Last week me and Siqi hopped on another long distance bus and headed south of Beijing to a beautiful place called Longqing Gorge.
From China Vista:
The Longqing Gorge Natural Scenic Area is located 10 kilometers northeast of the county seat of Yanqing. Known as “Lesser Lijiang river outside the Great wall” and “The Small Three gorges of China,” it is one of Beijing’s top 16 tourist sites. Longqing Gorge covers an area of 119 square kilometers. The main scenic spots include the largest dam in Northern China-a concrete dam more than 70 meters high. Here tourists can see waterfalls in summer and icefalls in winter.
Whilst there wasn’t quite enough water about for there to be any waterfalls where the dam is, the gorge itself was beautiful despite the general Chinese tourist tack near the start (such as the whopping great yellow dragon with escalators inside at the entrance). The water is a lovely deep alpine blue colour and there are steep mountains and cliffs on either side of the channel.
We took a boat trip upstream and were dropped off at the foot of a mountain which we climbed up to get a brilliant birds eye view down on the gorge. Unfortunately we were a bit pushed for time as we had to make sure we didn’t miss the bus – otherwise it would have been nice to hire a rowing boat for an hour or two and venture further upstream (maybe go for a swim too). You can also do bungee jumping here and or go for a ride on a cable car – but it’s expensive and you actually get a better view (and fewer annoying tour groups) from walking up the other mountain yourself!
If you’re in Beijing and are looking to get out to the surrounding countryside for a breath of fresh air, Longqing Gorge is certainly somewhere worth considering.
