Dujiangyan one-day tour route and best tips

Dujiangyan is a great water conservancy engineering miracle in ancient my country. It has a long history of more than 2,000 years and is still perfectly preserved today. Its functionality and scientific structure have been tested for thousands of years. As Chinese people, it is We are proud of the wisdom of our ancestors, and I will share with you detailed strategies below.

Dujiangyan is a county-level city about 70 kilometers away from Chengdu. The name is naturally due to the famous Dujiangyan water conservancy project. In addition, Qingcheng Mountain, a famous Taoist mountain, is also located in Dujiangyan.

One weir and one mountain form the basis of Dujiangyan tourism. There is a saying that "worship the water Dujiangyan and ask about Qingcheng Mountain".

You can also see pandas at Panda Valley and Panda Paradise. The former is engaged in research on the release of giant pandas into the wild, from rescue and artificial breeding to reintroduction. The online video of a panda climbing a tree was basically shot here. The latter is where giant pandas from overseas missions are resettled after returning to China.

If you want to see pandas but want to avoid the crowds, Dujiangyan is a good choice. Brother Zhang has been to the Giant Panda Base, so he came to Dujiangyan just for the legendary weir and mountain.

Dujiangyan delicacies: scallion rolls, ginkgo stewed chicken, Qingcheng old bacon, Taoist pickles, beef and tofu curds, palm chicken, dry-stirred loach, slag noodles, ham and shredded chicken rolls

Specialties of Dujiangyan: Qingcheng tea, Dongtian milk wine, Dujiang bluestone

Transportation guide

To go to Dujiangyan, you can first go to Chengdu. From Chengdu to Dujiangyan, you can choose bus, train or self-driving.

Bus: You can check and purchase on a certain journey. There are many buses. The journey takes about 1 to 2 hours depending on the place of origin.

Train: From Chengdu Station or Xipu Station, take the train to Dujiangyan Station, which takes about half an hour.

Self-driving: Turn on the navigation and follow the voice guidance of sister Zhiling/Xiao Yueyue/Guo Degang. The journey takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

My itinerary

Dujiangyan Xiao Zhang is a one-day trip. If you don’t go to the back mountain of Qingcheng Mountain, one day is enough. I chose a product on a certain website that had enough transactions and was the most expensive. Subsequent facts proved that this choice was a good one.

Departure on DAY1-Dujiangyan-Qingcheng Mountain-Return

Dujiangyan Scenic Area Route: Yulei Mountain-Erwang Temple-Anlan Bridge-Yuzui-Feishayan-Baopingkou-Nanqiao -The ancient city of Guanxian County. Starting from Yulei Mountain, it is very easy to walk from top to bottom. Self-driving can choose this route, otherwise you can only take the public route, enter from the entrance of Lidui Park, and then climb the mountain.

Qingcheng Mountain front mountain route: Mountain Gate - Yuecheng Lake - Buyunlang Cableway - Shangqing Palace - Laojun Pavilion. We took the easiest route to the top, and then went down the mountain along the same route without going to the Tianshi Cave Patriarch Hall.

The Source of Tianfu

Sichuan, a land with thousands of miles of fertile wilderness and rich products, has been called the land of Tianfu since ancient times. However, the "since ancient times" here does not mean the history of history.

The term "Land of Abundance" was first seen in "Warring States Policy", which refers to the Guanzhong area. By Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Dui", Tianfu became Yizhou, which was later Shu and today's Sichuan.

Sichuan succeeded Guanzhong and became Tianfu. The key to this transformation was Dujiangyan. Dujiangyan was built in the late Warring States Period, when the Qin State destroyed the ancient Shu State and occupied the Shu land for 60 years.

During these 60 years, Shu did not make any contribution to Qin. Instead, it became a drag on Qin due to many riots. (The most common reason for riots in ancient times was that the people had no food to eat)

Until King Zhao of Qin appointed Li Bing as the governor of Shu. Li Bing led the people to build the longest-lasting water conservancy project in the world.

The surging Minjiang River was finally subdued.

The Chengdu Plain, which used to be either drought or flooded, has become the granary of Tianfu. Even Chengdu's ability to become a leisure city more than 2,200 years later is related to this.

