The Emerald Corridor
A road under bamboo.
liuzusai刘祖赛 — CC BY 3.0 · 郭 敏 — CC BY 2.0 · Nyx Ning — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Nyx Ning — CC BY-SA 3.0 · liuzusai刘祖赛 — CC BY 3.0 · liuzusai刘祖赛 — CC BY 3.0 · 郭 敏 — CC BY 2.0 · Nyx Ning — CC BY-SA 3.0
A vast bamboo forest covering the hills of southern Sichuan over some 120 square kilometres, called Shunan Zhuhai, the «Bamboo Sea»; it is one of very few places in the world famous for bamboo alone, and a protected national scenic area since 1988. On hills between six hundred and a thousand metres high grow some sixty native kinds of bamboo and more than three hundred brought in, above all the tall moso bamboo that colours the hills green to the horizon. Visitors walk the «Emerald Corridor», a road shaded by bamboo on both sides, ride the cable car over the treetops, and find waterfalls tumbling over red rock, quiet lakes, and paths cut into a red cliff at the Tianbao fort. Tickets cost CNY 100 from March to October and 60 in winter, and it is open from 8 am to 6 pm; the main cable car costs 50 one way or 75 return, and the forest buses 55 for three days, per visitor guides.
A road under bamboo.
Over the treetops.
Over red rock.
Changning and Jiang'an counties, about 70 km by road from central Yibin, Sichuan
A long day covers the highlights by bus and cable car, and many stay a night in the forest hotels to see the morning mist among the bamboo.
Forest restaurants serve bamboo-shoot and mushroom dishes but also cook pork, so bring food or ask about ingredients; Yibin city has restaurants run by Muslims under the halal sign.