On the morning of January 1, 2012, as the "Bimo Blessing Ceremony: Bathing in the First Ray of Sunshine of the New Year" at the highland pasture of the Gesala Scenic Area concluded, the Liangshan to Gesala National Mountain Hiking Event also came to an end. Nearly a thousand hiking enthusiasts who took part in the event set off on their journey home, filled with hopes for the new year and the heartfelt wishes of the people of Yanbian.
Organized under the theme “Green Hiking, Bathing in the Warm Winter,” the 2011 Panzhihua Happy Sunshine Festival—Liangshan to Gesala National Mountain Hiking Event lasted four days.
On December 29, participants arrived in Yanbian County. In the evening, the Yanbian County Government organized a welcome gala full of local cultural flavor;
In the early hours of January 1, they headed to the Yellow Emperor’s Grand Tent at the highland pasture to greet the first ray of sunshine of the new year and view the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Local Yi ethnic Bimo (shamans) performed rituals to pray for blessings and ward off evil spirits for the visiting guests...
During these four New Year-crossing days, all attendees fully experienced the unique charm of Yanbian County.
Bathing in a Warm Winter—Well Deserved Reputation
Panzhihua is the place in Sichuan with the most abundant sunlight resources and enjoys plentiful sunshine. It was precisely because of this that the first Happy Sunshine Festival was jointly held in 2010 by the Panzhihua Municipal People's Government and the Sichuan Provincial Tourism Bureau.
Yanbian County, under the jurisdiction of Panzhihua City, is very warm in winter. With an average annual temperature of 20°C, a frost-free period of over 300 days, and annual sunshine exceeding 2,700 hours, its climate provides a winter tourism destination—“bathing in a warm winter”—that rivals that of Hainan.
During the hiking event, hiking enthusiasts from across the country fully experienced Yanbian’s “warm winter”: daytime temperatures reached around 20°C, while nighttime temperatures stayed between 5–10°C. While the north was already frozen and most southern areas had withered foliage, flowers here were still in full bloom. Many participants hiked in just T-shirts.
Several hikers from Kunming joked that the title of “Spring City” should be transferred from Kunming to Yanbian, as it was even warmer here.
Diverse Geology, Boundless Scenery
The Yanbian National Mountain Hiking Event mainly took place within two national AAAA-level scenic areas: the “Ertan National Forest Park” and the “Gesala Ecotourism Area.” These two areas are the core zones of the “Hundred-Mile Ecological Corridor” prominently developed by Panzhihua City. The hiking route passed through the new county town of Yanbian—Ertan Dam—Yumen—Yongxing—Qinghe—Gesala.
Ertan Dam:
The dam stands 240 meters high (equivalent to an 80-story building), and when releasing water, it forms a massive waterfall over 180 meters high. After the dam was built, it formed the Ertan Reservoir, which is 145 kilometers long, covers a total area of 102 square kilometers, and has a storage capacity of 5.8 billion cubic meters.
Team Black Wind