Shuntai Xingtang Gully

Shuntai Xingtang Gully

The Xingtang Gully Grand Canyon is located on the beautiful Tang River near the downstream wharf of the Tang River Drift. It lies on the southern foothills of Sanmiaofeng in the Taihang Mountain Range on the north bank of the Tang River and was originally a Taoist sacred site during the transition from the Song to the Jin and Yuan dynasties. The Xingtang Gully developed within the Proterozoic dolomite and limestone strata. Its unique karst landforms and oddly shaped fossils are truly breathtaking. Near the entrance of the gully, the Shengli Canal Aqueduct—Dahong Bridge—spans dramatically over the Xingtang Gully Canyon. It is 100 meters long and 50 meters above the gully bed, built in the 1960s with an iron structure, and is also a distinctive feature of Xingtang Gully.

On the mountainside, there are the ruins of the Xiyi Temple, a Buddhist monastery from the Yuan and Ming periods, where the training grounds of the warrior monks can still be clearly seen. At the mountaintop stands the Song Dynasty Buddhist temple “Buer’an,” which retains multiple relics such as bell and drum towers, a reliquary stupa, stone inscriptions in the stele forest, and a beamless hall. It was the place where Sun Buer, one of the “Seven True Masters” of the Quanzhen School in the late Southern Song Dynasty, cultivated herself and was once as renowned as the Beijing White Cloud Temple.

The Xingtang Gully Grand Canyon stretches over 20 Chinese miles in length. The canyon walls are steep and rugged with bizarre rocks; waterfalls cascade down the mountainsides, and serene pools lie quietly in the middle slopes; the valley floor features murmuring streams with clear water where fish and shrimp swim close to the surface. The gully is covered with lush trees, blooming flowers, birdsong, cicadas, buzzing bees, and fluttering butterflies, presenting a scene of extraordinary beauty. It is a gem of the Taihang Mountain landscape and an ideal destination for summer retreats and vacations.