Jindao Canyon Scenic area, Chongqing Region, China

5sophie 5:00 PM Sep 26, 2019

Jindao Canyon by public transport from Chongqing
First of all, the canyon is really stunning and well worth the journey! We were amazed by the beautiful scenery and the best part was that we had it almost to ourselves, very rare in China! We couldn‘t find much information on how to reach the canyon by public transport, that‘s why I want to share our experience here. Since a private driver for the day was too expensive for us (around 1000 RMB), we decided to try our luck by metro and bus. We left our hotel in Jiefangbai around 6.45am and took the metro line 6 (direction Bei Bei) at around 7am. After about 50 minutes and around 20 stops we got off at Zouhangyuanbai station. There‘s a bus terminal right at the metro station (take exit B2) but there they told us that there‘s NO direct bus going to Jindao and pointed to a street outside. We walked in this direction and after asking several people we found another bus terminal, located next to OYO Hotel. There we took bus number 968A but then were dropped off after around 20 minutes. All passengers left the bus and further down the road there was another bus (another number 968 I think). After another 20 minutes or so, we had to change buses again. The 3rd bus we took, was number 962. We then were brought to a village named Pianyan Ancient Town. It was 10:15am at that point. There we found out that the next bus to Jindao only leaves at 11am. This one was a minibus that finally brought us up the mountain to the north gate of the park! It was 11:30am at that point and we started walking around 12am. From there it was very easy, we walked down in a little less than 3 hours. As you’re walking down, the road forks at one point. You can continue going down straight and take a shortcut. We turned right instead and would recommend this route, since only like that you get to walk down the „whole“ canyon. There‘s some caves on the way, we didn‘t visit them. At one point further down the canyon you can take a boat or walk, we took the boat which was 10 RMB per person. We reached the south gate at around 2.45pm. From there we took a minibus to the bus station, just tell the driver to bring you to bus 962. Bus 962 brought us to another station, there we changed to bus 963, which went directly to Bei Bei, from where we took the metro no 6 back to Jiefangbei. We got back at 6.30pm. The way back was smoother but the whole thing is definitely not a hassle free journey if you don’t speak the language (nobody spoke a word of English). It‘s veeeery long but it is doable and it was an interesting and very local experience. You get to see a nice part of China’s countryside. And it only costs a fraction of the costs of a private driver (each bus was only RMB 2). Just make sure you have all the names in Chinese written down before you leave. And bring some snacks as there‘s not much (good) food to buy inside the park.

4Pao_A 5:00 PM Oct 23, 2016

Beautiful natural scene
Nice and easy walking along the walkway to enjoy scenes of Gorges and lakes and breath fresh air of Bamboo forest. A short boat ride with Chinese song background made me feel like I was in the Chinese drama series. Nice place to go.