Benxi is putting on a grand autumn show
Autumn accounts for the majority of the year's romance, and 🍂 Benxi is the ceiling of domestic maple appreciation. The Liaodong mountain area, stretching for dozens of kilometers, starts to display stunning reds, oranges, and yellows from the end of September, 🤩 dazzling the entire autumn. It's truly worth it. The photo was taken on September 28, when it was still in the early red stage, and it was already breathtakingly beautiful.
🈺 Maple season runs from the end of September to the end of October (with different plants in different areas turning red at different times, the autumn appreciation period 🉑 can last a month)
✈️ Transportation
The nearest city to Benxi is Shenyang. I flew from Guangzhou to Shenyang, then took the high-speed train to Benxi.
🔹 Route: Shenyang (high-speed train) -- Benxi City (bus) -- Small town (taxi) -- Various viewing parks
You can also 🉑 drive directly from Shenyang to the viewing parks, about 3 hours.
🏠 Accommodation
Generally, stay in a small town, where the lamb soup and barbecue are quite good 😋, taxis are convenient, and the front desk 💁🏻 can provide driver contact information for trips to the scenic areas.
Where to appreciate maple leaves⁉️
During my 3 days and 2 nights in Benxi, there were more than a dozen viewing parks, such as Guanmenshan, Maple Valley, Dabian Gou, and Laobian Gou. I chose 2 of them because they are really big, and if you stroll and take photos leisurely, you can only visit one a day.
🔸 Guanmenshan
The nearest Guanmenshan to the small town, about 30 minutes by taxi, round trip 100, ☝🏻 because it's close to the city, the maple leaves usually turn red enough by mid-October. The maple trees here are particularly large, and the Maple King 👑 and Maple Queen are worth seeing. There are vast forests, wide plank roads, and the mountain scenery with layers of dyed woods is absolutely stunning ⛰️.
🔸 Laobian Gou
My favorite place for maple appreciation, 1.5 hours from the small town by taxi, round trip 240, 😇 but definitely worth it for the scenery. The park is built along a stream, with maple forests all along the water, small bridges over flowing water, very picturesque 🍂, dense maple trees, all with water and maples. If you can only go to one place, come here, with a view at every step, and the photography 📸 is truly amazing.
✅ Tips
1. From Benxi to the small town, there are shared taxis, 20 per person, hotel pick-up and drop-off, more convenient than the bus, ask at the hotel front desk.
2. The forest parks have small shops and toilets, but no restaurants, so you can bring some snacks.
3. Benxi's maple red index, level two to three is the viewing period, the kind with large patches of red, but I think the level one with red, yellow, and green mixed is also very beautiful.