Travel with Riley: 2 Days Great Summer Holiday in Bipeng Valley

It goes to the midsummer in China in August when the weather is really hot and people get irritated easily. One of the best things living in Chengdu is that you’ll never be short of great summer resorts to spend your weekends. One weekend, we went to Bipeng Valley with some friends for an outing. It really made us an impressive short trip.

You may have no clue about Bipeng Valley, here are some basic information and introductions about it. Bipeng Valley is located in Putou town, Li County of Aba Prefecture. The valley lies in the Northern part of Mt. Siguniang in West Sichuan Province. The altitude is around 2000-5000 meters above the sea level. It is around 200 km from Chengdu. It is not very far away from the city, but it might take around 3-4 hours by driving if the traffic is smooth as it drives in mountainous area.

We drove to the valley in the afternoon of one Friday, stayed overnight at a local guesthouse, it allowed us to adapted to the altitude and spent the full Saturday in the valley before backing to Chengdu on Sunday morning.

We drove to the valley in the afternoon of one Friday, stayed overnight at a local guesthouse, it allowed us to adapted to the altitude and spent the full Saturday in the valley before backing to Chengdu on Sunday morning.

The Valley’s management company runs buses up to the valley from tickets center and sightseeing cars inside the valley. You can either hike or take sightseeing bus which cost RMB40/person, if you have plenty of time and energy, hiking definitely is a better way to explore this place. Me and my friends are all young and have an entire day, so we’d go with hiking. In the valley, we saw lakes, wetlands, green cypress, waterfalls, snow mountain and glacier. The natural scenery of the highland in Western Sichuan Province is just like that in the fairyland.

Beautifu Senery along the Road to Bipeng Valley

The bus dropped us off at the lower part of the valley where has lakes, waterfalls and wetlands.

Lower Part of Bipenggou Valley

Trekking forward along the murmuring brook to Yanziyan, we find the beautiful scenery of the valley, various unknown wild flowers blooming along the stream, deep purple leaves of brambles, bright red wild fruits under sunshine, towering pines and cypress with Usnea fluttering with wind and Snow Mountains standing in the forests.

We enjoyed the landscape of Bipenggou Valley

When we got to Red Mountian Lake, which is around 3700 meters, my friend got serious altitude sick. We decided not to go to the highest part of the valley. It was a bit of pity, but breath-taking view all the way up had already impressed us.

Red Mountain Lake

In the early morning of Sunday, we hit the way to Chengdu. We stopped to a Tibetan Village in Li County where is famous for its Tibetan-style folk houses. With the development of tourism, these Tibetan family started to do some business in the village by selling fresh fruits, characteristic foods and handcrafts etc. It’s also an ideal photograph place with the traditional Tibetan architecture in the background.

Ganbao Tibetan Village

The Lovely Yard of A Tibetan Family

The sources of Sichuan tourism are abundant. I’ve been living in Chengdu for 8 years since colleague, though I cannot say that I’ve seen them all! Where should be my next destination, haha!