Northern Shaanxi: Yan'an + Jingbian + Yucha
Since the pandemic, my plan to check in all over the world has been interrupted. After being cooped up for so long in the first half of the year, with the Golden Week 5-day holiday being relatively long, I planned to go somewhere not too crowded.
The internet-famous canyon was a place I longed for, claiming to be as wondrous as the Antelope Canyon in the American West. It hadn't been heavily developed a couple of years ago and was a niche check-in spot. Then I discovered several interesting attractions in northern Shaanxi.
It's delightful to see scenery comparable to abroad without leaving the country.
The central hub of attractions in northern Shaanxi is Yan'an. If driving, you can design a one-way route without backtracking. For convenience, you can use Yan'an as a base. The Wave Valley and Yucha Grand Canyon are not in the same direction; these two places need to be visited on separate days. Each can be done as a day trip, with a one-way drive of about two to three hours, and you can finish in one day.
Yan'an is the landing and starting point of the Chinese revolution, so it is also a holy place for red tourism. Many organizations come here for study trips. Yan'an city itself is not large, and the attractions are mostly concentrated in the Baota District, near the city center, and are very close to each other. You can basically finish visiting them on foot in one to two days.
As the name suggests, there is a pagoda on the mountain. The pagoda is about halfway up the hill. It takes 5-10 minutes to climb up, or you can take a shuttle. To reach the summit, you need to climb another 10-20 minutes. The scenic area as a whole is not highly entertaining; it mainly features many historical revolutionary stories. From the top, you can overlook Qingliang Mountain and the entire Yan'an city area. At night, the pagoda is illuminated with changing lights, with light shows projected onto the mountain. Combined with the lights on Fenghuang Mountain and Qingliang Mountain nearby, it looks very beautiful overall.
It is right next to Baota Mountain, separated by a branch of the Yan River. Unfamiliar visitors might mistake it for an ordinary mountain, but it is actually one of the four major grottoes in northern Shaanxi, a Song Dynasty grotto. The mountain is not high overall, with numerous cliffside carvings, poems, and inscriptions, all concentrated on one side of the mountain. The grotto itself is not large, but the interior is quite stunning, with countless densely carved stone statues on the cave walls. It is much more entertaining than Baota Mountain. There are some preserved red buildings in the scenic area's parking lot, now used as a museum. On the other side of the parking lot, there are steps leading to a Taoist temple at the top of the mountain, about a 30-minute climb. Although on the same mountain, it is not part of the scenic area.
The main reason to come here is to see the nearby Danxia landform, located roughly midway between Yulin and Yan'an. If driving, you can choose either city as a stopover. The entire Danxia landform covers a large area, but only a small part has been developed so far, both on water and dry land.
The landscape is somewhat similar to the Wave Valley in the American West, but the scale and texture are still inferior. The best time to visit is under the blazing sun. When illuminated by sunlight, the texture of the arsenic sandstone appears a brighter red. On cloudy days or after rain, the visual impact is greatly reduced. The scenic area is not large either; the route is a one-way loop down into the canyon, but it hasn't been fully developed yet. Inside the canyon, there is a Run Family Village, surrounded by water on three sides, with caves carved into the cliffs. It is said that in ancient times, it was built for defense against bandits, but later occupied by bandits themselves.
This place has nothing special except that Yucha Grand Canyon is located here. Before 2017, this canyon was merely a few ordinary ravines for the local county residents. It wasn't until some photography enthusiasts accidentally discovered it while photographing the loess land that the canyon began to become popular.
Located not far from Yucha Grand Canyon, near Yongning County, there is a village built against the mountain and embedded into the mountain itself. Before the Song Dynasty, because the mountain resembled a tower and had a viewing platform carved into it, it was called Stone Tower. Later generations used its natural defensive advantage as a barrier to build an ancient village to avoid war. Unfortunately, on the day I visited, there was an incident at the village and I couldn't go up. I went down to the cliffside by the river behind it to observe. The structure was integrated and easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Ganquan Yucha Grand Canyon
Commonly known as the Antelope Valley of northern Shaanxi, it became gradually popular after 2017 and gained a reputation as an internet-famous spot. The canyon was mainly formed by long-term rainwater erosion. Unlike the dry Antelope Canyon, this one is relatively humid. In addition to the yellow and orange-red hues visible under sunlight, with the help of moss, green tones are added, making the colors even more colorful. The entire scenic area consists of 7 canyons, but currently only 3 are open, and it is still not fully developed.
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