7 Days in Shennongjia

Base in Muyu, the visitor town at about 1,200 metres — fly-ins land at the 2,584-metre airport opened in May 2014, or ride up from Xingshan on the 2022 Zhengwan line. A first look at the 21-metre figure at Shennong Tan fills the afternoon.

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A second look at the memorial grounds in morning light, then the Xiangxi source walk south of town, where the stream that feeds the Yangtze tributary rises.

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The ridge tops out at 3,106.2 metres, the highest point in central China; the Shennong Valley boardwalk runs some 4 km along the cliffs, and Xiaolongtan's rescue station keeps golden monkeys rescued from the wild — a 2022 survey counted 1,471 across roughly 400 sq km of habitat.

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West over the pass, nine lakes string across a 1,700-metre basin of peat and pasture; the boardwalk loops make an easy half-day before the ride back over the pass.

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North toward Songbai, the Tianyan pass runs near 2,200 metres; the swallow cave hosts colonies of short-tailed swifts in season, and the Rainbow Bridge spans the gap between the ridges.

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The Banbiyan rock slabs and rhododendron thickets sit at roughly 2,600 metres along the high road; Guanmenshan's museum halls lay out the geology — the reserve joined the UNESCO Man and Biosphere network in 1990 and the World Heritage list in 2016.

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The Tianshengqiao trail near Muyu passes a cave bridge and waterfall on a half-day loop; afternoon bus down to Xingshan for the HSR.

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