Haizi Valley is one of the three valleys of Mt. Siguniang and the easternmost one. It is 19km long and has over a dozen of lakes at high altitude including Dahaizi Lake, Huahaizi Lake, Fuhai Lake, Baihai Lake, Lanhai Lake, Huanghai Lake, etc. Although these lakes are located deep in the valley that involves long walking to get to. There is no road/tourist bus available in the park but rather just hiking trails. Haizi Valley is where Dafeng and Erfeng base camps are located in. Trips to Dafeng and Erfeng will go via Haizi Valley. In Chinese it is called Haizi Gou. Haizi means lake and Gou means valley. Its name is from the fact that in this valley there are lots of lakes. Haizi Valley is the wildest valley among the three parks of Siguniang. Haizi Valley is also far considering the harder access. If you with to do camping and want to avoid the big crowds, then a multi-day camping trip is recommended in Haizi Valley.
Haizi Valley Eastface
Haizi Valley
Dahaizi Lake
Huahaizi Lake
Haizi Valley
Dahaizi Lake
Haizi Valley is the one of the three parks of Siguniang that is located by the easternmost part of the parks. The entrance of the park is located by the tourist center of Changping Valley. It doesn’t require any tourist bus nor cable cars to go into Haizi Valley. The ticket checking point is around 500m from the Changping Tourist Center. It is fairly easy to get to the entrance of Haizi Valley from the town of Rilong (Siguniangshan Town).
Chaoshanping is a tourist attraction of Haizi Valley. It is on the open ridge of south extension of the four sister girl mountains. Here one has one of the best places to take photos of Siguniang. One can either walk up here from the base or use a horse to ride up here to take photos of the mountains.
An annual Guozhuang Celebration is held here in Haizi Valley at Guozhuang Ping for people from around Mt. Siguniang. It is held on the 5th day of the 5th month in lunar calendar. During this celebration people gather to dance, to race horse and pray. It is usually in June in western calendar.
There is no tourist bus required to go to this valley, unlike the other two valleys (Changping and Shuangqiao) at Mt. Siguniang. A 10-minute’s walk on the wooden boardwalk from Changping Valley parking lot (Tourist Center) by the road will lead you to the entrance of Haizi Valley. A 0.5 hour of walking gives you the full view of the Four Sisters Mountain at Chaoshan Ping and Guozhuang Ping, where it is actually the extended south lower ridge of Mt. Siguniang. If one wishes to go further into Haizi Valley, a longer and harder walk is necessary.
From Guozhuangping to Dajianbao it is 6km. By Dajianbao the trail splits into two: the one goes up leads to Dafeng and Erfeng Base Camps and the one continues NE goes to Dahaizi Lake and Huahaizi Lake. From Dajianbao to Dafeng BC is 6km. From Dajianbao to Dahaizi Lake it is 6km. From Dajianbao to Laoniu Yuanzi is 3km. From Laoniu Yuanzi to Bagepeng is 7km. From Dahaizi to Huahaizi is 2km. From Huahaizi to Rhino Lake is 7km.
Entrance of Haizi Valley is 3100m. Guozhuangping is 3400m. Dajianbao is at 3700m. Huahaizi is at 3850m. Bagepeng is at 4550m. Dafeng BC is at 4300m. Erfeng BC is 4200m. Rihno Lake is at 4400m.
One of the most popular things to do in Siguniang is to trek to the summit of Dafeng peak, a 5025-m mountain that requires a hard trek to get to. This trip needs to hire local porter team and needs to sign up by the local park office. Only organized trips are accepted to do Dafeng and Erfeng. Read more details on Dafeng Summit Trek.
Horse-riding is available in Haizi Valley as well. You can find them after the ticket office. Horse-riding service is one of the ways local Tibetan people making a living in this clean and sustainable industry. They will normally try to convince you to ride their horses so if you feel like riding a horse, it will be a good choice and you will have the chance to chat with the local lovely people. Riding a horse in Haizi Valley costs between 160yuan and 400 yuan.
Photograph lovers may consider to have one or two nights camped in the valley by one of the lakes at higher elevation. This will give you an opportunity to shoot photos others wouldn’t have the chance to. Good locations of shooting great photos include Bage Peng, Shuanghaizi Lake, Huahaizi Lake, etc. You can contact our expert to find out more.
Haizi Valley Bagepeng
There are huts available in Haizi Valley, among which some are seasonal and not suited for overnight due to poor maintenance. A bunk in the huts by Dafeng and Erfeng BCs costs 100 yuan per person normally. You are allowed to camp inside the valley but an extra fee of 150 yuan per person is required. Going to Dafeng or Erfeng will be in Haizi Valley. The holiday season will see lots of hikers coming to go to the summit of Dafeng or Erfeng, two 5000+ meters mountain that requires hard walking but nontechnical.
There is also a hiking that you can go from Haizi Valley too east to the uncharted Panda Reserve in Wolong. It is said to be very beautiful but few has done this before. It requires hard walking and you need to be self-supported for the hiking as horses can not pass the high mountain passes.
