6 Days Western Sichuan Autumn Sightseeing Tour
Wander on Nature’s Best Splendid Palette in Autumn
Western Sichuan as one of the most beautiful destinations in China is super popular to admire the pleasant snow mountains, alpine lakes, verdant forest, vast grassland, and featured Tibetan cultural places. This 6 Days Western Sichuan Autumn Sightseeing Tour takes you to discover all top beautiful destinations, including Mount Siguniang National Park, Xinduqiao, Danba, Tagong, Kangding, etc. in their best beautiful period!(late September to early November)
You will not only see the wonderful colorful forests, meadows and lakes with some far admirations of the holy Sichuan mountain “queen”, but also enjoy a nice morning to take famous photos of Xinduqiao’s idyllic rural landscape matching postcards. Besides, you will walk amongst the enchanting Jiaju Tibetan Village and Suopo Village to have the impressive panorama of hundreds of white houses and ancient towers appearing in the colorful forests mountain. Moreover, we will take you to spend some relaxing hours on the enormous grassland, stunning alpine lakes, etc., appreciate top snow peaks, close up to precious giant pandas in the captive base, and so on to impress you an unforgettable memory of the core Western Sichuan dyed into golden yellow and more brilliant Autumn colors! Join us now to seek them all!
Highlights of this tour:
- Take the best photos of Xinduqiao in its most beautiful Autumn with soft sunshine sparkling on the surrounding hills, golden and green poplar trees, little houses, leisure horses;
- Appreciate the famous Tibetan styled Jiaju and Suopo villages with white dwelling houses scattered among the wonderful Autumn forest in red, orange, yellow and green from various great angles;
- Go deep into the sightseeing valleys at Mount Siguniang National Forest Park to seek its most splendid forests, alpine meadow, fresh snow, etc. and all those reflections on the crystal clear lake;
- Take a leisure walk on the vast yellow Tagong Grassland with seasonal wild blossoms and catch the fine view of golden temple architecture shining against white Yala Snow Mountain and azure clear sky.
- Closely say hi to those adorable giant pandas at Wolong Shenshuping Panda Base and see their funny eating, climbing, walking, playing, etc. in the natural wonderland.
Basic Trip Information
- Price:
- from
$1038
- 1. This price is for one person, based on a group of 2 adults sharing one double-bed room in a 4-star hotel and traveling in low seasons;
- 2. This price is subject to change according to your traveling season, group size, hotel class, change of activities and possible fluctuation of currency exchange rate.
- Travel Route:
- Chengdu / Wolong / Mount Siguniang / Danba / Tagong / Xinduqiao / Kangding / Chengdu
- Travel Length:
- 6 Days & 5 Nights
- Tour Code:
- CD-WSAT-06
- Group Size:
- You, your family, friends or group
- Experience:
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- Departure:
- Any day you want
Your tour - at a glance
Day 1~3 Chengdu - Wolong - Mount Siguniang - Danba
Day 4 Danba - Tagong - Xinduqiao
Day 5~6 Xinduqiao - Kangding - Chengdu
Full Itinerary Day by Day
Day 1 Chengdu - Wolong - Siguniangshan Town (L)
On this day, your driver and guide will pick you up at your hotel in Chengdu downtown. The following journey will be a scenic driving from Chengdu to Mount Siguniang, about 205 kilometers away. To enrich your experience on the way, you’ll pay a visit to Shenshuping Panda Base (altitude: 1,700 meters) in Wolong after driving about 2 hours from Chengdu. It is the world largest and most dynamic panda base at present and is the wonderland for more than 50 captive giant pandas. So, you can have a quite close look at the chubby pandas climbing trees, eating bamboos, playing in the garden, walking along the path, etc. in this large base park under the emerald valley forest within Wolong National Nature Reserve that is reputed as “Panda Kingdom”.
After the visiting, continue your driving and travel onwards and upwards through the sea of clouds of Balang Mountain (altitude: 4,532 meters). Then, stop at Maobiliang Ridge (Bridge of Cat’ Nose) which is the top best location to enjoy the panorama of Mount Siguniang. After that, you’ll arrive in Siguniangshan Town (altitude: 3,200 meters). Have a good rest and stay overnight in this town.
