KEY TOURIST ATTRACTION IN SICHUAN

JIUZHAIGOU VALLEY

Provincial Key Tourist Attraction

Known as the ‘Fairyland on Earth’ and ‘Wonderland’ respectively, the Jiuzhaigou Valley, under the jurisdiction of Northwest Sichuan’s Jiuzhuigou County of Aba Prefecture, lies exactly between the southwest margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and at the north foot of Duo'ema Mountain Range, with an average altitude between 2, 000 and 4,300 meters. As a branch of headstream of Jialing river of Yangtze River, it falls mainly into alpine lake clusters and waterfall groups. A combination of lake, waterfall, beach, stream, snow-capped mountain, forest, and Tibetan charm showcases the world with primitive beauty, changing seasonal sceneries, and abundant biotic resources.

HUANGLONG (YELLOW DRAGON)

Provincial Key Tourist Attraction

Huanglong (Yellow Dragon), under the jurisdiction of Northwest Sichuan’s Songpan County of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Nationality Autonomous Prefecture, is located at the northeast foot of Xuebaoding. Covering an area of 1,340 sq km, its core scenic spot area amounts to 700-odd sq km with an elevation anywhere between 1,700 – 5,588m. Famed for colourful pond, beach stream, snow mountain, valley, and forest waterfall, Huanglong is considered the comprehensive tourist attraction comprising of large open-air karst calc-sinter landform, natural sceneries, and ethic groups etc.
Gigantic calc-sinter karst landscape located at the main scenic spot is ever discovered the largest and best-preserved karst landform in the world, it sets three world records: the most marvellous open-air calc-sinter colourful pond groups, biggest calc-sinter beach stream, and largest calc-sinter sinking wall.

MT. EMEI

Mt. Emei (Emeishan), located at 7 km southwest of the city of Emeishan, southwest of Sichuan basin, stretches 23 km in the south-north, covering an area of 115 sq km. As tall as 3,099m, the main peak Ten Thousand Buddha Summit is 2,600m higher than the plain at the east foot of Mt. Emei. Majesty, grace, uniqueness, and mystery make Mt. Emei the world renowned tourist attraction. ‘Mt. Emei is just graceful’. ‘Sunrise, Sea of Clouds, Buddha’s Aureole, and Holy Lamp’ claim the four natural wonders, its main scenic spots include Baoguo Temple, Hufu Temple, Wannian Temple, Qingyin Pavilion, Xinfeng Temple, Xixiang Pond, Hongchunping, and Golden Summit etc.


LESHAN GIANT BUDDHA

The Giant Buddha is qualified as the largest Buddha in the world, carved into a cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Dadu and Min and Qingyi rivers. In the periphery of the Giant Buddha is discovered a ‘colossal sleeping Buddha’ 4,000 plus meters long, comprising of a few mountains. The sleeping Buddha with complete limbs, wellproportioned posture, and elegant appearance serenely lie on the ridge line of the Qingyi river, facing upward in an amicable and dignified manner. The well-known Leshan Giant Buddha coincidentally lie on the heart of the sleeping Buddha, whose head, body, and feet are formed by the Wuyou, Lingyun, and Guicheng mountains.

DUJIANGYAN IRRIGATION PROJECT

The Dujiangyan irrigation project, at the middle reaches of the West Chengdu plain’s Min River and west of the city of Dujiangyan, was undertaken in the 3rd century BC to divert the turbulent Min River and rechannel it into irrigation canals. Known as the oldest and solely preserved irrigation project in the world featuring the diversion without relying on dam, it still plays a pivotal role nowadays, greatly contributing to the reputation of the West Sichuan Plain, namely the ‘heavenly land’.

Originating from North Sichuan’s alp, the Min, the comparatively big tributary at the upper reaches of Yangtze River, was subject to flooding at this point, yet when it subsided droughts could ensue. In the 51st year of Emperor Zhaoxiang in the Qin Dynasty, Li Bing, governor of the kingdom of Shu organized the project, in which a weir system was built to split the force of the river, and a trunk canal was cut through the Yulei mountain (east of the Min River) to irrigate the Chengdu plain, thus the mighty Min was tamed.

