Grand Canyon of Caibu River

(National 4A-class)
Covering about 80 km2, the Caibu River Grand Canyon tour site is located in the eastern Wufeng Tujia autonomous county. It’s a national 4A class scenic spot, and a national forest garden. A stream passes through the whole canyon, leaving peculiar rocks in both banks. In the canyon, the ecology environment of cool but comfortable climate is well protected. In 1996, the found of national forest garden was permitted by the Department of Forest. And now, it has been an important site for us to discover the new Three Gorges. Here, you can enjoy the abundant forests, deep valleys, strange rocks, peculiar peaks, overhanging cliffs, water-eroded caves and cloud sea, etc.
The whole tour site was planned to develop 5 sections: the interior ecology reserved section, the Dawankou section, the Jiaokou section, the Duanshankou section and the Tanzikou section. At present, the Dawankou Section and Tanzikou Section have been completed.
There are 4 travel routes for the Dawankou Section. 1) The “lover route” will take you to the general rock, the string platform and the chess playing platform, etc. 2) The “dele route” will take you to the Dele Bridge, the mouth-to-mouth rock, and the holy-water Kwan-yin, etc. 3) The “four study treasures route” will take you to the Banlian Pavilion, the Shenbi (pen for immortal) peak, the Bijia (pen rack) mountain, and the Luoyun Platform, etc. 4) The ecology footpath will take you to the Dujia castle. Along the footpath, there are beautiful stone forests and rurality with small bridge and stream.
The Caibu River belongs to subtropical mountains monsoon zone with clearly vertical climatic zones. Here will show you the typical sceneries of four seasons. 13.1℃ is the average temperature through the year, which makes here cool in summer and warm in winter. The top temperature is 37 ℃, while the lowest one is -11.9 ℃. During summer days, the average temperature is 27℃, with average annual precipitation of 1588 mm. The frost-free period is about 250 days, which makes here summer and holiday resorts.

The top elevation here is 1417.6 m, while the lowest is 260 m. There are abundant alpine azaleas blossoming among the Caibu River mountains all the year round. And sawtooth oak also lives on the mountain rocks. There’s little water in the rock aperture, so each oak has been living for hundreds of years. And the guardrails were built imitating the oak trunk.
According to the explanation of specialists, during the 4th ice age, millions of plants and animals disappeared. But the Caibu River, with ascendant geographic location and environment, was the refuge shelter for living things around here. At present, these age-old living things are still the same as before.
There are 3 strange situations here. The first is “sleeping covered with bedquilt in summer”. On summer days, the average temperature here is 10℃ lower than that of Jianghan Plain; The second is “treating strangers as relation”. No matter where you are from, entering the gate of Tujia people, you are welcomed whole-heartedly. The third is “Kang (brick bed with fire below) is burning through the year”. For Tujia people, the Kang is the family culture, polity and economy centers. So the fire under the Kang will burn all the year around.
The Caibu River Canyon is beautiful through 4 seasons. In Spring, the green canyon is full of red azaleas; In summer, it’s peculiar for the wind, rain and clouds; In Autumn, all mountains are in red; In winter, all trees and mountains are covered by silver snow. As it were, this canyon is a magic and poetic world for us to return the great nature.
Here, in this beautiful and remote canyon, your passion will be promoted any where, any time. The life and work of residents are still the same as before; in Spring, they are ploughing to start the work of year, and in Winter, they are hunting to prepare food for festival; walking along the river, you can enjoy the world of folk customs as age-old paths, rolling up kitchen smoke, love songs and work songs, etc. In the evening, there will be a bonfire dancing party, and all villagers will join in the big party and welcome you to enjoy their folk dances.
During the journey, you can have a break or stay in villager’s house. They are always welcoming the guests by folk dishes “Shiwan Bakou” (10 bowls and 8 plates) or “Taigezi” (delicious dishes in a big bamboo steamer). Besides, you can enjoy the maize wine, named “Bianshan Daqu”.

Source:  en.hubei.gov.cn