Hikes & Runs

There is great hill hiking and running around the area!!! Exploration on foot over mountains, rivers, canyons, little caves, streams, forests and agricultural land.

By Area

We divide hiking and trail runs into four areas in relation to our location in Yingchuan Village.

  • Around the village.
  • Western Hikes around Hutian Shan, Yanke etc
  • Eastern Hikes in the Santang area.
  • Southern areas of Gaoshan & Ge…..

By Difficulty

We categorize hikes into colours based on difficulty.

  • Green = some hill, easy, not too long.
  • Blue = might be long or a bit more technical.
  • Red = quite hard, technical and long.
  • Black = very hard, technical and long.
  • [R]Recommended Route = all recommended but suggested for first time visitors to get overview of the area.

Borrow a Suunto watch preloaded with the routes or Learn how to use our digital route files.

Around the village

For easy walks take the trails around the village. More challenging and full day walks can be hand east around Santang and Xiaoxu and West towards and around Yenke, Xujiawu and Hutian. 

 
 

Western Trails

To the West, walk up the concrete path from the cafe, walk up the west trail (past the play area) to the tea trail. Great views over to Qingliangfeng. Then circle down the vomit run or keep going west to add a few more KM’s and take the forest trail back. Want even more KM’s? Then hike further west over to Yuanke, organize a picnic and van pick up from us. Alternatively, rent our bikes and pick them up from the western hills and cycle down back to us through hidden villages, streams, and forests. There is a whole bunch of exploring for us in the western hills and we are trying to link up the famous northern trails.

Eastern Trails

The eastern trails, up and around Shantang are very nice. There are many routes around the base of Qingliangfeng. Many parts of Qingliangfeng are in the nature reserve so please be careful where you go.

  • Easy Shantang: 5 km+. [R] A nice walk up the road to Shantang and back. Easy and possible extensions. Can also get a van up there and walk down if you want something even more relaxed.
  • Large Shangtang Loop: 10km+ [R] a very nice longer walk up and around Shangtang.
  • The Big Shangtang Loop: 13km [R] a East & West fusion!  

Check out our Yepao eastern 10km triail as well.

Southern Trails

There are lots of trails to the south of us you can drive or cycle to. Well worth the visit.

  • Gaoshan Village & Beyond: drive or cycle there and wonder around the hills. A nice old village in the hills with some good trails.
  • Gechuan Peak: further south than Gaoshan. Another big mountain and climb. Very nice. Need to explore this area more.
  • Little Gorge Walk: and most sections of the 75km Yepao run is great. 

There is a lot to explore going south towards Qiandao Lake. The Daming to the South East. Contact us for more info.

Other Walks in the area

There are hills and trails everywhere.  You can also grab a van to the famous & more tourist orientated trails of Jiangshan Canyon, Daming Mountain, Huangshan Mountain, Fuling Mountain and Qiandao Lake for some great walks. 

Also just walking through Sanyang and checking out people’s homes and shops can be kind of fun. Visit the old town, try some local food and either walk back up the Yepao Sanyang trail or have us pick you up.  Sanyang Old Street. 

Yepao Wild Run Challenges

Try out our YePao – Wild Run Challenges. They can also be walked or hiked.

Trail Management

Check out our info on how the locals, guests and ourselves are trying to help manage the trails.

Warnings!!!!!!

  • Let us know if you’re going out for a serious adventure and when you will be back. Borrow one of our tracking devices.
  • Take an extra battery pack and torch.
  • Download the route to your phone or gps device. Borrow one of our GPS watches.
  • Stay out of the Nature Reserve Core & Buffer Zone. They are for the wildlife & conservation not people!!! Respect that please.
  • Take water.
  • Be careful of snakes.
  • Read our general warnings!!!
  • Take out all your rubbish and waste!!!

A few of the hiking groups and runs we’ve had at the homestay:

Pictures of hikes and runs over the years!

Strava Fun Run Segments

for those that use Strava we have posted a few run segments. please feel free to make some more and send them to us.

Old Vomit: Walk out south of village for 100m or so. Go over a little bridge and start the vomit run up to the concrete water tank. Run down the back route to the village ending at the cafe. 1.2km up. 2.4 up and down. We need to make a new segment for the up and down.

New Vomit 1k: start by the cafe and run up the hill following the concrete path.

.

Tea Forest: run up the Vomit and down the Forest. Concrete Path / Trail.

Dashi Dash: run up to Daxiyuan.  Road & Gravel.

 

Santang Elevator: run from the gravel road to the top of Santang. Then from there can follow the path around.

Yenke Black Hills: End of Vomit to the black hills.

Ciken Circles: Ciken up, around and back down to Sanyang.

Daming Up: cycle or drive to Daming, then: 20km, 5% all up, 1000m, Road.