Shaanxi - Hanzhong

Foping Liangfengya-Guangtou Hill-The Old County 01: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Gaoguan River 02: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Dragon Pool

 
This route goes through the core area of Foping Giant Panda Protected Zone. According to the experienced hikers, traveling this route is moderately hard, and it requires longer time, about three days.  
 
01: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Gaoguan River
This is a classical route for hiking in the Qinling Mountains. You can set off from the Watershed, via the Zhuanbotai and get to the 2,800-meter (9,186 feet) high Guangtou Hill. After that you will reach the peaceful remote village, Dasi Village, where everybody will find his spiritual garden. There you will see several obsolete houses dotted on the hilly area. The downward road along the Gaoguan River is very long. The entire journey will take two days. It is recommended that the best time for hiking here is spring when the Bauhinias scatter over hill and dale. 
 
02: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Xingjialing-Huangyang Dam-Dragon Pool
It is another route that goes through Dasi Village. What is different is that you go upwards along the Gaoguan River, and then you go across the mountain to the south side of the Qinling Mountain. Finally, you reach the Dragon Pool in Tieqiao Town of Ningshan County. This route is little bit longer but it is not that difficult. The natural scenery is quite beautiful.
 

One Day Natural Tour of Hanzhong   This tour will lead travelers get close to the nature and have a chance to see Nipponia Nippon and Giant Panda when visit the Crested Ibis Nature Reserve in Yangxian County and the Foping Nature Reserve in Foping County.

 
Crested Ibis Nature Reserve is located in Yangxian County, southern slope of Qinling Mountain. Travelers could take a bus from Hanzhong Coach Station. The bus journey will take around 1 hour and bus ticket costs around CNY10.00 net. Upon arrival in Yangxian, take a taxi to the nature reserve. With an area of 2,000 hectares, the Crested Ibis Nature Reserve is endowed with luxuriant forest. It is the unique field home in the world for Crested Ibis, one of the rarest birds on earth. (Admission fee: CNY10.00 net per person; Contact number for tourist service: 0916-8203069) 
 
After a half day's tour, rent a minicar to the Foping Nature Reserve with around 1 hour by spending about CNY150.00 net for one way. The nature reserve is situated on Foping County and also on the south slope of Mt. Qinling. Given the priority to protection of giant pandas and its habitat, Foping Nature Reserve was built in 1979 with an area of 35,000 hectares. The place is abundant in wildlife including about 300 kinds of animals and 1580 kinds of plants. (Admission fee: CNY60.00 net per person; Contact number for tourist service: 0916-8916002) Transfer back to Hanzhong from the Foping Coach Station.

One Day Culture Tour of Hanzhong Cast back the splendid Han culture by visiting the Zhangqian Memorial, the Zhiguo Temple and the Graveyard of Cailun, which are on the outskirt of Hanzhong city.

 

The Zhangqian Memorial is situated on 3 kilometers of the Chenggu County. Travelers could take a bus from Hanzhong Coach Station (Address: Hanzhong Central Square; Contact number: 0916-2255949) to Chenggu. The bus journey takes around 40 minutes and bus ticket costs about CNY7.00 net for one way. Upon arrival in Chenggu, take a taxi to the memorial, which is only 2.3 kilometers west of the county. Zhangqian Memorial was built at the base of the grave of Zhanqian (around 164 B.C.-114 B.C.), a celebrated diplomat, explorer and exploiter of the Silk Road, in West Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-9 A.D.). The memorial, externally a rectangle, occupies 712 square kilometers, 356 meters long from south to north and 20 meters wide from east to west. (Admission fee: CNY10.00 net per person)

   

After a half day's tour, transfer back to Chenggu and connect a coach to Yangxian County (Coach Ticket: around CNY5.00 net per person) wherethe Zhiguo Temple and the Graveyard of Cailun are located in. Alternatively, travelers could rent a minicar to reach the county with an approximate charge of CNY100.00 net for one way. Upon arrival in Yangxian, take a taxi to visit the Zhiguo Temple (14 kilometers west of the county) and the Graveyard of Cailun (15 kilometers east of the county). The taxi fee will cost around CNY200.00 net to finish the visiting of the two sites. Zhiguo Temple, a famous Buddhist shrine, was firstly built in the Han Dyansty and was repaired many times during the succeeding time. It houses around 4113 scriptures, most of which are writings and translated versions of Buddhist masters. 
 
Cailun (around 63 A.D.-121 A.D.) was the originator of Paper-making, which was one of the Four Great Inventions in ancient China in addition to Commercial Printing, Gunpowder and Compass. The present graveyard occupies 1 acre and consist of 13 buildings. On the west side of the grave, located the Cailun Paper Culture Museum, from where travelers could see the process of paper-making by using Cailun's method. The Moon Pool at the backside of the yard was reportedly the place where Cailun once made papers. For your reference, the Graveyard of Cailun can also be accessed by bus No. 108 from the downtown area of Yangxian County. (Admission fee: CNY15.00 net per person)