Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park

🚗🚗🚗Travel route: Day1: Benxi Station→Benxi County Fengxiang Valley Hot Spring Resort Hotel Day2: Benxi County Fengxiang Valley Hot Spring Resort Hotel→Benxi Laobian Gou Scenic Area→Dashi Lake Scenic Area→Benxi County Fengxiang Valley Hot Spring Resort Hotel Day3: Benxi County Fengxiang Valley Hot Spring Resort Hotel→Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park→Juzi Crystal Panjin Cultural Tourism International City Hotel Day4: Juzi Crystal Panjin Cultural Tourism International City Hotel→Red Beach National Scenic Corridor→Panjin Station

Driving from the city of Benxi, the road to Guanmenshan Forest Park undulates, leaving no time to appreciate the scenery along the way, feeling like a combination of Guilin, Wuyi Mountains, Huangshan, and the Alps, one could say it incorporates the strengths of each. Riding into the valley, the shade of trees covers the sky, a cool breeze blows, the stream babbles, birds sing, flowers give off their fragrance, the road undulates and winds, and the scenery is too much to take in at once. Only the mosquitoes buzzing around one's head are incessant. On the same sightseeing bus were several greening workers heading to the mountains for work, their features tanned and dark. When they missed the bus with a group of middle school students, the lovely students shouted in unison: 'You've worked hard!' 'Not hard, not hard, it's our fate. Haha, study hard, don't do what we do...' There is no high or low, noble or humble in work, each has its own pleasures and troubles. The greening workers in the mountains, despite their extraordinary hardships and the inevitable mosquito bites, also find joy among the fresh air and the fragrance of birds and flowers. Throughout the morning, the canyon was sparsely populated with tourists, and I was the only one walking down from Mingcui Valley along the stream, in ultimate comfort. When traveling to different places, whenever we encounter canyons and streams, we always unconsciously stop to take a few more looks and listen a few more times, which is very healing, and hiking through the dense primeval forest is even more memorable. The Guanmenshan Forest Park under my feet ingeniously combines the two. Hiking in the canyon, sometimes you pass through a dark and dense forest that is even slightly terrifying, with ancient trees on both sides of the wooden plank road, their roots and trunks thick and towering, wrapped at the base by thick moss, standing proudly before me, watching over the slow time in the valley, unaffected by praise or criticism. The stream in Mingcui Valley is very shallow, so shallow that almost all the moss-covered white stones are exposed, and the sound of the babbling stream, sometimes slow, sometimes rapid, occasionally high-pitched like striking a stone drum, mostly crisp, whimsically flowing down from high places. The feeling of tracing the stream is somewhat reminiscent of Guizhou's Xiaoqikong or Yuntai Mountain. At this time, the valley can be called a summer retreat, with large swathes of maple leaves still a refreshing green. If one were to come again in autumn, the mountains would surely be filled with red that reaches the sky.

It's another fiery season of the year, and also the peak time of Benxi, Liaoning. The maple leaves by the road have turned red, and the colorful scenery at the foot of the mountain is intoxicating. Benxi official website announces the level of red leaves, level 2 and 3 are suitable for viewing. The main attractions people go to are Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park, Laobian Gully, Dashihu, Longdaogou, the scenery is not much different, you can choose according to personal circumstances. I finally chose Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park, advantages: the management of the scenic area is relatively mature, the range is relatively large, there are lakes, waterfalls, rocks set off the scenery of red leaves more, the shortest journey from Shenyang, the latest red leaves, estimated October 11 is a good time, Laobian Gully, Dashihu is said to be the most beautiful during the National Day, worry that it will be out of season on the 11th. From the end of the sightseeing car down the mountain, take some photos, eat something, walk and rest for about 4 hours, be sure to arrange the time according to physical strength, you can also take the sightseeing car down the mountain at any point, you can buy tickets at each point. 👍Most recommended: Take the sightseeing car to the end, and walk down the mountain along the plank road. It's best to sit next to the driver on the sightseeing car, so you can take videos of the beautiful scenery on the way. 👎Not recommended: Personally, I feel that the scenery seen by the cruise ship is similar to that seen on foot, which can be omitted; the mirror of the sky is nothing new. Areas for improvement, the sightseeing car ticket should be a pass, free to get on and off at different points, currently many domestic attractions are in the form of a pass, convenient for tourists to choose the first point to go.

Guanmen Mountain is located in the south of Benxi County, Liaoning Province, and has been known as the 'Huangshan of the Northeast' and 'Guilin of the Northeast' since ancient times. Because of the two peaks facing each other, one wide and one narrow, one big and one small, it looks like a door, hence the name Guanmen Mountain. Guanmen Mountain is a famous maple leaf viewing area in China, with more than 120 varieties of maple trees in the scenic area. There are Japanese red maple, Chinese red maple, five-pointed maple, three-pointed maple, feather maple, etc. In autumn, the maple leaves all over the mountains make the whole Guanmen Mountain put on a layer of red makeup. Guanmen Mountain is a paradise for maple leaves. Every early October, the maple red all over the mountains of Guanmen Mountain is a kind of intoxicating red. In such red, you can truly smell a hint of coolness contained in the 'autumn high and refreshing'. Guanmen Mountain mainly has five major scenic spots: Xiaohuangshan, Longmenxia, Yutaizi, Jialazi, and Mingyou Valley, with a total of 130 scenic spots. The main landscapes include Wuhu Lake, Baota Peak, Xiongshi Town Yue, Guanyin Temple, Shouxing Tree, Jinglian Waterfall, Zhuanxin Lake, Maple King, Giant Stone Array, Mandarin Duck Stone, Sanjieyi, Peacock Fairy Pose, Tiger Mouth String Waterfall, etc. The 'Maple King' is the treasure of Guanmen Mountain, and the tree age has been more than 200 years. The 'Maple King' has 'five most': the earliest red, the latest fall, the most bright red, the most elegant posture, the most complete angle, it can be said that it is the 'barometer' of Guanmen Mountain maple leaves. Whenever the maple leaves turn red, the whole tree is covered with red leaves scattered down, like a burning torch, lingering red clouds. The maple leaves on the Maple King tree have different angles, with five angles, seven angles, nine angles, eleven angles, and the rare thirteen angles, so it is known as the 'King of Maple Trees'. The eleven-angle and thirteen-angle maple leaves are treasures of the world's maple leaves. If you can find these two kinds of maple leaves, you will be lucky. 📍Detailed address: Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park: Xiaoshi Town, Benxi Manchu Autonomous County, Benxi City, Liaoning Province Ticket: 88 yuan/person

I spent a day in Benxi Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park. This place used to be a forest farm, and the main view is to walk along a stream, all of which are wooden flat roads, nine kilometers long. Take the sightseeing car to the top, and then walk back. It only takes two or three hours to walk, but there are red leaves along the way. Although there are not many red leaves, walking on the forest path by the stream and taking pictures while walking is very comfortable, so I walked all day. Guanmen Mountain National Forest Park