Mount Siguniang Dafeng Group Hiking Tour - 5 Days

This is a gound tour. Some days involve long hours of driving and sitting in the car. Please make preparation in accordance including power bank for your phone, neck pillow, etc. Please remember to have a day pack with you to take necessary items for each day's visit, sometimes including packed lunch or snacks for yourself, drinking water recommended 1L minimum, sunglasses, rainproof, warm-keeping clothes and hat, sun block and lip oil, etc. It is also wise to bring rainproof and warm clothes with you all the time.

A 4-hour drive from Chengdu to Rilong at the base of Mount Siguniang. We will start from Chengdu at your hotel in the morning by around 8.00 am and drive towards west into the mountains. The road is in the former earthquake-zone and you may still see the damages on the mountains from the quake in 2008. A new road was finished by end of 2016 and making the driving safer and quicker.

Most of the drive will be in the mountains after Dujiangyan. The mountain road is in one of the biggest panda sactuaries in China. After lunch, keep driving into the mountains while elevation rises up to around 3800 meters and we will have a short acclimating walk by Balang for around 1-2 hours with easy pace. After the walk drive over Balangshan and drop down to the base of Siguniang. Have your first glimpse of Mount Siguniang Yaomei Peak by the car park. Arrive at Rilong, the small village by the foot of Mount Siguniang. Check in and acclimatize yourself at elevation of 3100 meters.

Driving 4h, hiking 1h+, easy Pace

Overnight hotel by 3100m

Today is a full day acclimating walk in Changping Valley of Siguniang. Changping Valley is one of the three opened valleys (parks) of Mount Siguniang. It is a walking park, no bus is available beyond the first 4km. It is 29-km long valey and visitors need to start from the ticket office by a 10-minute’s bus ride to get to Lama Temple where the walking start. At Lama Temple, the hiking start point, we can also hire horse to ride instead of walking. Changping Valley Ticket office is near the road at upper part of Rilong town by the bridge.

From Lama Temple the walking trail is in forest and on well-paved boardwalks. The walking is rather on gradual terrain with nature around. We will follow the river in the valley and walk by the boardwalk for around 4km to the first stop by Kushutan, a wide part of the river with dead trees and trunks. Then we walk to the 7km point, which is the end of boardwalk called Lower Ganhaizi. From Lower Ganhaizi it is another 3km walking to Muluozi, the big open land by the foot of Mt. Siguniang where views are stunning. All the way we can see at least a big part of Mt. Siguniang so if we can't reach the 10km place Muluozi it is still a good visit.

After a short break by the end of hiking we will return the same way and go back to hotel. Have a good rest.

Hiking 8-20km, flexible, medium to challenging Pace

Overnight hotel by 3100m

Today is our first day of actual Dafeng Summit trip. We should leanr how to do proper packing by first night, leave things we don't need by the base and give things we need by night to the horse. We will first go check in and sign up by the Park Office. This signing up is regulated by the park and it usually takes a long time by around 30 minutes depending on the season. We should have our passport ready for checking. Your guide will do all the checking papers for you but everyone needs to be there.

After the checking in, we will start to hike to BC of Dafeng of Siguniang. First it is around 2km walking up to Zhaijieping on medium steep boardwalk. This part is strenuous but once we get on the ridge it opens up and trail becomes less steep. From the ridge we can see the full range of Siguniang mountains including all the four sisters mountains. We can see the trail goes further up to the mountain. After a short break and some photo we will follow the trail and continue ascending to the forest. We will be walking in the forest for around 1-2 hours before we reach the halfway point by Dajianbao, a ranger post that has supplies of drinking water, simple food. We will sit down have a longer break while having snack lunch or buy things from the post. We will need to refill our water bottle if we have small bottles.

After lunch we will continue with more ascending in the forest on switchbacks until the elevation rises to around 4000m where we will have a gradual part of hiking and the tree line is below us. We will have open views of mountains from now on all the way to the summit. Before we arrive the base camp of Dafeng there is another main ascent of steep part. Normally it should take around 7-8 hours to cover 14km to get to Dafeng BC.

After arrival, you will be shown to your bunk and you have some time to relax before dinner. Please remember to put on clothes while at BC since temperature drops dramatically after sunset and also because the elevation here is very high at 4300m it will be a lot colder than the base by Rilong. Keep yourself hydrated and always keep your water bottled filled up when possible. Your guide will tell you dinner time and the plan for the next day. Sometimes people don't sleep well by such height so try to sleep as much as you can. Try to avoid eating nothing even when you don't feel like eating, try to drink hot water.

Total walking 14km in 7-8h, streunous pace

Overnight shared lodge at 4300m

Today is the summiting day of Dafeng. We will usually start very early in the morning by 4am or before 4 am. The reason to start early is to make sure we have enough time to make summit if we walk slow. If by normal time we should be able to catch the sunrise by the summit of Dafeng. The waking will start in the dark so we will need to use our headlamp. Sometimes the trail is covered with snow so walking poles are strongly recommended for this tour. After setting out we will walk on relatively gradual terrain for around 1.5km before the steep part starts. We will have two major steep ascent before we reach the sadle part at around 4800m. One of the most challenging part is ascent before the sadle. After that we will be hiking over the side of mountain with one side steep drop. We will have a fence to help us in case we want to hold on and rest. Afterwards we will reach the flat part at 4950 before the final ascent, which is also one of the challenges on Dafeng Summit Trek. We will make summit after the final steep part.

We will have a short break by the windy summit before we start to go back to BC. It usually takes around 3 to 5 hours to reach the summit. If the weather is good, we will wonderful views of the peaks of Mount Siguniang including Erfeng, Sanfeng and Yaomei Feng the Mt. Siguniang, as well as Mt. Rainbow, Mt. Riyue Baojing, Mt. Wuse, Mt. Shuangfeng, Mt. Pomiu, Mt. Xuanwu and Mt. Daogou, etc. Dafeng is measured as 5000 meters’ tall and it is one of the four sisters of Siguniang. On the way back to BC we should have more chances to take photos of the mountains around and valleys below since now the light should come back. Be careful while taking photos sicne it is windy and trails can be slippery so when we take photos we stop to do and don't it the same time while walking. Walking down is less strenuous but it can be more tricky.

After walking back to BC we will repack and have a break before we start to walk back to Rilong. We don't have to rush on the way down. After arrival to hotel, take a nice shower and relax.

Total walking 20km in 10-12h, streunous pace

Overnight hotel at 3100m

In the morning we will depart Mount Siguniang via Balangshan, which is the splitting mountain of highland Tibetan nomadic area and the lush farming area of Han. Down the road of Balang we will have amazing views of the mountains and valleys. If wether is good we will make a stop to take photos especially when there is cloud of sea below the road. From Balangshan to Wolong is the natural sanctuary of the lovely pandas. We will arrive Chengdu in early afternoon. Tour ends.