Winter enchantment in Shaanxi
The Qinling Mountains with its captivating landscape becomes a hot spot in the cold season
Central China’s Qinling Mountain Range divides the country into north and south. In winter, its gorges are blanked with white snow and silvery ice.
The peaks are about an hour-anda-half drive from Shaanxi’s provincial capital, Xi’an, which was home to several Chinese dynasties.
These offer a place to escape the crowds and enjoy the tranquility.
Numerous villages, 72 valleys, 33 nature reserves and a national foresthiking trail are scattered throughout the 1,600-kilometer range.
Rivers still flow in the freezing winter on the south side. Rainfall is abundant, and the air is humid year-round.
Life moves a little more slowly among these peaks.
Locals roll rice-skin wrappers and boil large pots of pork soup for hours on weekends. Villagers occasionally stage gatherings during lunchtimes.
The province’s rarest and most precious residents fly above the wetlands and lakes at the crested ibis reserve in Shaanxi’s Hanzhong city.
But it is mostly the stunning sceneries that lure thousands of visitors from home and abroad to the Qinling Mountains.
China Daily explores three winter destinations south of the range in Shaanxi.
White-plumed crested ibises, with partially bald heads and red skin, fly the skies on the peaks’ southwest.
The endangered species is known as “the oriental gem”.
There are only 5,000 worldwide. Half live in the Crested Ibis National Nature Reserve in Hangzhong’s Yangxian after decades of conservation.
Spring marks the busiest visiting season. Birdwatchers from Japan and South Korea fly thousands of miles to Yangxian to see the creatures.
The crested ibis, which is widely believed to bring luck in East Asian cultures, was once on the brink of extinction until 1981, when seven were found in Yangxian’s wilderness.
“We viewed the Qinling Mountains as the ‘Noah’s Ark’ of the crested ibis at that time,” said Dang Shuangren, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau.
A special team was formed to protect the birds 24/7 after they were discovered, he said. Simultaneously, authorities began captive breeding and adopted relevant protections.
Over the following 30 years, researchers have overcome key technical problems, such as facilitating reproduction.
The reintroduction to the wild of birds raised in captivity has gone well, he said.
China currently is home to about 4,400 crested ibises. Conservationists regularly work with local authorities to release batches of the birds in different areas in the Qinling Mountains.
“It’s precious and lucky for us to see this ancient species is still flying around the mountains,” Dang said.
Duan Bin, director of Yangxian’s ibis park, said bird lovers from Japan and South Korea have “adopted” 10 of the birds there by sponsoring feeding.
“One elderly Japanese man visited to see the birds every year for 15 consecutive years, until his death last year,” Duan said.
Shaanxi’s Shiquan county is located between the Qinling and Bashan mountain ranges.
Shiquan is just one of the counties south of the Qinling Mountains dating back more than 2,000 years. Many ancient cultural sites are situated in the county. Silkworm farming is a pillar industry in the area.
Shiquan has preserved the millennia-old custom of serving dinners individually as guests arrive in succession.
Residents offer them paotang soup when Lunar New Year approaches.
In ancient Chinese, pao means chefs and paotang refers to dishes they cook. Paotang is a kind of soup in which fresh pork is boiled in clean water. The meat, including large chunks of fat, is poured into the pot and mixed with fresh vegetables.
Locals view paotang as not only a popular seasonal dish but also as a source of nostalgia.
In rural areas in the past, slaughtering a pig for Spring Festival was not only a capstone of the year’s labor and a symbol of family honor but also the main source of nutrition for the coming year.
So, every household would kill a pig in the twelfth lunar month to honor the longing for prosperity in the coming year.
A date would be set for the slaughter, when a full-time butcher would prepare the meat.
The owner would then use the fresh pork to make over 10 specialties and invite the elderly and children, relatives, friends and neighbors to eat meat and drink from large bowls to share the joy of the year’s harvest.
Shiquan’s pork-soup banquet features 28 dishes — eight cold dishes, six fried dishes, six steamed dishes in large bowls, six steamed dishes in small bowls, plus one salty and one sweet soup.
Shiquan paotang was officially listed as a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage form in 2018.
Take the 2.5- hour bullet train from Xi’an North Railway Station to Ankang Railway Station. A taxi ride from there to Zhongba village, where the pork-soup banquet is held, takes about an hour and a half. The banquet is served during lunch and dinner daily. (Cost: 60 yuan ($9) per meal per person)
Jinsi Grand Canyon on the Qinling range’s southeastern side is covered with white snow in winter.
While the gorge offers gorgeous hikes year-round, its ravines, forests and waterfalls take on a more mysterious feel in winter, when it becomes especially captivating for photographers.
Icicles frame its landscapes like paintings. Roaring winds send snowflakes adrift. The snow’s weight bends trees. Emerald ponds turn into silver plates and jade mirrors overnight.
The whole canyon is like a natural ice-sculpture exhibition hall.
Animals hibernate in caves in winter. On days when the wind does not howl and birds do not chirp, the valley is so silent that footsteps sound loud. The animals, including snakes, frogs and giant salamanders, hibernate.
Occasionally a bird chirps, as if to beckon spring. The grass sleeps under the thick quilt, dreaming of the next year’s blossoms.
Travelers who cross Wanmi Qixian, a section of the Jinsi canyon, can visit hospitable farmhouses and enjoy hot pot.
Those who make the journey will discover the Qinling Mountains truly conjure the magic of a winter wonderland, in every sense.
A well-preserved section of the Great Wall stands in the Jinsi Grand Canyon.
It features castle-like stone lodges built by the Chu kingdom to defend its borders during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).
Historical records show the Chu Great Wall is the earliest Great Wall built in China. It was constructed nearly 400 years before the Qin Great Wall.