Mount Siguniang Hiking Tour - 4 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 2800 meters and we will have a first day acclimating walk in Dengsheng Valley for around 2 hours with easy pace. After the walk drive up 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 2h+, easy Pace

Overnight hotel by 3100m

Today we will have a full day visiting/hiking Shuangqiao Valley of Siguniang. We will first have a short ride from hotel to the base of Shuangqiao and check in to the park. First we will start our visit by a bus ride to the end of valley and start the tour. Around you there are many stunning peaks some are snow-capped and some are big walls including Mt. Jianshan, Mt. Yutu, Mt. Se'erdengpu, Mt. Potala, Mt. Abi and many more. We will walk on the less-walked boardwalk along the river and enjoy some quiet time in nature. We will hike down the valley following the river among the big mountains. The walking is rather flexible with distance since there is bus available along the stops between each location in the valley. The first 3-4 bus stops total 8-12km is where the main views of Shuangqiao are located. The walking will be on well-paved boardwalk on flat terrain with no steep part. Shuangqiaogou Valley is a zigzagged, deep and quiet and the longest valley stretching over 35km. We'll see yaks and forest. By halfway down there is a rafting that we can choose to do. It is also a lot of fun to raft down the calm river for around 20 minutes. Today’s visiti and walking is flexible but we recommend to do the fist 8km at least since it is the most beautiful part of Shuangqiao. After the rafting place there is more to walk. By halfway there may be a couple of kilometers we have to use the road since the boardwalk was flushed away and they may not be fixed. The road is actually fine because there are basically no cars running except the buses which are not many.

After the stop of museum there is no boardwalk so it is the end of hiking. We will then use bus to go out and drive back to hotel.

Hiking 6-8h, easy Pace

Overnight hotel by 3100m

Today is a full day exploring 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.

Visiting 7-8h, medium to challenging Pace

Overnight hotel by 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.

En route to Chengdu we will visit Wolong Panda Base to see the lovely pandas in the biggest panda base in China. There are total around 50 pandas inside this base. We will also visit the panda cub enclosure where we will likely to see baby pandas. The new Wolong Panda Base is a newly-built panda base since the old one was destroyed by earthquake in 2008. It is a panda base that is built very close to panda's actual natural home. You will learn a lot about the pandas while visiing the base. After the visit drive back to Chengdu. Tour ends.

Visiting 2h, driving 4-5h. Easy Pace