This Dujiangyan is indeed worth visiting.

DAY1 morning

Yulei Mountain-Erwang Temple-Anlan Bridge-Yuzui-Feishayan-Baopingkou-Nanqiao-Guanxian Ancient City

The spring beauty of Jinjiang River comes to heaven and earth, and the floating clouds of Yulei Mountain change the past and present

——"Climbing the Tower", Du Fu

Compared with Yulei Mountain, this poem by Du Fu is more famous. Yulei Mountain is located in the northwest of the urban area and on the east bank of the Minjiang River. The tour of Dujiangyan starts from the mountain. As mentioned before, this tour order is very scientific. From top to bottom, there are two words: effortless.

On Yulei Mountain, you can overlook the panoramic view of Dujiangyan.

There is Yulei Pavilion built on the mountain, which is an antique building. In addition, there is a very spectacular escalator connecting Yulei Pavilion and Erwang Temple. It’s easy to get down to Erwang Temple.

Under the corridor leading to the top of the mountain is the escalator

The Erwang Temple was built to commemorate the achievements of Li Bing and his son in flood control. On the walls inside the temple are written the mantra for water control: "Water the beach deep and build a weir low" and the Three-Character Classic of Water Control.

Li Bing spent his life controlling floods. After the completion of Dujiangyan, he also presided over the construction of many water conservancy projects. Due to overwork and illness, he eventually fell on the construction site of Shiting River... This is a Jiao Yulu-like figure. Nowadays, people in the irrigation area worship Li Bing and his son as gods.

Out of respect, I didn’t take any photos in Erwang Temple.

After leaving the Erwang Temple, you can see the Anlan Cable Bridge when you come to the riverside.

Anlan Bridge, also called Husband and Wife Bridge, was built at the initiative of a couple named He in the Ming Dynasty. At first, the bridge had no guardrails. Someone accidentally fell and died while crossing the bridge. The blame fell on Mr. He. He was sentenced to death by local officials. Later, his wife avenged his injustice and managed to build handrails for the bridge.

Perhaps in places related to love, couples like to make wishes. There is a wall at the end of the bridge covered with yearning for beautiful love. The bridge shook violently when crossing it, but there were guardrails on both sides to prevent it from falling.

After passing the Anlan Cable Bridge, go to Yuzui. Yuzui is one of the three main projects of Dujiangyan, and its full name is Yuzui Diversion Bank. Standing in front of the guardrail of Yuzui, looking at the Minjiang River, I feel that the current is strong and fast.

The fish mouth divides the rolling water of the Minjiang River into two parts. The wide outer river is used for flood discharge, and the narrow inner river is used for irrigation. Water-dividing is only its basic function. In fact, the fish mouth can also play the role of regulating water volume and discharging sand. It is called "water-dividing forty-six and sand-discharging for twenty-eight".

As shown in the figure below, during the flood period, the water level is high, the cross-section of the outer river is larger than that of the inner river, and a large amount of water flows away from the outer river. During the dry season, the water level drops and the cross-section of the inner river is larger than that of the outer river, so most of the water can be diverted for irrigation. This is the water volume regulation effect.

Schematic diagram of the Minjiang River section where the fish mouth is located

In addition, the water volume is small during the dry season, and there is almost no sediment in the water. During the flood period, because the flow of the outer river is greater than that of the inner river, most of the sediment flows away from the outer river. In addition, the concave bank washes away the convex bank and accumulates sediment. Most of the sediment is in the outer river. This is the sand removal effect.

The distance from Yuzui to Feishayan along Jingangdi is less than one kilometer, and it only takes ten minutes to walk. This section of the river gradually sinks and the water flow becomes more rapid.

Feishayan is the largest black technology in the entire Dujiangyan project.

Its function is to "discharge floods and sand". Although 80% of the sediment has been discharged to the outer river through the adjustment of the fish mouth, 20% remains in the inner river, which is still a threat during flood periods.

The river channel of the Neijiang River has a bend here. Due to the centrifugal force, the water level on the concave bank is higher. Because the water level on the concave bank is high and the water level on the convex bank is low, a transverse circulation is formed.

