Liupanshui Travel Guide

Boasting wonderful mountains, limpid waters and a pleasant climate, Liupanshui features distinctive tourism that blends ethnic customs with karst landscapes. Karst scenery, ancient cultural relics, as well as splendid folk traditions and cultures of over 30 ethnic groups scatter across the Wumeng Mountains like shining pearls.

In downtown Liupanshui stands Qilin Cave Park, famed as "Mountains Floating on an Underground Sea". Liuzhi is home to vestiges of the ancient Yelang Kingdom and Asia’s one-and-only Eco-folk Museum of the Long-horned Miao People, alongside the stunning landscapes of the North Panjiang River Gorge.

Other highlights include the Bamboo Sea Scenic Area; Dadong Paleolithic Site, a national key cultural relic that records the origin and evolution of mankind and environmental changes; Danxia Mountain, renowned for its partial ancient Buddhist scriptures; serene karst landscapes documented in Xu Xiake's Travel Notes; thousands of ancient ginkgo trees in Tuole that reveal the evolution of ancient plants; the Dadong Paleolithic Cultural Site, highland grasslands and vast bamboo forests in Laochang.

There are also the Yezong Black Leaf Monkey Nature Reserve and Natural Bridge in Shuicheng, the venue of the Panxian Conference held by the 2nd and 6th Red Army Corps. A host of ethnic festivals await visitors too: the Miao Flower Jumping Festival in Nankai, the Yi Torch Festival in Yushe and Pugu, and the Buyi Langjieshan Festival in Bawan.

Endowed with superior geographical conditions and a mild climate free of bitter cold in winter and sweltering heat in summer, Liupanshui enjoys ideal natural conditions to showcase its abundant tourism resources.

Nestled among rolling peaks near Shuitang Town, Panxian County, Danxia Mountain stands at an altitude of 1,896 meters. A conical peak rises abruptly from the surroundings, standing out prominently. Legend goes that in the Han Dynasty, rosy clouds swirled above the mountain in the shape of a crane, hence its name. Towering alone with an imposing presence, the mountain is enveloped by lush green woods.

On the stone cliff to its south lies an indistinct cliff inscription. According to records, on a certain day in the fourth month of the 23rd year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1758), lightning struck the precipice, leaving four red characters reading Northern Heavenly Red Cloud Mountain. Regarded as divine calligraphy by later generations, the relic remains intact to this day.

Admission Fee: 20 yuan

Located to the west of Shuicheng Iron and Steel Company in Liupanshui, Dragon and Phoenix Underground Palace is a unique underground park. This natural karst cave extends nearly 100 meters underground with a total length of 2.8 kilometers. Its fantastic views are simply breathtaking.

Yushe National Forest Park is situated in the southern part of Shuicheng County, 30 kilometers away from downtown Liupanshui with convenient transportation. The Shuibo Railway and Liangshui Highway run through the scenic area.

Dominating the park is an immense forest. It covers a total area of 50,134 mu, including 40,680 mu of forest land and 300 mu of well-preserved primeval forest, with a forest coverage rate of over 90%. It is home to many Class I and Class II nationally protected rare plants, such as Davidia involucrata, Magnolia wilsonii, Tetracentron sinense, Dipentodon sinicus and southern yew. Protected wild animals here include golden pheasants, white foxes, masked palm civets, musk deer and more.

Straddling Zhongshan District of Liupanshui and Hezhang County of Bijie, the scenic area gets its name from clusters of wild Chinese chives growing on the gentle slopes along the mountain ridges.

About 60 kilometers from downtown Liupanshui, its main peak rises to 2,900.3 meters, the highest summit in Guizhou Province. Cool in summer and snow-capped in winter, it is known as the Roof of Guizhou. Standing atop the peak, visitors can take in the magnificent panorama of the Wumeng Mountains, giving rise to the local saying: "A trip to Guizhou’s mountains is incomplete without visiting the Chinese Chive Plateau."

As a municipal park, Qilin Cave lies in the eastern part of the city center, around 4 kilometers away. It enjoys easy access via a comprehensive road network consisting of the middle section of Wumeng Avenue, the Hecheng Garden section of East Zhongshan Road, Huayuan Road, Fenghuang Road and East Qilin Road. It is a natural karst cave.

Address: Section 4, Zhongshan Avenue, Zhongshan District, Liupanshui, Guizhou Province

Biyun Cave Scenic Area is a national geopark, provincial-level scenic spot and a member cave of international cave associations. It is located on the outskirts of the ancient town of Panxian County. It is 345 kilometers from Guiyang, 202 kilometers from downtown Liupanshui and 298 kilometers from Kunming, Yunnan. The Guiyang-Kunming, Neijiang-Kunming and Nanning-Kunming railways, as well as Zhensheng High-grade Highway and National Highway 320 all converge in Panxian.

Sitting on the watershed of the North and South Panjiang river systems, the area features a large altitude difference, complex geological structures and varied landforms. With highly developed karst landforms and dense caves, it constitutes valuable geological relics of karst processes. The cave’s spatial features and sediments record its formation and evolution. Now developed into Biyun Park, the scenic area spans about 18 square kilometers.

It comprises Biyun Cave, Biyun Cliff, cliff inscriptions, Star Cave and Cool Breeze Cave. Featuring both water caves and dry caves, they form a group of twin caves developed under the same geological conditions.

Address: Panxian County, Liupanshui, Guizhou Province