Zibai Mountain 紫柏山

About Zibai Mountain

A Feng County government entry says 紫柏山 is named alongside 华山 and 太白山 as one of Shaanxi's three famous mountains, is known as 岭南独秀、秦岭明珠, and was listed as a provincial-level key scenic area in 1993. It gives the area as 82.5 km² with a highest peak of 2,610 m, on the south slope of the Qinling and straddling the Feng County-Liuba County boundary.

The entry says the area combines peaks, cliffs, gorges, ridges, caves, flats, springs, streams and rare plants and animals, with the traditional description 九十二峰、八十二坦、七十二洞. It calls the 天坑 the most striking feature – sinkholes of varying size and depth, shaped like pots – and says alpine meadow runs more than 30 km east-west and 3-4 km north-south across the summit. The sinkholes lie scattered across the summit and cover more than 30,000 mu, which the entry calls rare both in the north-west and nationally; the 溶洞群 is another feature, with stalactites, stalagmites, columns, falls, flowers and curtains of calcium carbonate and underground rivers in some caves.

A Xinhua photo caption from July 2023 describes the mountain as steep and winding, with more than 20,000 mu of subalpine meadow, and says the meadows, like soft woven blankets over the land, draw many visitors.

The Feng County entry gives forest cover averaging over 90 per cent, more than 100 bird species and more than 300 kinds of valuable mammals including 羚牛, 羚羊, 林麝, 鹿, 獐 and 麂, and names 西洋参, 凤党, 鹿寿草, 手掌参, 铁棒棰 and 天麻 among the most prized medicinal plants.

The page, published in 2014, also prints its transport line, telephone number, ticket prices and special-activity list; that practical detail is outside this record's scope and is not carried into prose. Neither source says which parts of the area are open or what the cableway and the trails are like.

What to look for

• The 天坑, the pot-shaped sinkholes the Feng County entry calls the area's most striking feature.
• The alpine meadow across the summit, which the entry gives as more than 30 km east-west and 3-4 km north-south and the Xinhua caption as more than 20,000 mu.
• The 溶洞群, with its calcium-carbonate formations and the underground rivers in some of its caves.
• The peak the entry gives as 2,610 m, and the 七十二洞 counted in the traditional description.

Location & getting there

Getting to Zibai Mountain

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.

• Search for 紫柏山 with 汉中市 and 留坝县.