originated from lichuan hubei province, apeng river is the only river running to the east in china. the canyon flows through cangling, liangzheng and gongtan within youyang county with a length of 75km. here you can find steep mountains, clear waters, rapids, tranquil valleys, ancient caves, dense forests, and odd springs. the deep canyons, rapids and shoals, rich vegetation and rare huge interval fountain, as well as wonderful folk customs compose the scenery features of apeng river grand canyon. one tourist composed a poem that, “the yellow water and wind go up to sky; i travel along wujiang gallery pleasantly.” it is one of the rare soft and beautiful rivers in china.
apeng river, running from the east to the west, is known as tangyan river, where has no residents along the vast land. the scenery of the canyon is primitive and strange, magnificent, vigorous and wild that it gives people a special sense of heaviness and vicissitudes. the difference between the ridge and valley is normally around 500 meters, but the highest one reaches 1,000 meters. on two banks are steep cliffs, overlapping mountains that conceal the sky with unknown height. it is known as “the jade belt in deep mountains and symbol of the miao people”. in addition, it has famous fifteen scenes, such as holy turtle gorge, swallow rock, sanlang peak, rainbow hill, baodao ridge, shiqiu field, fairy stele, red army ferry, guantian platform, apeng sitting buddha, ape man taishan, fairy bridge pier, buddha mountain cloud sea, dragon king cai’s cave, and xiajiang hot spring.
along the canyon the mountains are green, waters are blue, rocks are huge, cliffs are picturesque, distylium chinense look like the silk while bamboos look like the curtain. the karst landform has developed into millions of shapes, forming unique and wonderful naked karst landscape. in the scenic area, it is covered by vast vegetation with multiple rare animals and plants, diversified biology and complete ecology. in addition, it has the mysterious cliff tombs, and dahekou power station — the one of four open power dam stations in china. integrating primitive river, hot spring, cave, interval fountain, bridge, funnel, underground river, and suspended coffin, the scenic area has perfectly combined natural landscape and cultural landscape, history and reality, traditional culture and modern culture. it wins the reputation of “better than lijiang river and three gorges” for apeng river grand canyon, amazing domestic and foreign tourists and making them reluctant to depart. dahekou section has beautiful landscape, comfortable climate, fresh air, handsome pines and cypresses, and brilliant clouds, reflecting the warm sunny scene on the lake. in rainy days, the dark clouds cover the sky and pour down rains with warm wind and rising fogs that hide the tall mountains and short hills. it is a charming blessed spot and earthly paradise.
there is shiquan ancient miao village in the scenic area that was built in 1510, which has a history of over 500 years. it is the largest miao village discovered in chongqing so far and the first traditional miao village of china. divided into upper, middle and lower parts, the ancient village is closely embraced by over 1,000 ancient trees, 500 terrace fields and green bamboos. in the village built over 70 wooden residential houses of the shi family. it is known as “the most ecological ancient miao village and the living fossil of unique ancient miao residential house”. it is the ideal destination for tourists from all over the world to “comfort their homesickness, admire the ancient charm, enjoy the customs and tour the canyon”.