3 Popular Hiking Routes around Hanzhong

01: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Gaoguan River
02: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Dragon Pool

This route goes through the core of the Foping Giant Panda Protected Zone. According to the experienced hikers, traveling this trek is moderately hard, and requires about three days.  
 
01: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Gaoguan River
This is a classic route for hiking in the Qinling Mountains. You can set off from the Watershed, via the Zhuanbotai and get to the 2,800-meter (9,186 feet) high Guangtou Hill. After that you will reach the peaceful and remote village of Dasi, where everybody will find their spiritual garden. There you will see several abandoned houses dotted around the landscape. The downward road along the Gaoguan River is very long. The entire journey will take two days. It is recommended that the best time for hiking here is spring when the Bauhinias scatter over hill and dale. 
 
02: Watershed-Zhuanbotai-Dasi Village-Xingjialing-Huangyang Dam-Dragon Pool
This is another route that goes through Dasi Village. What is different is that you go upwards along the Gaoguan River, and then you traverse the mountain to the south side of the Qinling Mountain. Finally, you reach the Dragon Pool in Tieqiao Town of Ningshan County. This route is little bit longer but it is not that difficult and the natural scenery is quite beautiful.

This tour will lead travelers closer to the nature and have a chance to see Nipponia Nippon and Giant Panda when visiting the Crested Ibis Nature Reserve in Yangxian County and the Foping Nature Reserve in Foping County.

The Crested Ibis Nature Reserve is located in Yangxian County, southern slope of Qinling Mountain. Travelers could take a bus from Hanzhong Coach Station. The bus journey will take around 1 hour and bus ticket costs around CNY10.00 net. Upon arrival in Yangxian, take a taxi to the nature reserve. With an area of 2,000 hectares, the Crested Ibis Nature Reserve is endowed with luxuriant forest. It is the unique nesting site in the world for the Crested Ibis, one of the rarest birds on earth. (Admission fee: CNY10.00 net per person; Contact number for tourist service: 0916-8203069) 
 
After a half day's tour, hire a taxi to the Foping Nature Reserve with around 1 hour by spending about CNY150.00 net for one way. The nature reserve is situated in Foping County and also on the southern slope of Mt. Qinling. Given the priority to protection of the Giant Pandas and its habitat, Foping Nature Reserve was founded in 1979 and covers an area of 35,000 hectares and abundant in both flora and fauna; there around about 300 kinds of animals and 1580 kinds of plants. (Admission fee: CNY60.00 net per person; Contact number for tourist service: 0916-8916002) Transfer back to Hanzhong from the Foping Coach Station.

Cast back the splendid Han culture by visiting the Zhangqian Memorial, the Zhiguo Temple and the Graveyard of Cailun, which are on the outskirt of Hanzhong city. 

The Zhangqian Memorial is situated on 3 kilometers of the Chenggu County. Travelers could take a bus from Hanzhong Coach Station (Address: Hanzhong Central Square; Contact number: 0916-2255949) to Chenggu. The bus journey takes around 40 minutes and bus ticket costs about CNY7.00 net for one way. Upon arrival in Chenggu, take a taxi to the memorial, which is only 2.3 kilometers west of the county. Zhangqian Memorial was built at the base of the Tomb of Zhangqian. He was a celebrated diplomat, explorer and exploiter of the Silk Road, living around 164 B.C.-114 B.C. during the West Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-9 A.D.). The memorial, externally a rectangle, occupies 712 square kilometers, 356 meters long from south to north and 20 meters wide from east to west. (Admission fee: CNY10.00 net per person)    

After a half day's tour, transfer back to Chenggu  and take a coach to Yangxian County (Coach Ticket: around CNY5.00 net  per person) where the Zhiguo Temple and the Graveyard of Cailun are  located. Alternatively, travelers could rent a taxi to reach the county  with an approximate charge of CNY100.00 net for one way. Upon arrival in  Yangxian, take a taxi to visit the Zhiguo Temple (14 kilometers west of  the county) and the Graveyard of Cailun (15 kilometers east of the  county). The taxi fee will cost around CNY200.00 net to finish the  visiting of the two sites. Zhiguo Temple, a famous Buddhist shrine, was  originally built in the Han Dyansty but has been repaired many times  during the succeeding centuries. It houses around 4113 scriptures, most  of which are writings and translated versions of Buddhist masters. 
 
Cailun (around 63 A.D.-121 A.D.) was the originator of Paper-making, which was one of the Four Great Inventions in ancient China in addition to Commercial Printing, Gunpowder and Compass. The present graveyard occupies 1 acre and consist of 13 buildings. On the west side of the grave is the Cailun Paper Culture Museum, from where travelers may see the process of paper-making by using Cailun's method. The Moon Pool at the back of the yard was reportedly the place where Cailun once made papers. For your reference, the Graveyard of Cailun can also be accessed by No.108 bus from the downtown area of Yangxian County. (Admission fee: CNY15.00 net per person)