Because the surface layer of the river is relatively clear, the sediment and gravel are mainly in the bottom layer. Through lateral circulation, the gravel will be thrown into the outer river. Through the Feisha Weir, another 15% of the sediment can be filtered out, and ultimately only 5% of the sediment remains in the Neijiang River. As shown in the picture below:

Schematic diagram of the Minjiang River section where Feishayan is located

The above is the flood period, and Feishayan will be exposed to the water during the dry season. The Feisha Weir we see most of the time is a beach full of gravel.

At this time, there is no need to discharge floods, and all the river water is retained in the inner river for downstream irrigation. Therefore, the height of Feishayan needs to be constructed very cleverly.

Baopingkou, just next to Feishayan, is a narrow channel dug out of Yulei Mountain. This is the hardest part of the whole project.

In ancient times, there was no explosives used to open mountains. Facing the stony mountain, manual excavation is almost impossible. The method is to burn it with fire and then quickly cool it with water so that the rock will explode.

Even so, the excavation took 8 years. The area separated from the original mountain is called Lidui, and the water inlet between the old mountain and Lidui is Baopingkou.

Baopingkou is mainly used to control the amount of water so that a stable flow of water is available downstream. The width of the original excavation was calculated. At the same time, it also has the function of "drawing out the clear and dispelling the muddy". As shown below:

The surface flow is clear water, and the bottom flow is turbid water. Under the influence of the curved circulation, clear water enters the mouth of Baoping, and muddy water returns to the outer river from the side. Due to the narrowing of the entrance, a backflow is formed next to it, which will wash the sediment into the Feisha Weir.

After passing through the three checkpoints of Yuzui, Feishayan and Baopingkou, the Minjiang River rushing down from Minshan Mountain with a large amount of sediment has turned into a trickle that nourishes the Chengdu Plain.

Dujiangyan, the source of Tianfu.

Li Bing, benefiting all generations!

Dujiangyan gives people the feeling of being natural. Today's water conservancy projects are mostly about blocking rivers and building dams. I used to think that the same was true for Dujiangyan. It is said that during the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese army sent planes to blow up Dujiangyan. However, when the planes arrived, they did not find the imaginary dam, so they gave up.

After that, leave Dujiangyan Scenic Area from the gate of Lidui Park. There are also some small scenic spots along the way: Fulong Temple, Zhang Songshu, etc., as well as a replica of an iron pillar sunk at the bottom of the river and used as a dredging scale. Coming out of the main entrance of the scenic spot is the South Bridge.

The South Bridge was built in the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1878). It was damaged by wars many times and was later washed away by floods. The current South Bridge was repaired after the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, and the roof of the corridor has exquisite patterns.

The night view of the covered bridge is one of the iconic views of Dujiangyan. Since Brother Zhang didn’t stay here till night, he naturally didn’t have a chance to see him, so I’ll give you a picture online for reference.

The ancient city of Guanxian, Dujiangyan was called Guanxian in ancient times. In fact, this was the urban area of ??Dujiangyan in ancient times. There are shops all along the road, which is very commercial. I don’t know why I like the feeling of this ancient city. I can’t explain it.

At noon, we were taken to a restaurant, where we could enjoy a wonderful performance while dining. This was a highlight of the day’s itinerary, but I unfortunately didn’t remember the name and location.

After dinner, we took a bus to Qingcheng Mountain, which is more than ten kilometers away.

Qingcheng Zhiqing

Qingcheng Mountain, a famous Taoist mountain.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Daoling (Zhang Tianshi) founded Tianshi Tao here, respecting Laozi in the Spring and Autumn Period as the ancestor of Taoism, and Taoism was born.

There are two theories about how Qingcheng Mountain got its name. One: It was originally named Qingcheng Mountain because it is said that "Qingdu, Ziwei and the Emperor of Heaven live there". Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty believed in it and mistakenly wrote "Qing" instead of "Qing" when issuing an edict, and it has been passed down like this ever since. Second: Qingcheng Mountain has lush forests and is evergreen all year round. It is surrounded by peaks and looks like a city outline, so it is named Qingcheng Mountain.

