Sichuan

Famous Sight

Mountain Emei

Mountain Emei is located in Emei Shan City, Sichuan Province. Its main summit is Golden Summit. Its highest peak, Wanfo Summit, is 3,099 meters above the sea level. Mountian Emei is only 30 km from Leshan Giant Buddha, the world's biggest and most ancient stone sculpture of the Buddha. Mountian Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha were list the World Natural and Cultural Heritage in 1996.

Mountain Emei is the famous national park with one century old history of China. Unique geographical and Climatic conditions endow it with unrivalled vegetation and countless ornamental plants. Standing on the Golden Summit, visitors can view the Sunrise, the Sea of Clouds, the Buddhist Divine and the Saints' Lights. When you enjoy the snow-clad mountains and trees like a silver world in the winter, the azaleas flowers are in full bloom like the sea of flower in the summer. In autumn, the Mountains are covered with red autumnal leaves. The beautiful scenery shall make you enjoy yourself so much as to forget to go home.

Leshan: Exploring Sichuan's Buddhist Heritage

Listed as a World Heritage site in 1996, Leshan Giant Buddha and Mountain Emei in Southwest China's Sichuan Province draw tourists and Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world.

The addition of other temples turned the 3,099-meter-tall summit into one of China's four most sacred Buddhist mountains. The others are Mount Wutai in Shanxi Province, Mount Jiuhua in Jiangxi Province, and Mount Putuo in Zhejiang Province.

The Giant Buddha lies to the east of the city of Leshan in Sichuan Province at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers. The statue faces the sacred Mountain Emei with the rivers flowing below its feet.

The statue depicts a seated Maitreya Buddha. Maitreya is the Buddha of the future, who will appear to preach dharma when the teachings of Gautama Buddha have faded away from public consciousness.

Leshan: Exploring Sichuan's Buddhist Heritage

JiuZhaigou

Jiuzhaigou, reputed as a "fairyland", is situated in the central south part of the Jiuzhaigou County of the Abe Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, China, being a tributary of the Baishuihe River on the Jialingjiang River of the Changjiang water system. It is so named because of the nine Tibetan villages in the scenic area such as the Heye Village, the Shuzeng Village and the Zazhawa Village. With an elevation of 2,000-3,100m above the sea-level, the scenic area enjoys pleasant climate and beautiful colors all the year round, being one of the world's famous scenic areas possessing the best tourist environment.

Jiuzhaigou is an agglomeration of green lakes, overflying waterfalls, colorful forests and snow mountains as well as the custom and culture of the Tibetan and Qiang nationalities, characterized its primitive and natural features. In the "Y"-shape valley formed by Shuzheng Gully, Rize Gully and Zezhawa Gully of the scenic area are distributed 114 green lakes, 47 springs, 17 waterfall groups, 11sections of turbulent streams, 5 karst shoals and three Tibetan villages. The scenic area has an area of 1,320 square kilometers (30,000 hectares) of primitive forest where 2,576 protospeces are living including scores of state-protected animals and plants such as giant pandas, golden monkeys and mono-leaf grass. The water reflections on the lake, the stone mill, the Tibetan village, the Buddhist streamers and the songs and dances of the Tibetan and Qiang people constitute the unique tourist culture of Jiuzhaigou.

The Dujiangyan Irrigation System

Dujiangyan Irrigation System lies on the Minjiang River in the northwest of Dujiangyan City, Sichuan, China. It was built around 250 B.C. under the direction of Li Bing, the governor of the Shu Prefecture of the Qin State.

The Minjiang River running across the vast Chengdu Plain used to do harm to the people down the river in the ancient times. After making careful survey on the spot Li Bing had a channel cut through Mount Yulei in the west of the city, thus a man-made river came into existence. In the middle of the Minjiang River, a dyke was built to divide the river into two parts: the inner river and the outer river. In order to control flood and charge silt, two spillways were built at the end of the water-dividing dyke. Since then there has been a gravity irrigation system, which makes the Chengdu Plain a "Land of Abundance" with a bumper harvest every year in spite of any drought or flood.

Huanglong

The "World Wonder" and "Fairy Land on Earth" are names enjoyed by the Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area, which is well known for its colorful lakes, snow clad mountains, valleys and virgin forest.

The Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area is located in Songpan County, in the northwest part of Sichuan Province and encompasses the Huanglong and Muni Valley. Huanglong's major scenery is concentrated in the 3.6-kilometer (2.2 miles) long Huanglong Valley that includes snow-clad peaks and the easternmost glaciers in China. Due to its layered calcium carbonated deposit patterns, the valley resembles a golden dragon winding its way through the virgin forest, stone mountains and glaciers. Along the valley are scattering numerous colorful ponds of different sizes and shapes, which are strewn with gold colored limestone deposit giving a shimmering golden hue to water, so in sunlight, a golden dragon seems to surge forth from the forest. Thus it was named "Huanglong Valley" (Yellow Dragon Valley).

Wolong National Natural Reserve (Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries)

Wolong Panda Reserve in the east of Mt. Qionglai and a 3-hour drive from Chengdu, is a comprehensive state natural reserve of 200,000 hectares (i.e. 494,200 acres). Begun in 1963, Wolong National Natural Reserve is the earliest, largest and best-known panda reserve in China. It was placed on UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve Network in 1980.

Sixty-seven captive pandas are among 150 pandas in Wolong Panda Reserve managed by the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda. The center was founded in 1980 with assistance from World Wildlife Fund.

Reputed as bio-gene bank both at home and abroad, Wolong National Natural Reserve is home not only to the giant pandas but also to rare and endangered animals such as red panda, golden monkey, white-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris), gnu (wildebeest) and precious plants like yew and beech. Other major places of interests in Wolong Panda Reserve include: animal and plant specimen museum, local plant specimen No.2170, bird specimen No.225, beast No. 56, insects No.700 and fish No. 6 and amphibious reptiles No.17.

Wolong National Natural Reserve (Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries)

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