Yesanpo

Overview

About

Yesanpo lies on the Juma River in Laishui County, Baoding, Hebei, in the northern Taihang, 150 km from Baoding and 100 km from central Beijing. The Beijing–Yuanping railway has three stations in the area, Yesanpo, Gougezhuang and Fushankou, the first two at the Juma River and Bailixia. The 520 km² area has seven parts: Bailixia, the Juma River resort, the Baicaopan primeval forest reserve, Fodongta, the Longmenxia Great Wall reserve, the Jinhuashan hunting area and Sanhuangshan.

Bailixia

Bailixia, the “Hundred-Li Gorge”, is the signature sight, over 100 km² with three winding gorges, Xiezigou, Haitangyu and Shixuanxia, 105 li in all. Deep in the gorges the path narrows until the sky is a single line. Xiezigou, 25 li, is named for the stinging nettle (“scorpion grass”) that grows there, with the Dragon Pool Mirroring the Moon, the Ear-Rubbing Cliff and the Iron Chain Cliff; Shixuanxia, 45 li, has the great natural rock urn Chenniu Lake, the Sunless Gorge, the Mother and Son Peaks, the Lion Rising and the legendary Erlang Carrying the Mountains; Haitangyu is 35 li. The gorges are generally under 10 m wide and at the narrowest admit one person, their walls cut as if by an axe, 200 to 300 m high. Deep in the gorge the July–August average is 23 °C, and wild crabapple grows in every crevice, blooming in August. At the Tiger’s Mouth, one of the three wonders, a pool spills over the tiger’s “lower lip” in the rainy season as a waterfall.

Yugu Cave

At the foot of Fodongta hill the Yugu spring spews fish every year around the Grain Rain festival, over a tonne in a good year; the nearby Yugu Cave is a natural karst cave.