profound and charming.

It has a subtropical humid monsoon climate with short winters, early springs, long summers, rain and heat in the same season, and obvious vertical climate changes. The special climatic conditions make the weather unpredictable—sometimes rolling seas of clouds, sometimes clearing after rain—which forms the unique beauty of Jinfo Mountain, as well as the cool and comfortable summer. Walking in the mountains, you don't feel any summer heat.

Standing on the Golden Turtle Facing the Sun observation platform at an altitude of 2100 meters, you can see a world-class karst tundra, high-altitude caves (Lingguan Cave and Swallow Cave), and magnificent steep cliffs. This place perfectly combines natural beauty and the artful geological evolution.

The mountain range stretches for tens of kilometers, shaped by nature into a giant natural sleeping Buddha, lying on the summit of Jinfo Mountain's highest peak, Jinfo Peak. It is a wonderful landscape formed by the western cliff and the gentle slope above. Every sunset, the slanting rays shine on the long cliff, emitting golden light—hence the name Golden Turtle Facing the Sun.

Below, the Arrow Bamboo Sea is the favorite food of giant pandas. The bamboo stems are slender, only finger-thick, yet solid and flexible. Because this patch of arrow bamboo grows in a wind gap, whenever a breeze passes, it undulates like the sea, so it has a nice name: Arrow Bamboo Sea.

'The plank road hangs on the cliff, clouds rise under your feet, floating in the void, maybe meeting a fairy.' The guide's words are still vivid in my memory. The Jinfo Mountain cliffside plank road is exactly as she described. The entire plank road is 3500 meters long, like a ribbon hanging on the Jinfo cliff at an altitude of 2100 meters.

The 3500-meter cliffside plank road connects various scenic spots of Jinfo Mountain: Golden Turtle Facing the Sun, Swallow Cave, Ecological Stone Forest, Ancient Buddha Cave, etc. It is an unmissable tour route on Jinfo Mountain. But I think the most essential photography spots on the entire plank road are Swallow Cave and the western cliff—one side is a towering mountain, the other is a sheer cliff with no visual obstruction! Standing here, you can feel the artistic conception of 'overlooking all the other mountains'!

This is also the best place to watch the sunset. Layers of mountains stretch endlessly into the horizon. Even my little one took out her phone to take pictures nonstop and said, 'Mom, I want to be a photographer like you in the future. Will you teach me how to take photos?' Such beautiful scenery—no wonder she envies me.

Standing inside Swallow Cave and shooting outward, the afterglow of the sunset, tiny human figures, the magical starry sky... a picture of a fairyland dwelling emerges. I've been to many places, but such a mountain cave entrance really surprised me. The beauty of Jinfo Mountain truly lives up to its reputation!

The peaks and valleys stretch for dozens of mountain ranges, with over 100 steep peaks standing. Natural caves are scattered everywhere, and the Ancient Buddha Cave is one of the most representative.

Magnificent, vast, and deep—that's our truest reaction! There are mountains, rivers, and dams inside the cave. Caves within caves, layers interwoven—every moment brings a new surprise.

Passing through the winding and sometimes narrow '72 Bends,' you suddenly enter a hall that can hold tens of thousands of people. The grandeur is breathtaking!

Thousands of Buddha statues are even more awe-inspiring. The endlessly extending cave is deep and mysterious. Occasionally, bats flying overhead snapped me back to reality, shivering and questioning whether I was really in summer... It proves once again that you must bring a thick jacket when visiting Jinfo Mountain!

Continuing forward another four to five hundred meters, you reach another more magical cave entrance. The high contrast between top and bottom, and the completely different scene outside the cave, might be the best in the country geologically! But what I remember most is the first glimpse of a white mist after turning the corner—a fairyland...

Yaochi Dam is very close to Ancient Buddha Cave. A clear lake is my first impression here. The name 'Yaochi Dam' comes from this pool of water!