There are four unique skills of Qingcheng on Qingcheng Mountain. Don’t get me wrong, these are not martial arts moves. One is the unique Dongtian tribute tea, the second is the roasted chicken with ginkgo, the third is the Taoist kimchi, and the fourth is the Dongtian milk wine. It was all about eating and drinking. Zhang Daoling's disciples and grandchildren lived a good life.

In addition to Zhang Daoling, there is another celebrity at the foot of Qingcheng Mountain. Oh no, it’s the famous snake—Bai Suzhen. There is a song to prove it: At the foot of Qingcheng Mountain, Bai Suzhen has been cultivating this body in the cave for thousands of years.

Haha, the mountain gate is here, let’s go up the mountain.

DAY 1 afternoon: Mountain Gate - Yuecheng Lake - Buyunlang Cableway - Shangqing Palace - Laojun Pavilion

Qingcheng Mountain is divided into front mountain and back mountain. The Qianshan area is relatively small, with mostly palaces, temples and buildings, and can be visited in half a day. The back mountain is mainly about embracing nature. It is quite large and takes a day to complete. Brother Zhang visited Qianshan.

The greenness of Qingcheng can be felt near the mountain gate. Needless to say, there are tall and straight metasequoias on both sides of the road. Even the tree trunks and stones are covered with a thick layer of moss.

The road up the mountain is a paved plank road, which makes a creaking sound when you walk up it. The trees beside the road can only be described as blocking the sky and the sun, and the entire light is dimmed.

Soon we arrived at Yuecheng Lake. I didn't expect that there is such a lake on the mountain. The lake is not big but it is still running water. The stream flowing into the lake originates from Laoxiaoding.

The cruise ship crossing the lake has no power and is towed by a steel cable. It only takes 2 minutes to get on the boat to the other side, but you have to wait in line to get on the boat.

After passing Yuecheng Lake, you will reach the lower station of the ropeway. Buy a round trip ticket and take the ropeway up the mountain. The ropeway is a small cabin with a semi-open roof and a ceiling.

Stand up from the ropeway and climb the steps. Soon we arrived at Shangqing Palace. The plaque above the door is signed by Chiang Kai-shek. It is conceivable that there must be many stories behind the preservation of this plaque to this day.

There is an entrance courtyard in the Shangqing Palace, surrounded by Laojun Hall, Sanqing Hall, Daodejing Hall, Wenwu Hall and Jade Emperor Hall. Taoist gods are enshrined inside.

The house next to it is the apartment where Zhang Daqian lived in seclusion in Qingcheng. Now there are some of his paintings hanging inside, probably samples without any protection.

Ask about Qingcheng Mountain. Once it comes, refine it.

After that, it’s time to climb to the top. Laoxiaoding, the peak of the front mountain of Qingcheng Mountain, is 1,260 meters above sea level.

The section of road from Shangqing Palace to Laoxiaoding is the most difficult section after climbing Qingcheng Mountain. Many steps are crooked and broken into several pieces, so you need to pay attention to your steps.

On the road, I encountered many times mountain people carrying baskets selling a kind of fruit I had never seen before. After asking, they called it Snow Lotus. This is definitely not the snow lotus on Tianshan Mountain.

I didn’t want to buy it, but my aunt’s sales promotion was really enthusiastic. The little fairy was persuaded and bought one. Juicy and slightly sweet. If you don't bring water, it can be used to quench your thirst, which is not bad.

We reached the top of the mountain in half an hour.

There is a Laojun Pavilion on the top of the mountain. Inside, there was originally a 36-meter-tall statue of Taishang Laojun riding an ox, but it was unfortunately damaged during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Today's Laojun Pavilion is newly built and cannot be climbed up.

It is raining on the top of the mountain, and the top of Laojun Pavilion is looming in the clouds and mist. After walking a few steps, the rain started to get heavier, and I didn’t bring an umbrella, so I had to quickly go back down the mountain.

Going down the mountain is faster than going up the mountain, and we have reached the parking lot at the foot of the mountain before 5 o'clock. When I left by car, I thought about Qingcheng Mountain in my mind, and what impressed me most was the greenness of Qingcheng.