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Adorable Giant Panda at Shenshuping Panda Center in Wolong
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Drive over Balang Mountain and head to Mount Siguniang
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Mount Siguniang Appearance from Maobiliang
Day 2 Siguniangshan Town - Shuangqiao Valley - Siguniangshan Town (B)
After breakfast, you’ll be transferred to explore Mount Siguniang National Park and first visit Shuangqiao Valley, the left one of the three valleys about 7 kilometers from Siguniangshan Town. With a full length of 34.8 kilometers, Shuangqiao Valley is regarded as the most beautiful valley in Mount Siguniang National Park. Take the sightseeing bus directly up to the end of the valley and visit Redwood Forest (altitude: 3,800 meters) where to have your eyes filled with clusters of bright red dyed among the yellow and golden snow-covered forest with layers of green from light to dark, which is the typical Autumn dress of the national park. Then, take sightseeing bus down the valley passing vast grassland covered by the fresh white snow, clear lakes reflecting the colorful Autumn forest, prayer flags dancing in the mountain wind, lush meadow with grazing horses, white pagoda quite brilliant under blue sky, and make stops to hike and explore along the way. Have some leisure time at Fishing Bay, Bonsai Beach, Ten-mile Poplar Trees...In this valley, you’ll travel through the varying alpine scenery belt with breathtaking landscape. After the visiting, walk or take the sightseeing bus down back. And your guide and driver will drive you back to your hotel in Siguniangshan Town. Have good rest for the trekking experience of the next day!
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Shuangqiao Valley Autumn Sightseeing
Day 3 Siguniangshan Town - Changping or Haizi Valley - Danba (B)
After breakfast, you’ll begin your hiking journey in either Changping Valley or Haizi Valley to feel more Autumn beauty of Mount Siguniang. Changping Valley is a mature valley designed with sightseeing bus, plank road, hiking trail and horse riding and it is also the nearest valley to catch the beauty of Mount Siguniang. While Haizi Valley is wilder and more primitive than Changping Valley, offering the best location to shoot Mount Siguniang. (Note: Each valley takes about one full day which means you can only choose one to do on this day, and you’d better tell your likes to us beforehand.)
Hiking experience in Changping Valley: first take a sightseeing bus to Lama Temple (5 km) which is the starting point of your hiking. The following hiking is composed of two parts - hiking on the plank road and hiking from the ending of the plank road to Muluozi. In the first part, you will see solemn monastery, waterfalls, deep valleys, ancient withered trees standing in lakes; and in the second part, you’ll walk through wild forests, follow the walking trails along the clear streams to chase some landscape you have never seen - sea buckthorn forest, red stones arrayed by nature, peaks like camel, mushrooms, pure plateau lakes reflecting the giant peaks, flocks and herds leisurely wandering, snow-capped Four Girls Mountains, magnificent glacier… Muluozi is the best Autumn highlights to be immersed into the lush forest in rich layers of orange, yellow, brown, green, etc. contrasting to the white snow peaks surrounding, you will return to Lama Temple after visiting Muluozi. The whole hiking needs about 8 hours. Last, take a sightseeing bus to go out.
Hiking experience in Haizi Valley: Your hiking is composed of two sections. The first half of Haizi Valley hiking features in walking on plateau meadows and having the most magnificent Autumn views of Mount Siguniang - dominating snow peaks under clear blue sky, golden forest, cloud sea, flag clouds... Stop for a while at Chaoshanping which is the best location to photograph Mount Siguniang. The second half of Haizi Valley hiking lets you revel in the best Autumn photographic works shot by best photographers in the world - The jade like peaceful alpine lake inset in the red, orange, yellow and green grassland and mountain valley also mirrors all the terrific Autumn colors of all plantations, snow peaks, and the azure sky to let you maze at the world of colors. With scattering water grass ignited by sunshine and half appearing a little beneath the water, the entire image in front of you is indeed an outstanding piece of oil painting by nature! You will stop at Dahaizi Lake and return to the entrance. The whole hiking today takes about 8-9 hours.
After the visiting, your guide and driver will escort you for 2.5 hours to Danba County (altitude: 1,893 meters) for accommodation! Have a good sleep!
Important Travel Tips: 1) The scenic area also provides horse for transferring luggage and riding in case you get tired of walking; 2) You can decide how long you want to hike based on your physical condition at that time; 3) Altitude changing: the altitudes range from 3,200 meters to 3,670/3,800 meters along the way. Try to avoid strenuous activity to prevent from possible high altitude sickness. 4) You’d better bring sun cream, sun glasses to protect yourself from strong sunlight; 5) There is no any restaurant in the valley, so you have to bring some food and drinks with you.
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Lama Monastery at Changping Valley
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Changping Valley in Autumn
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Haizi Valley in Autumn
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Hiking in beautiful Haizi Valley of Mount Siguniang
Day 4 Danba - Tagong - Xinduqiao (B, L)
In this morning after breakfast, begin your discovery of Danba is renowned as “A Place with Hundreds of Ancient Watchtowers” with over 2,000 years’ history. You will first visit Jiaju Tibetan Village, honored as the most beautiful village in China by Chinese National Geographic. In Danba County, there are over 180 Tibetan villages, while Jiaju is the best example to well preserved Jiarong Tibetan culture.
