Mount Qingcheng and Dujiangyan

My first impression while I stepped out from my bus to the gate of Dujiangyan was irritating, it was a very fast 60 kilometers high speed train ride from Chengdu North Station to Dujiangyan city within 35 minutes, but the bus from the station to the site was maybe one of the slowest buses that took exactly 35 minutes for just less than 6 Kilometers without bad traffic! However, when I started to look around, I was starting to impress the area.

I did not enter Dujiangyan Scenic Area immediately but decide to see the old town area which has been rebuilt after the earthquake. The old town was very nice, the most impressive structure was the big, covered bridge built in Sichuan architectural style with extravagant details. Then I entered into the scenic park, the park was beautiful with small fountains, Chinese gardens and shrines. I walked along the river and had a good time by looking forts and pagodas on the cliff top on the opposite side of the river. I walked until I reached the suspension bridges and found that there was a dike restoration with many dozers tried to strengthen the ancient dikes. Since there was nothing much to see, I crossed the suspension bridge to another side of the park. This area called Yulei Scenic Park. I saw the famous Erwang Shrine, which was maybe the biggest shrine in the scenic area.

After shrine I walked along the river until I …

the trip was for Mount Qincheng for my second day in Chengdu , i rented a mini van to head there .

Going there ,We were diverted to the rear of the mount , since the road heading to the front of MT Qincheng was close, i talked with the lady in the ticket counter in the Rare entrance and she told me that the view in the front was totally different on the scenery at the back, anyway , she said the entrance ticket was cheaper at the back at 20 yuan compare to the front entrance ticket which is 90 yuan , i guess WHS should divide this in to three site, 2 for mount Qincheng ( front and back ) and 1 for Dujianyan , and i should be back again next time, since the front entrance was not open.

The mount was a nice climb , there is two cable cars heading to the top ( the peak is white cloud temple) , Try to buy the ticket of the cable car going up and down , since u will not have enough time coming down if you are NOT staying over night in Mt Qincheng ,(If you decided to buy the ticket going up only and suddenly wanted to buy the cable car ticket coming down, u will be charge double coming down ,on the counter there on top. so that means u will be paying three rides per sector, You have no option nor …

The night before I visited Dujiangyan, I had dinner with an Australian girl that I met earlier that day. She planned to go horseback riding in Songpan, a four-day trek. “I’m going to visit an irrigation system tomorrow” is what I told her. “It’s an ancient one”, I added. But I already lost her interest. Sometimes it’s hard to explain being a WHS traveller. I really did look forward to visiting this site though, wondering what would be there to see. And I don’t like horses anyway.

The next day I took a public bus to Dujiangyan, a city about 60 km northwest of Chengdu. At the city entrance, there’s a most amazing sight: a huge rock (measuring at least 150 x 30 meters) with a golden horse statue on top, and a sign “Top Tourist City of China”. Well, for sure I wouldn’t be the odd visitor here. Direct tourist buses to Mount Qincheng are available from the city's modern main bus station, but I opted for city bus #4 to the irrigation system.

Anticipating this visit I had had visions of muddy fields, me being the only visitor trying to find my way and pick up at least some of the story. The entrance to the Dujiangyan Irrigation System however looked like one for a theme park. A well-signposted hiking route leads you through the park and its main sights. It’s quite a walk, but you can also hop on one of the golf carts that …

While visiting Jiuzhaigou (see review)in China, you want to score a few WHS, take a half day to visit this site of the oldest continuously used waterworks in the world. (2300 years)

I hired a car (busese are also available, but it's local Chinese)from Chengdu, the jumping-off point for Jiuzhaigou and Tibet. While there, also cover the museum at Sanxingdui, which features larger-than-life bronze statues and figurines from the lost civilization (3-4,000 years old)discovered accidentally. We are talking about 1.5 meter bronze masks with eye-stalks a la Star Wars.

Also within a day's drive is Dazu and Emei Shan. So by staying in Chengdu, I was able to cover 5 WHS (add Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong) in one week. I will fill in the photos later from my Apple.