Initially used to store water to solve the mountain's water shortage, later herb farmers also washed their hard-collected herbs in this pool. The surrounding area is also full of various medicinal herbs for treating common diseases, hence the name 'Yaochi Dam' (Medicine Pool Dam).

Jinfo Mountain in the clouds is not only a World Natural Heritage site but also a world-famous biological gene bank. Among the more than 5800 traditional Chinese medicine varieties in Chongqing, Jinfo Mountain has as many as 4000, making it a complete treasure trove of Chinese medicine. It accounts for one-third of the country's Chinese herbal medicines. There is a saying: 'When people walk on Jinfo Mountain, their sleeves are dyed with herbs; when wind passes through Nanchuan, it smells of medicine.' Why are the medicinal lambs here so famous? Because the lambs have been eating various herbs since childhood, their nutritional value is naturally different from elsewhere!

Walking on the grassland reminded me of Nalati in Xinjiang. The scenery here is like prairie landscape. Lying here, watching the clouds roll and unfold, waiting for a pot of medicinal lamb hot pot—this is the greatest happiness in travel!

Jinfo Temple is built against the mountain, majestic and magnificent. The Buddhist culture here is also reflected, making it a holy land for meditation and enlightenment!

Going up along the Heavenly King Hall, the Great Hall, the Ten Thousand Buddha Hall, and the Sutra Library—each hall requires climbing a flight of stairs. Reaching the top of the highest Sutra Library, looking out far from a height is also a pleasure. If you have Buddha in your heart, you must come here to pray.

It's about 200 meters from the Liangjiang Hilltop Hotel, making it very convenient to walk. It can also serve as a foreground for shooting the Milky Way at night, and it's a landmark building of Jinfo Mountain.

The stone forests here are all products of karst, but they are very different from the bare stone forests I've seen before. A large amount of carbonate rock and sandstone shale has accumulated here. Due to various crustal movements and climate effects, low-grade plants on the stone forest have continuously died, forming humus soil, allowing some low forests and trees to survive. Although there is very humus-rich soil, there are many rocks and little soil. To survive, the tree roots here are very developed!

These amazing roots extend completely into the stone crevices, surviving tenaciously, forming the lush scene we see today. This is the magic of Jinfo Mountain's stone forest: trees and rocks coexist, rocks and trees are naturally formed...

'Trees growing from rocks, rocks embracing trees' is the most vivid expression from the guide. Walking among them, with moss on the trees, it's cool and comfortable. Choosing this place for a summer trip with a little one is definitely right! The peculiar landscape of harmonious coexistence between trees and rocks looks like natural bonsai!

I recommend experiencing the Liangjiang Hilltop Hotel on the mountain, watching the sunset, the starry sky, feeling the mountain breeze, and experiencing the summer chill... Be sure to try the Hilltop Big Bowl Vegetable Restaurant next to the hotel for mountain-top specialties!

Also, the medicinal lamb hot pot at the north slope must be tasted after visiting Ancient Buddha Cave and Yaochi Dam. The delicious flavors dance on your tongue. The lamb that has grown up eating Chinese herbs is nutritious and delicious without causing heatiness!

Travel Tips:

Scenic area ticket: 80 RMB/person

West slope cable car round trip: 80 RMB/person; round-trip bus: 20 RMB/person

North slope cable car round trip: 70 RMB/person

West slope and north slope sightseeing car round trip: 10 RMB/person

Package ticket: 170 RMB/person (includes ticket, cable car, shuttle bus)

The lower station of the north slope cable car is at an altitude of 1570 meters. It is the main passage to and from Jinfo Mountain scenic area. It's not only a key facility for uphill transportation but also a moving corridor to enjoy the scenery of the north slope as the cable car ascends.

Located in Nanchuan District, Chongqing, about 100 km from downtown Chongqing, about a 2-hour drive. Remember: the park closes entry at 16:30!

Opening hours: 8:00 – 17:30