Standing at the observation decks and capture panoramic scene with numerous Tibetan stone houses in white, red and black settled level by level from the deep valley to the foot of Kapama Mountain, which is an ideal hidden fairyland with tree clusters dressed by time into golden, orange and various green. Hike down from the observation deck to have a clearer look at the featured Tibetan houses with golden corns and prosperous red peppers hung high on the exterior walls surrounded by trees with mellow fruits. You can see many locals dressed in traditional Jiarong Tibetan costumes still keep their unique Jiarong Tibetan culture in such quiet and beautiful village. If you like, you can pay a visit to one of the Tibetans’ home to have a deep understanding about their house construction, decoration, real life and other Jiarong customs.
Next, go to visit Suopo Village, the most concentrated Tibetan village with 172 Danba towers in the world. The original building of the towers were used to suppress demons, later they became fortresses to protect families from aggressive enemies. Stand at Suopo platform to appreciate the whole village fully dyed in harmonious Autumn hues of red, orange and green with ancient towers dotted besides the numerous Tibetan-styled white houses. Different shapes of towers in quadrilateral, pentagonal, and hexagonal erecting among the wonderful forest can be admired here, which look like the guards of the “Ancient Kingdom of Towers”.
After that, drive for about 2.5 hours to visit to Tagong Grassland and overlook the snow-capped magnificent Yala Mountain (5,884 meters) in a distance. Enjoy the harmonious scene with numerous yaks and sheep grazing on the fertile golden yellow grassland decorated with flourishing seasonal wild flowers under the blue sky. And if you are interested, you can rent a horse to explore happily with a visit to herder’s home (pay the expense on your own). The famous Tagong Monastery in glamorous golden is conspicuous on the top of the grassland and looks so sacred backing the azure canopy in Autumn months. Tagong means “A Land Favored by Bodhisattva” in Tibetan language and a legend goes that Princess Wencheng on the way to Lhasa for her wedding to Tibetan King, she was attracted by the breathtaking scenery of Tagong and left the life-sized statue of the Shakyamuni at the age of 12 here. Reputed as “Little Jokhang Temple”, Tagong Monastery belongs to Sakya Sect with a history over 1,000 years. You can go inside and see the pilgrims worshiping.
Later, say goodbye to this beautiful grassland with a 50 minutes’ scenic driving to Xinduqiao for accommodation!
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Jiaju Tibetan Village
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Tagong Monastery (Tibetan)
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Suopo Village
Day 5 Xinduqiao - Kangding (B, L)
After an early breakfast, you’ll going to catch the most beautiful Autumn landscape of Xinduqiao, which is called “A Paradise for Photographers”. Drive slowly on the several kilometer long “Photography Gallery” with the most romantic soft sunshine in Autumn morning. Just be satisfied with the wild flowers blooming by the winding river, golden and emerald poplar forests showing their elegance on both sides of the road and in the village, alpine hills dressed into yellow and dark orange, Tibetan-styled houses scattered among the farmland, roaming yaks and goats...everything here seems to be drawn by the most talented oil painter and let you immerse into the picturesque landscape along the way. Mount Gongga is 7,559 meters above sea and praised as the King of Mountains in Sichuan, and you will also have a terrific look at that magnificent mountain from the best location around Xinduqiao from a distance if the weather is clear.
After that, drive for about 3 hours to visit Mugecuo Scenic Area that is complimented as the “Little Jiuzhai Valley” with abundant red and yellow as the subject color in Autumn. Take the sightseeing bus to pass Fangcao Plateau with stunning flowers, grass and horses. Visit Seven Color Lake that is the best view of whole Mugecuo Scenic Area to admire the multicolored crescent lake like a shining colorful diamond changing its rays in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple in the dense forest and meadow. With sometimes chirping of birds, this lake is quite dreamy to calm down your mind. Next, go to Azalea Gorge reputed as the gorgeous belt of Mugecuo to marvel at the primitive natural landscape with always verdant forest, lake, meadow, hot spring, ravine, etc. You will not miss the advantageous location to watch the sacred Yala Snow Mountain and Lotus Snow Mountain from a distance. Then, go to Mugecuo Lake (3,700m) to enjoy the peaceful large blue alpine lake mirroring sapphire sky, white snow mountain and the wonderful forest in bright green, orange and red.
After the visiting, drive back to your hotel in Kangding City! Have a good sleep!
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Xinduqiao Town Countryside Scenery in Autumn
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Xinduqiao Scenic Driving Road in Autumn
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Beautiful Mugecuo Lake in October
Day 6 Kangding - Chengdu & Chengdu Departure (B)
After breakfast, your guide and drive will drive you for about 4.5 hours back to your hotel in Chengdu or the airport/train station for your flights/train home or to the next destination! Tour ends!
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