Southern Sichuan Travel Report

Travelled around this area earlier this year I thought a brief report would be useful as its not a heavily visited area. My interests are unspoilt ancient towns and places with historic and literary associations. So places not crushed by modernisation or turned into theme parks

I started in Chongqing heading south to the rather small but wonderful old town of Tanghe 塘河(bus to Baisha白沙under two hours then further 40mins). Latter has a very small old town an hour should do it ask for the 古镇 or 古建筑 (ancient architecture ) In Tanghe guy who runs the wine shop as you go in on the right has some tourist info eg maps no English.

The next day crossed into Sichuan and headed for Hejiang合江. From here took a bus from the Old Bus Station to Yaoba 侥坝 a well preserved ancient town with a number of artistic links. Well worth half a day.
Good bus connections to Luzhou about one hour where you can get to Yibin ,Zigong, Chengdu etc.

Lizhuang李庄。Just outside Yibin a city of no interest to me apart from being on the Yangtse. There is service bus from the train station or as per the LP you can go to the South Bus Station to get to Lizhuang. One of the most extensive ancient towns ,no entry ticket but worth buying the 40¥ ticket for the historic buildings. I found most interesting the Anti Japanese War history when Lizhuang became the temporary home of a number of Universities eg Tongji in Shanghai. Plenty of small Guest Houses .

Bamboo Sea :蜀南竹海 I generally resent having to pay to see nature (¥110)but found this worthwhile and of course bamboo is very Chinese.
I would recommend accessing via the west end ,Wanling 万岭. It's a bit less touristy and good to start off with the museum. Plenty of Guests Houses look for the characters 山庄 which translates as Mountain Villa. I stayed at 箐云山庄. Tel15908396969 Mr Huang the owner provided a couple of free lifts . I spent a whole day walking round and using the cable car to avoid going back on myself. Area around the Fairy Cave ,Haizhong Lake was most scenic and least touristy. Great food especially for vegetarians stuffed myself with Sweetcorn Steamed Bread. Would be a good place to avoid the summer heat

Luobiao Hanging Coffins. From the Bamboo sea I headed to Changning 长宁（ its main claim to fame is that it's won numerous awards for its sanitation I know this as a taxi driver gave me a free tour )it about 45 mins away where you take a bus to Gongxian 共县also known as Xunchang 巡场. One hour or so. From here it's 2 hours to Luobiao. Road is fine , about 40 mins before Luobiao at the apex of a hill is a well preserved Memorial Arch. I got out and jumped on the next bus . I found the coffins very atmospheric and it's an easy pleasant 3km walk from the town. Worth walking up the valley past the coffins :classic rural scenery . The small museum ¥20 which you may have to ask to be opened has an interesting map of other Hanging Coffins in China .Since then I have seen some in Guizhou. Nothing else of interest in the town ,best hotel is the modern town block just finished , luxury room for ¥130.
Unless you double back bus links are slow and not straightforward. LP info is incorrect on getting to Guizhou. It will take you all day and numerous changes to get to Bijie 比节 the main uninteresting town in North west Guizhou. You can get to Yunnan, town of Weixin but again very slow .you may be better off going to Yibin which has train links

Stone Sea石海. Located near the town of Xingwen 兴文。An hour from Gongxian/Xunchang .Basically a plateau with karst scenery and strange shaped rocks , a Geopark . Some Miao villages I am thinking of going back as lots to explore . Easy to get away from the tour groups definately not on Western travellers radar . NB not another Stone Forest yet ...

Accommodation is easy and cheap I paid an average of ¥90 and I didn't always go for the cheapest. Great teahouses food is very much Hotpot , not great if you are on your own but several times I was invited to join groups of locals, amazing what looking helpless can get you .

Thanks for the interesting report.
The stone forest in Xingwen is definitely worth a visit. It doesn't have such big rocks like in Shilin, but there is a huge tiankeng (carst depression) with a diameter comparable to Dashiwei-tiankeng or Xiaozhai-tiankeng, but not so deep and a fantastic big cave inside the park. The ticket includes the electric carts, but the park is not so big, that one cannot walk every part. The cave has some of the biggest "rooms" in China. I already know many caves in China and this one again had some unique features compared to the other caves. I took a public bus from Xingwen till to the entrance. The cave is the last part (after the tiankeng). After the cave you will arrive at a lower exit than the main entrance. To be on the safe side I took the Park-bus back to the main entrance to catch a public bus back to Xingwen. But this public bus also made a stop at the parking lot of the cave exit, so it wouldn't have been necessary.
You mentioned Bijie as a boring town. Probably it is, but close to Bijie is Dafang, from where one can visit some absolutely stunning carst formations. In Dafang I had the problem, that some smaller hotels close to the bus station (about 150 RMB) didn't take me. I walked on the big road till I found a room for about 175 RMB in a bigger hotel. In Dafang is also a smaller second bus station, from where I took a bus to visit this place. At the bus station I showed them a picture of the place I wanted to go. It was about half an hour on the bus. The bus dropped me on the main road, where already a big sign showed the scenic area. It was about 2 or 3 km walk on a lovely country road . At a crossing you have to turn right and soon you will arrive at the site. I think the gate is as high as the big gate of Sanqiao in Wulong, Chongqing. Right now there is no entrance fee, but I think, that they will develop this place very soon. The ricefield in front of the site was already changed into a huge pond with lots of lotusflowers and also a big swimming pool. The pool-area was gated, so I assume, you have to pay for swimming. But when I was there it was empty. I met less than 10 chinese visitors.
Another site is Jiudongtian, a park with an entrance fee. You can go from Dafang by public bus to the village close to the park (maybe 2 or 3 hours). There are binguans, but I did it as a daytrip from Dafang. From the village I took a moped-taxi down to the cave (maybe several km if you want to walk). The attraction is an underground river, where the roof broke on 9 locations. The first six or seven are open for visitors. When I was there I saw only 5 other visitors (Chinese).

Very interesting and useful thanks. I hadn't realised the scenery around Dafang was so impressive hopefully get there on my next trip in October . What Dafang like as a town ? I have seen it on a list as an ancient town but is it still there .?
I recently read a piece in the Chinese Press about the destruction of ancient towns claiming over 20 000 have been lost since 2002.
Rather worryingly I met someone in the hotel business in Xijiang not far from Kaili who said due to the High Speed Rail link number of visitors has grown ten fold since 2015....

I went to Dafang because of the carst sights, so I didn't explore the town. But probably there is nothing left of an old town (If there ever was one).

Thank you for your travel information.Yes, there are not many tourists in these places.
In Hejiang County, another old town here is famous,,Fubao old town.
From Hejiang County to Chishui Danxia Park, is near,this is a World heritage site.

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