Day Trip from Chengdu

21 May 2010
Today, we took another trip outside smog-choked Chengdu to visit the Taoist holy mountain Qingcheng Shan and the town Dujiangyen, which is famous for its irrigation scheme, dating from 256 B.C.

The Dujiangyen water works is on the Men River. An artificial island was built to separate the river into an inner channel to supply irrigation to the fertile plain around Chengdu (32,000 km², almost ¾ the entire area of Switzerland, and the outer channel to provide flood control.

In order to create the island, woven baskets were filled with stones into large bundles and then sunk onto the river bed.

Although the system is over 2000 years old, it still functions – and the site is a major tourist attraction. The hike back passes by a number of temples and viewpoints, passing through an old town and ending at an ornate foot bridge that reminded us of the Kapellenbruecke in Lucerne.

Before Dujiangyen, we visited Qingcheng Shan, where we enjoyed a very steep hike in a wet forest with very fresh air. The bilingual signs even highlighted the fresh, healthy air, which contains different concentrations of negative ions, more as you go higher.

We believe in the ions and were impressed with the fitness level of the seniors that we met along the endless stairways. These three guys continued on to the 1200-meter peak, whereas we had to go back down once we reached the Shangqing Gong temple, in time to make it to Dujiangyan.

All of the materials to build the temple, supply coal for cooking and transport food and drink have to be carried up the steep path. This is even more difficult on the damp, slippery stones.