Huanggangliang National Forest Park

Huanggangliang National Forest Park

Huanggangliang National Forest Park is a national-level forest park.

Huanggangliang National Forest Park is located 80 kilometers northeast of Jingpeng Town, at the foot of Huanggang Peak, the main peak of the Greater Khingan Mountains. Covering a total area of over 3 million mu, the park consists of 27 peaks including Huanggang Peak, Muyeshan, and Yanshan, which together form the Huanggang Mountain Range, locally known as "Huanggangliang." Among them, Huanggang Peak stands at an elevation of 2,034 meters and is the highest peak of the Greater Khingan Mountains.

The Huanggangliang area preserves the most complete and diverse forms of Quaternary glacial landforms, featuring typical valley glaciers. On both sides of Huanggangliang, there are glacial cirques, U-shaped valleys, horn peaks, striated rocks, and glacial erratics—glacial relics that are the best-preserved, most comprehensive in glacial geomorphology, and of the highest scientific research value discovered to date. Glacial relics are products of glacial movement, formed during the Quaternary Ice Age approximately three million years ago. The Ice Age refers to one of the coldest periods in Earth's history with intense glacial activity. Over the planet’s billions of years, the number of such cold geological events remains debated, but the Quaternary Ice Age is the most recent, spanning the past three million years to the present. In China, Quaternary glacial deposits are found in mountainous and plateau regions of the northeast, northwest, and southwest. According to Li Siguang’s geophysical theories, glaciers should also have existed in eastern China. The abundant glacial relics on Huanggang Peak not only confirm Li Siguang’s Quaternary glacial theory, but also hold significant cultural value—as Chifeng hosts well-preserved geological phenomena dating back three million years.

Climbing to the summit of Huanggangliang’s highest peak, one can gaze across the vast expanse where the Greater Khingan Mountains resemble a mighty, undulating dragon soaring toward the Xar Moron River, rugged and majestic in presence. The rolling hills and folded ridges appear like the surging waves of a vast ocean, crashing mightily against the sky with overwhelming grandeur. As such, Wang Shu, a poet from the Republican era, once wrote: “Tell the Foolish Old Man not to try moving this—nature’s little Great Wall of the Northeast.”

Huanggangliang is an endless expanse of dense forests and lush grasslands. Located at the intersection of the Mongolian, North China, and Northeast plant floras, it boasts highly diverse and representative flora of great conservation significance. Towering trees block out the sunlight, making the dense woods impassable even for horses and men. Within the mountain valleys grow over 30 types of trees, including evergreen species, larch, maple, birch, elm, linden, poplar, and lilac.

Huanggangliang is not only rich in forest resources, but also a vast sea of flowers and medicinal plants, often called the “Mountain of a Thousand Flowers and Hundred Herbs.” Among its thousands of plant species are more than 40 kinds of rare and beautiful flowers. From spring through autumn, wildflowers such as pasqueflower, globeflower, winter jasmine, poppy, four o’clock flower, carnation, peony, rose, and chrysanthemum bloom profusely, transforming clearings into oceans and fields of blossoms. Among the flora are over 50 valuable medicinal herbs including astragalus, ginseng, skullcap, bupleurum, and plantain seed—the region is so rich that locals say, “grab any three wild plants, and every one is medicinal.” It’s often jokingly said that the local livestock here “eat medicinal herbs, drink mineral water, excrete Six Flavor Rehmannia Pills, pee out Lady’s Formula Oral Liquid, walk leisurely, and dance disco.” Of course, that’s a joke—but the fact that the lamb here is delicious is absolutely true.

In addition, Huanggangliang is abundant in wild vegetables, with bracken, daylily, and mushrooms being the “three treasures” and delicacies on the dining table. Bracken and white mushrooms are exported to Japan and South Korea for their tall stems, thick flesh, delicious taste, and tenderness. Mountain cabbage, mustard greens, wild leeks, and thistle greens are also prized as rare delicacies. A Yuan Dynasty poet once wrote: “At the river’s edge, mushrooms grow an inch thick—after the rain, shepherd boys fill their baskets.”

Huanggangliang is also a “Mountain of Flowers and Fruits.” When autumn comes and wild fruits ripen, the hills are laden with walnuts, mountain pears, mountain apricots, hawthorn, chokeberries, wild strawberries, and other berries. These wild fruits nourish hundreds of species of birds and wildlife, including over 30 types of wild animals such as river deer, roe deer, sika deer, leopards, foxes, badgers, and wild boar, frequently seen roaming the valleys. Pheasants, fighting cocks, partridges, sand grouse, and feather-legged chickens, along with rare birds like larks, thrushes, and cuckoos, sing in the woods. It’s an ideal destination for leisure and hunting. The park spans 320,000 mu and is currently Asia’s largest international hunting ground open to visitors. The Huanggangliang Forest Farm raises nearly a thousand red deer, which roam leisurely through the forests and grasslands, often attracting wild deer from the mountains that come and go quietly.

Huanggangliang boasts not only breathtaking scenery but also rich mineral resources. The Huanggang Iron Mine is one of them, with iron ore reserves of 110 million tons, as well as 29 types of usable metals including tin, tungsten, arsenic, zinc, and copper. The national Ministry of Land and Resources has confirmed it as the largest iron-tin deposit north of the Yangtze River and the third-largest tin mine in China.

Transportation: It is 300 kilometers from Chifeng. Take a long-distance bus from Chifeng Bus Station to Jingpeng Town in Hexigten Banner, then transfer to a bus to Huanggangliang from Hexigten Bus Station.

Contact number: 5175533

Accommodation: Wooden cabins in the scenic area

Dining: Forest homestay meals