MT. QINGCHENG

Mt. Qingcheng (Qingchengshan), some 16 km from the Dujiangyan proper, is known as the origin of Taoist and qualified as the ‘5th holy land’ by Taoism. Scores of the Taoist temples are the best preserved, housing a great deal of cultural relics and eminent scholars’ and litterateurs’ scripts of recent times. It may be said without fear of exaggeration that Mt. Qingcheng is nothing short of a living Taoist museum with a history of tens of hundreds of years.

WOLONG NATURE RESERVE

Built in 1963, Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve is accredited with a comprehensive National Nature Reserve protecting giant panda, golden monkey, and dove tree as well as the alpine ecological system. The reserve, one of the pioneers in the country, was approved to join the World Biosphere Reserve network by UNESCO in 1980. In collaboration with WWF, it founded the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in the same year.
The reserve, covering an area of 200,000 hectares, offers sound conditions to the inhabitation and propagation of many animals. Statistics showed that the reserve accommodates 450 species of vertebrate, among which there are 103 species of beasts, 281 species of birds, 21 species of reptiles, and 14 species of amphibians, and 11 species of fishes. As many as 1,700 species of example of insects were by far collected. More than 4,000 species of higher plant were found, which are subject to 814 genuses of 217 subjects. Species under state protection contain giant panda, golden monkey, gnu, Cervus albirostris, Lophophorus lhuysii, dove tree, Tetracentron sinense Oliv., Cercidiphyllaceae, and yew etc. 100 plus wild giant pandas are distributed in the reserve, accounting for 10% of the China’s total amount, accordingly Wolong is renowned as the ‘Hometown to Giant Panda’ and ‘Precious Genic Databank’ in the world.

SANXINGDUI

The Sanxingdui site is located at Nanxing Town, southwest of Sichuan’s Guanghan, covering an area of 12 sq km. The site of the ancient Kingdom of Shu was verified as one with the broadest scope, longest duration, and richest cultural contents, which has been ever unearthed in Sichuan. Archaeological excavation proved that the history of the Sanxingdui site is of somewhere between 4,800 and 2,800 years with a duration of nearly 2,000 years. The significant discovery of Sanxingdui unveiled the genuine image of the West Sichuan Plain’s the Kingdom of Shu in the early times, adding 2,000-odd years to the history of the Kingdom and filling many blanks of the China’s archaeology, and bronze culture and history, and ultimately earning itself a reputation ‘the world ninth wonder’.

DINOSAUR MUSEUM

LUGU LAKE

Combing both natural beauty and cultural tourist attractions, it is of unique and abundant contents centring the Mosuo ethnic group’s culture and custom, making it the irreplaceable world culture heritage in the country even the world. Charming lake and landscape, primitive and mysterious ethnic group, pristine religious culture, and fabulous dancing and singing fold it into the paradise of tourists.
Lugu lake, also called the ‘mother lake’ by the Moso people, is an integral part of the Lugu Lake Tourist Attraction. Covering an area of 50 sq km, the lake is 2,688 m above sea level with an average depth of 45m. The deepest point is more than 90m and transparency reaches to 11m.

DAOCHENG YADING

Once upon a time, there was a secret place hidden deep in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, it was in fact a kingdom surrounded by two layers of snow mountain, where were only seen snow, glacier, gorge, forest, meadow, lake, gold mine, and fresh air, namely the ‘Kingdom of Shangbala’. In the Tibetan Buddhism, the ‘Pure Land’ as beautiful, clear, tranquil, and harmonious as the ‘Kingdom of Shangbala’, is also entitled ‘Shangri-La’.
Yading, under the jurisdiction of Sichuan’s Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, lies east of the well-known Qinghai-Tibet plateau and at the middle section of the transversal mountain range. It is adjacent to the Liangshan Prefecture’s Muli County in the southeast, Xiangcheng County in the west adjoining Yunnan’s Zhongdian County, and Litang County in the north, covering an area of 7,323 sq km. It is 3,750m above sea level with a tallest point of 6,032m. Subject to the plateau monsoon climate, it witnesses sunny days most of time around the year and striking natural beauty, in particular famous for the ‘ancient glacier-cap of Daocheng’.