Yesanpo

Overview

About

Yesanpo lies on the Juma River in Laishui County, Baoding, Hebei, in the northern Taihang, 150 km from Baoding and 100 km from central Beijing. The Beijing–Yuanping railway has three stations in the area, Yesanpo, Gougezhuang and Fushankou, the first two at the Juma River and Bailixia. The 520 km² area has seven parts: Bailixia, the Juma River resort, the Baicaopan primeval forest reserve, Fodongta, the Longmenxia Great Wall reserve, the Jinhuashan hunting area and Sanhuangshan.

It is in the second batch of national parks of China (national scenic areas) named by the State Council in 1988.

Travel tips

Getting there: from Beijing, take a long-distance bus or drive along the expressway to Yesanpo in Laishui County; it usually takes a little over two hours. Buses also run from Baoding and Laishui.

Layout: Yesanpo is made up of several sub-areas. Most visitors go to the Hundred-Li Gorge, then the Juma River area, Baicaopan and Longmen Gorge.

Hundred-Li Gorge: it consists of three gorges, Scorpion Valley, Haitang Valley and Shixuan Gorge. You walk along the valley floor past narrow places called the One-Line Sky and the Unseen Sky. The three routes differ in length; most people take one, or link them.

Time: one route takes half a day to most of a day. Allow an extra day for the Juma River or Baicaopan.

Season: the valleys are cool in summer, which is the busy season. Autumn colour is good. Winter is cold and some activities stop.

Caution: flash floods are possible after summer rain, so check the weather before entering. The valley floor is slippery, so wear non-slip shoes, and bring drinking water as there are few supply points.

Where to stay: there are hotels and farmhouse inns near the gorge entrance and in Yesanpo town; they fill up at weekends and in high season, so book ahead.

Bailixia

Bailixia, the “Hundred-Li Gorge”, is the signature sight, over 100 km² with three winding gorges, Xiezigou, Haitangyu and Shixuanxia, 105 li in all. Deep in the gorges the path narrows until the sky is a single line. Xiezigou, 25 li, is named for the stinging nettle (“scorpion grass”) that grows there, with the Dragon Pool Mirroring the Moon, the Ear-Rubbing Cliff and the Iron Chain Cliff; Shixuanxia, 45 li, has the great natural rock urn Chenniu Lake, the Sunless Gorge, the Mother and Son Peaks, the Lion Rising and the legendary Erlang Carrying the Mountains; Haitangyu is 35 li. The gorges are generally under 10 m wide and at the narrowest admit one person, their walls cut as if by an axe, 200 to 300 m high. Deep in the gorge the July–August average is 23 °C, and wild crabapple grows in every crevice, blooming in August. At the Tiger’s Mouth, one of the three wonders, a pool spills over the tiger’s “lower lip” in the rainy season as a waterfall.

Yugu Cave

At the foot of Fodongta hill the Yugu spring spews fish every year around the Grain Rain festival, over a tonne in a good year; the nearby Yugu Cave is a natural karst cave.

More photos

Map

Photo credits: Longmen Gorge, Yesanpo: Caitriana Nicholson (CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons); Hundred-Mile Gorge: Caitriana Nicholson (CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)

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