Help appreciated - Songpan, Changdu, Yangshuo

Mounigou is not Jiuzhaigou or Huanglong but it's also beautiful. I liked to visit it. But you could also do a horse trekking on your free day in the mountains around Songpan. That's also very nice to do. For pictures of Songpan and the surrounding area (including Mounigou) see some albums on my website. Links:
http://www.ellenebens.nl/portfolio-item/amdo-autumn-2016-part-3/
http://www.ellenebens.nl/portfolio-item/yunnan-songpan-2017-part-3/

Not sure what to recommend without your interests and what else you are doing on your trip.

1) Plenty to do up in the mountains, or you could subtract the day and add it somewhere else

2) Chengdu is not that far from Leshan, it really depends on where you are staying in Chengdu and what you want to do in Leshan in addition to the giant buddha as to what is the fastest mode of transport.

3) The Longji rice terraces are harvested in mid october, so if you visit them in September they will be tastled yellow grass. Its only worth breaking your back for mirrored pools.

Hi Nia,
You seem to imply that perhaps, bits of Jiuzhaigou are re-opened. If this is indeed true, then you might use extra days at those locations. Rain may also dictate the need to re-visit places or otherwise re-evaluate plans. Songpan is OK, but...
Have a great trip!
I am done. The end.

Hi Nia
please try to visit the most beautiful view on xianggong moutain when you in Yangshuo.

Thank you all for your help!

tibetlover - fantastic photos!

Good to know that it isn't worth a long trip to Longji given the time of year! In which case we will stay around Yangsho and check out Xianggong and try and find nice places for photos.

We generally like scenery and nature, photography, treking, but are limited to day treks unfortunately with our fairly packed trip.

The UK company we are travelling with have advised us that with the limited opening of Jiuzhaigou and as it can only be done as a group tour that it is not worth doing currently and they don't recommend it. I appreciate it is currently shut due to rain but if anybody has been recently I would be interested to hear your thoughts!

Suggestion:
Songpan horseback- One day riding on trail up the mountains. Some are over 3,000 m height. The provided lunch is nothing to write home about. But it sure tasted good after a few hours of bouncing on HARD saddle. Could be crowded because it is popular with domestic tourists.

My partner and I visited Songpan in June.
Most of the town was tourist-tacky, but there were a few minor and one major exception.
The market areas to the northeast of the south gate are fun to explore and have some really good less-touristy Sichuanese restaurants. The walk up to the west gate is hard work (there's a quicker but much harder way up if you take the first left after you go through the north gate and walk up beside the local vegetable gardens.)
And for us the crown jewel was the walk we took to Shangniba monastery. The walk is discussed, but not fully mapped or explained in the LP China book. There's only one sigbificant fork in the road after you leave the LP map. You have a choice of going left and up or right and up. Go left.
From here on in the views of snowy peaks and the surrounding valleys are just lovely.
And the mound of Mani stones surrounding a stupa at the monastery are spectacular.
This walk was one of the highlights of our recent trip to Gansu and Sichuan, so I'd highly recommend it.
I'm sure you could also easily arrange it as a horse trek, but that works miss out a little on the sense of discovery and excitement. Either way it's definitely worth doing.

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