The best season to travel to Haizi Valley is from June to November. You will see more people in July, August and October. The other seasons are with less people but if you want to avoid crowds please try to avoid weekends. The first week of each November (or the last week of October) will see an annual event of the ultra marathon in Siguniang, by when all hotels will be full and no guides will be available so please try to avoid this if possible. For more details on climate and travel seasons in Siguniang, you can continue reading here for more about Siguniang Travel Season.
Haizi Valley has a busy season and also a low season. All tickets are now sold online and haven’t been made easy for foreign visitors. We offer ticket booking service to Haizi Valley for foreign visitors.
Entrance Ticket: 60 yuan per person for high season (Apr - Nov), 40 yuan per person for low season (Dec - Mar)
Optional Camping: 150 yuan per person, (packhorse and horseman not included)
Optional Horse-riding:From 160-420 yuan depends on how far you go into the valley
Working Hour:8:00-16:00
Recommended Time to Spend:2-3 hours for classic short visit, 1 day or multiple days for hiking/summit treks.
Altitude Range:3100m - 5200m
Haizi Valley Map
Haizi Valley is the most wild valley of the parks in Siguniang and it involves walking/hiking to tour this valley. It is the entrance for Dafeng and Erfeng Summits treks/climbs. It is also a very good place for camping and multi-day hiking. This valley is not for you if you don’t feel like walking at all.
A classic visit is to do the first bit of the hiking up to Chaoshanping on the open ridge where you get good views of Siguniang Mountains. Normally one can walk up for around 40 minutes from the park entrance or one can hire a horse to ride up to the ridge. You will go back down the same way as when you come up so it is actually flexible of how far you want to go up the ridge. This Chaoshanping and Guozhuangping are on the open ridge and provide excellent chance to take great photo of the mountains. This kind of visit takes around 2-4 hours total.
A day hike is a good way to explore the valley of Haizi for outdoor lovers. One can do this with total flexibility that you can basically turn around at any point since you will go out of the park the same way as when you go in. During busy season you may see other hikers going to Dafeng or Erfeng that will share the trail and therefore you will often see many horses on the way. One result from this is the trail can be very muddy if it’s wet. Another issue is that you can only see the first lake by the 13km place so that makes the total walking 26km in and out if one wishes to see the lake within one day’s hike. 26km can be too much for one day. Before one reaches 13km the view is also good but if it is not a good-weather day then the long walk may not be as much fun. Plus the valley only gets wild when after the 7km place, a split with the majority of the hikers that go to Dafeng and Erfeng. After the 7km place it is very quiet and gives a wild feeling of nature. Normally we think a multi-day trek with camping is a more interesting tour to do than a single day hike in Haizi Valley.
Dafeng, or Da Feng or Mount Dafeng or Dafeng Peak, is a 5038-meter mountain, one of the four sisters of Mt. Siguniang. Dafeng is not a very distinct peak among all the peaks at Mount Siguniang but it is famous for its representational status as a rookie mountaineering place in China. Lots of active travelers come here to hike to its summit every year. Dafeng is located between Changping Valley and Haizi Valley. A trek to Dafeng starts from Haizi Valley. Usually it is one day’s walk to the base camp of Dafeng at the elevation of 4300 meters and then proceed to the summit the second day and come back to either base camp of even back to Rilong. For a rushing plan you can go to the summit and come back it in two days from Rilong. But a more reasonable plan is to have time for acclimatization first: longer time is necessarily planed before you spend your night at the 4300 meters campsite. Read more details on Dafeng Summit Trek.
One of the best ways to explore Haizi Valley is to do a multi-day trek into the valley to its upper part of the valley to appreciate its wilderness and nature. A multi-day trek takes you to the less-visited upper part of the valley by Dahaizi Lake, Huahaizi Lake, East face of Mt. siguniang, Rhino Lake, etc where you have chance to see wildlife such as marmots, Himalayan Blue Sheep, etc. This trek will involve sleeping in a tent for overnight. Please read a tour of 5-6 Day Haizi Valley Hiking Tour.
One must be aware of the high altitude of Haizi Valley while traveling here. We don’t recommend you to go sleep at over 3800m on your first night because it is very dangerous.
Haizi Valley is what we call a valley for outdoor activities and not for the mass tourists. There are no food or accommodations available inside Haizi Valley. All overnight are arranged either in tents or huts. By the base camps of Dafeng and Erfeng there are huts available. To sleep by the other parts of Haizi one needs to use tent. All multi-day treks need to be pre-arranged and need to report to the park office to get a special ticket (same as in Shuangqiao and Changping) to check in the park of Haizi.
To read more about food and accommodations in Rilong, please read here.
Route: Chengdu - Mt.Siguniang - Chengdu
Route: Chengdu - Mt.Siguniang - Chengdu
Route: Chengdu - Mt.Siguniang - Lixian - Chengdu
