Climbing the great wall in Ningbo |Ningbo Huangxian Forest Park

Everyone is familiar with the Great Wall of China, however not everyone has a chance to go there as the country is huge. I have been to the Great Wall twice, and it is definitely worth a visit. But if you don’t have a chance to go to Northern part of China, there are alternatives as well in other cities around China. At least for people living in Ningbo there is a nice place to visit in Fenghua奉化. It happens that in Ningbo, Fenghua you also have a possibility to enjoy climbing a construction very similar to the great wall, besides the trip will take only couple of hours.

宁波黄贤森林公园

After spending more than five years in Ningbo, only now I discovered there is this place called Huangxian forest park 黄贤森林公园, which includes the “Great Wall”. Apparently it is not that popular even amongst Chinese travelers which I am very surprised. After posting photos on social media (wechat) I got plenty of messages from Chinese, local people asking me where is this place in Ningbo.

Huangxian Forest Park

Huangxian Forest Park is located in Fenghua District, Zhejiang Province, Huangxian Village 黄贤村. It is a landscape-like scenic spot integrating both man-made and natural landscapes. According to the legend Xia Huanggong 夏黄公, one of the four merchants of Shangshan in the late Han and early Han dynasties, used to live here. Village was named after him afterwards. There is also a tomb of Huanggong in the scenic area. The Northern Song poet Lin Bu 林逋 was also born here, leaving a lot of stories about the locals.

With a forest coverage rate of more than 90%, Huangxian forest park is a provincial-level ecological forest park that integrates the beauty of mountains and rivers, local customs and cultural relics. It is located around 40km from the Ningbo city center.

The park is divided in two parts. The main entrance leads to a walking trail in the forest, which is not very long. The first thing you see is an artificial waterfall. You can start by climbing the stairs up to the mouth of waterfall, and then up to the pagoda. From there you get a view to the Great wall, mountains and the village. At the beginning it seemed that the climb to the wall will take a long time. However, when asked to the lady at the ticket office, she told me that it takes maybe half an hour. As the trail to the wall was not directly connected to the Huangxian Park, I had to cross the street outside the park area and walk up the hill along the village. There are stairs built in the mountains up to the wall, or it is possible to walk the road too (it is a bit steep though, so I would suggest to take stairs). There is a sign for them, so it is not possible to miss it.

The Great Wall

When you reach the mountain top, you can go both ways, wall on the right is longer than the one leading to the left.

Even though Huangxian Forest Park seems quite big at the beginning, the visit will take only 2-3 hours. If you are interested to see only the Great Wall, you can skip the park, and walk or drive directly to the top. There is a ticket office too. If you visited park, you need to keep the ticket, because at the entrance of the wall you need to show it. The entrance fee is 70RMB.

Getting there

There is a bus in Fenghua going directly to the park. If you travel from Ningbo city center you need to get to Fenghua first and then take bus No.208 and get off at the Huangxian stop 黄贤站.

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