Landscapes hyped by empty fame cannot last long—Luanchuan, I won't go again
To make a long story short. Luanchuan has decent tourism resources in Henan. Greenery, mountain and water scenery, summer escape, etc., are all pretty good. The local government has taken concrete measures to promote tourism development with good results. Some tourist attractions are quite enjoyable and interesting, such as Laojun Mountain. However, after visiting Chongdugou, I must say: I won't go to Luanchuan again.
I'm somewhat of a travel enthusiast. I used to stick to the principle of only visiting 5A-rated scenic spots. Except for Sanxingdui and Luanchuan's Wangfuzhuhai, all the scenic spots I've been to are 5A. Mainly mountain and water natural landscapes, with about 80 5A experiences. Among the 5A mountain and water landscapes in Henan, I have visited Yuntai Mountain, Songshan, Linzhou Taihang Grand Canyon, Yaoshan, Laojieling, Baiyun Mountain, Laojun Mountain, and Chaya Mountain. Yuntai Mountain over 20 times, Linzhou Taihang Grand Canyon and Yaoshan about 10 times each.
Luanchuan is actually quite far from Zhengzhou, about 300 kilometers, nearly four hours by car. There is no high-speed rail, so accessibility is average. However, self-driving routes are friendly. At the same time, Luanchuan's most famous scenic spot, Laojun Mountain, is right next to the county seat, with good facilities that can well drive local economic development, similar to Zhangjiajie. I have been to Luanchuan five times, visiting Laojun Mountain and Chongdugou as scenic spots, and the rest were rural self-driving trips. Taking Chongdugou as an example, Luanchuan tourism is likely to be abandoned by Zhengzhou people in a relatively short time.
1. Poor transportation accessibility. After exiting the expressway, it takes a long time to reach the scenic area. Moreover, the road is a single two-lane bidirectional road. One can imagine the congestion during peak season.
2. Private cars are allowed into the scenic area, posing significant safety hazards. Inside the scenic area, sightseeing vehicles and private cars dart around everywhere, and pedestrian walkways are lacking. The scenic area, whether in terms of landscape, management, service, or facilities, has nothing to do with quality.
3. The management of the scenic area is chaotic. If ten points is the maximum, the scenery scores about 5-6 points, but the service scores zero because there is simply no service. Throughout the entire tour, you won't see a single staff member. The restrooms are dirty and messy. Signage and indicators are severely lacking. Facilities are seriously outdated, and some dangerous places have little or no protection, posing great safety risks.
4. Severe commercialization. Inside the scenic area, there are small vendors and inducement-based consumption projects everywhere. The residential areas have extremely high prices. Food safety is even worse; eating places have sewage flowing everywhere. In the above four aspects, Chongdugou is even worse than its neighboring 4A scenic spot, Wangfuzhuhai.
5. Severely distorted homestay development. This is not just a problem of Chongdugou; the entire Luanchuan homestay development is severely distorted, with ridiculously high prices and heavy capital speculation. In 2019, the entire county of Luanchuan received only three times the annual visitor volume of Yuntai Mountain alone. However, for homestays of the same quality, prices in Luanchuan are at least double or more. If you randomly search for Chongdugou, Yuntai Mountain, Lijiang, and other scenic spots on a travel website, you'll find that Chongdugou is full of homestays priced above 500, while in Yuntai Mountain and Lijiang, many are 200-300, and their quality is higher than Chongdugou's. In Chongdugou, homestays costing over a thousand are everywhere, which is utterly baffling. In terms of facilities and supporting services, among the scenic spots I've visited with basically comparable conditions—Yangshuo, Zhouzhuang, Hongcun, Zhangjiajie's Xibu Street, Lijiang, Qingchengshan's Tai'an Ancient Town, etc.—prices are roughly equivalent. Only Chongdugou's prices are outrageously high. The only explanation is capital speculation for quick returns. High homestay prices are not unique to Chongdugou; they exist elsewhere in Luanchuan as well.
6. Deteriorated local customs. In many parts of Luanchuan, people are simple and honest, friendly to outsiders, but Chongdugou is an exception. The locals are arrogant, greedy, and have ugly faces.
Compared to Yuntai Mountain (100 km from Zhengzhou), Yaoshan (200 km), and Linzhou Taihang Mountain (260 km with better accessibility), Luanchuan, farewell. The novelty has worn off. Given all the above, Luanchuan, I won't go again.
