"If Healing Has a Color, It Must Include This Shade of Green!"
Here's a brief travel guide to Yesanpo:
📚📚 Overview
Yesanpo is located in Laishui County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, at the intersection of the Taihang and Yanshan Mountains. It's a national 5A-level tourist attraction that combines a National Forest Park, National Geopark, and National Key Scenic Area. It features "magnificent, dangerous, unique, and secluded" natural landscapes with rich geological heritage and diverse biological resources. About 100 kilometers from Beijing, it's known as "Beijing's backyard garden." The main scenic areas include Baili Gorge, Baicao Plateau, Yugu Cave, and Longmen Tianguan.
⌚⌚ Best Time to Visit
The best time to visit is from April to October, when you can enjoy the mountains, waters, cave exploration, and rafting. Spring brings blooming wildflowers, summer offers shady trees and cool temperatures (making it an ideal summer retreat), and autumn features mountains covered in red leaves.
🚗🚗 Transportation Guide
Bus/Train: Buses depart from Beijing Tianqiao Bus Terminal to Yesanpo between 7:30-8:30 AM, with return trips from Baili Gorge Scenic Area between 5:00-5:30 PM. Tickets cost 38 yuan per person one-way, with daily service and direct routes. Direct buses from Shijiazhuang to Yesanpo run every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, returning every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The entire journey is on highways, with round-trip fare at 88 yuan.
Self-driving: Driving from Beijing is convenient; simply set your navigation to the destination. Note different parking strategies depending on when you visit: On weekdays, when Baili Gorge has fewer visitors, the scenic area parking lot can generally meet demand; On weekends, Baili Gorge implements traffic control, and visitor vehicles must park in the designated parking lots 1 and 2; During holidays, if parking lots 1 and 2 are full, the backup parking lot at Liujiahe will be used, with shuttle buses transporting visitors to parking lots 1 and 2.
🌈🌈 Recommended Attractions
Baili Gorge: Known as the "World's First Gorge," it consists of three canyons: Haitang Valley, Shixuan Gorge, and Scorpion Gully, with a total length of 105 li (about 52.5 km). The gorge features towering rocks, steep cliffs, and lush vegetation. In summer, the highest temperature is only 23°C, making it a natural oxygen bar and air conditioner. A complete tour takes about 4 hours.
Baicao Plateau: The highest point in Yesanpo at 1,983 meters above sea level, it's known as the "Green Pearl of Taihang Mountains" and is the "sister peak" to Beijing's Baihua Mountain. Here you can overlook mountain ranges and enjoy alpine meadows, dense forests, and sea of clouds. Around May Day, while the lower mountain areas are in full spring bloom, the upper areas still have glaciers over 100 meters long, creating the unique "May Glacier" landscape.
Yugu Cave: Famous for its strange springs and unusual caves, the cave is about 1,800 meters long with 5 interconnected levels. Inside, stalactites, cloud basins, and goose tubes take various shapes and display colorful hues. Yugu Spring is one of China's eight strange springs, where schools of fish leap out from the spring mouth during the Grain Rain season.
Longmen Tianguan: With towering peaks, steep cliffs reaching into the clouds, and rushing streams in the valley, this was a key transportation route from Beijing to the frontier and a strategic military location. It includes national key cultural relics protection units such as "Longmen Castle," "Caishu'an Great Wall," and "Cliff Inscriptions."
🦐🍚 Food Recommendations
Yesanpo's roasted whole lamb is crispy outside and tender inside with an enticing aroma. The fish head stewed with tofu is delicious, and wild vegetables and other local specialties are also worth trying.
❤️ Travel Tips
Choose the right season to visit, as Yesanpo has different charms in different seasons.
Bring a camera to capture the beautiful scenery, especially in places like Baili Gorge.
Try hiking, cycling, rafting, and other outdoor activities to get close to nature.
Respect the natural environment while traveling—don't damage vegetation or litter.