Chahanhe Forest Scenic Area 察汗河开放游览区

About Chahanhe Forest Scenic Area

The Qinghai provincial government's page records that Datong Forest Park was approved as a provincial forest park in November 2001 and in the same month established as a national forest park, that it lies in a county under Xining where rivers are dense and mountains and river valleys interlock, and that the two well-known scenic areas of Yaozi Gou and Chahan He are set within its forest. It places Chahan He 82 km from Xining and 45 km from the Datong county seat, with the Ningzhang road from Xining to Zhangye in Gansu passing its gate, gives its elevation as 2,868–4,235 m and its area as 3,114 hectares, and records that it is closely joined to the large Heiquan water-conservancy reservoir. The page describes the area's landforms as rugged and steep and lists stone forest, waterfalls, rhododendrons and juniper as the elements that make up its landforms and forest scenery, and it records that the scenic area is made up of four sub-areas — Daxigou, Baimuquan, Shimen and Donggou — each with a concentration of sites, with rocks, water, plants and trees forming the plateau scenery. It records that in early summer rhododendrons bloom across the hillsides in white, pink, purple and other colours, and that the area therefore holds a large rhododendron festival every year.

The same page records that the juniper forest is the only stretch of primary forest in Datong county, with value for its distribution and succession and for research, and that the junipers are both tree-like and miniature. It lists the area's plants, animals and wild foods as open sets: juniper, birch, rhododendron and spiraea among other plants, evergreen and deciduous together; blue sheep, blue eared pheasant, snowcock and kestrel among other animals; and caterpillar fungus, berries, strawberry, wild cherry, mushroom and fiddlehead among other wild foods. The Qinghai News Network's report on the festival's sixth edition records that it was to run from 9 to 12 June at the Chahan He national AAA-grade tourist attraction in Baoku township, opening with a performance at the scenic area's gate on 9 June, with visitors taken into the area to see the wild plateau rhododendrons and the plateau landscape, with folk handicrafts, shadow puppets, embroidery, painted pottery and deer products among the goods shown and sold, and with an exhibition of photographs of the area's primary-forest landscape followed by a walk by photographers and amateurs into the area.

What to look for

• The stone forest, waterfalls, rhododendrons and juniper that the page lists as the elements making up the area's landforms and forest scenery
• The wild plateau rhododendrons blooming across the hillsides in early summer, which the page says appear in white, pink and purple among other colours
• The four sub-areas the page names — Daxigou, Baimuquan, Shimen and Donggou
• The juniper forest, which the page calls the only stretch of primary forest in Datong county
• The Heiquan reservoir, to which the page says the scenic area is closely joined
• The annual rhododendron festival the page records, whose sixth edition the provincial news page reports ran from 9 to 12 June

Location & getting there

Getting to Chahanhe Forest Scenic Area

Check weather, trail access and the last return service. A mountain or forest area is not one entrance, and a map’s central pin may be far from the trailhead.

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