4 sisters Changping valley

4 sisters Changping valley

A Whole day hike up the Valley.

In order to enter the valley you require to purchase a ticket at the main gates area. Once you have a ticket a shuttle will take you to an area just before small monastery on the north slope of the valley. This is the beginning of your hike.

We have opted for overnight camping at the north end of the public accessible trail - which costs additional few hundred RMB per person for the permit and also a Guide Fee (no one is allowed to stay overnight in the valley unless accompanied by the guide).
Guide fee is 150 rmb / day + 150 rmb / day for a horse to carry the camping gear if you don't want to carry it yourself. Those prices can be negotiated out of season, but also tend to rise up during the high season.

If you would like to do a day hike: go in and out of the valley on the same day without camping overnight - than you don't need a guide or any additional permits. All you need is to buy an entry ticket which costs less than 100 RMB if i remember correctly. It includes return shuttle ride up to the gate located just before the Lama Temple. The 6km ride takes about 15 minutes. Double Check departure time of the last return shuttle if you would like to save yourself from additional 6km hike along the road.

The hike starts on a timber decks which is quite easy and comfortable. There are few small side branches of the trail allowing to visit a waterfall. Unfortunately one of those trails was damaged and we ended up climbing about 50m up the steps just to reach dead end still halfway to the waterfall. The second access was intact but we decided to skip it.

About 4km up the valley there is a first shop where timber paved pedestrians trail merges with the horses trail. This are is also a some sort of construction site with couple of large caterpillar machines digging the rock-bed of the river.

Many tourists decides to take a donkey from this point onwards.
As a hiker you have still a choice to either walk left side of the river on timber decks or right hand of the river together with horses. We walked timber path on our way up, but returned next day through the forest. If you decide to walk with horses don't be surprised if trail gets muddy.

After another couple of km both trails merge again at the second shop where you can purchase water or some instant food like noodles or rice. As i don't eat this kind of food i had my own emergency porridge with dried fruits I always carry with me in case any other real food is not available.

From this shop onwards there is only one trail leading all the way up to the horses feeding grounds.

The trail takes you through some recent land slides that swept through the forests taking some of the large trees downs. There is one more, third shop along the way serving same kind of post processed instant food and sugary drinks. Please also notice quite interesting field of red rocks. Soon after the red rocks you should be arriving at the horses feeding grounds which is the end of the hike and also the camping site. At this spot there is the fourth and the last small timber hut which also does sell some simple products. You can also buy a hot water here for few RMB.

Another few hundred meters up north there is a new large timber building just completed . It probably will be some sort of guesthouse but at this point it was no open yet.

After setting out our tents and quick bite we continued further up the valley for another couple of km before eventually returning back to the camping for the night.

NOTE: There is a gap in GPS record caused by my phone shutting down wikiloc app supposably to save battery. sorry for that.