Siming Mountain or Simingshan四明山 is located in Yuyao 余姚, Ningbo, Zhejiang province. The average elevation of Siming Mountain is about 700m above sea level. The highest peak of Siming Mountains is located in northern part of Huangze town 黄泽镇, Zhangzhou city 嵊州市 rising 1012m above sea level. Siming Mountain is covered in forests; the air is fresh, waters clear. Area of Siming Mountain provides habitat for a vast array of animals and plants. It is also known as “Natural Oxygen Bar”.

Thanks to green forests and fresh air, Siming Mountain has become a popular resort too. Summers are cooler in mountains, and people escape the heat in Siming Mountain. Ningbo winters are short and snow is a rarity. It can snow a maximum couple of days a year, and snow usually melts same or the next day. Siming Mountain is the place to go if you want to have a real winter feeling, because mountains are covered with snow. The air temperature is much lower in mountains than the Ningbo city.

What to do at Siming Mountain?

There are plenty of places to see at Siming Mountain. The most popular spots are Xuedou Temple, Danshan Chishui, Siming Mountain Geological Park, Siming Mountain National Forest Park and others.

First spot I visited was Xuedou Temple and Xuedou Mountain. That is a day trip, and I wouldn’t combine it with other spots. If you go further up the mountains you will reach Danshan Chishui which is also a very popular scenic area.

Siming Mountain

Siming Mountain Geological Park

Probably one of the most beautiful places I have visited in Ningbo so far is Siming Mountain Geological park 四明山地质公园. It takes around 1,5 hours from Ningbo city center by car. To get there by public transport might be quite complicated, as there are no direct buses going from Ningbo or Yuyao to the park.

The park covers total of 61.7 square kilometers, however Siming Mountain Geological park scenic area is not big. It will take about an hour or bit more to walk it, so it is possible to visit Siming Mountain National Forest Park too which is located very close.

Spring 

Hiking in Siming Mountain Geopark

Once you enter the park, first thing you will see is a viewing platform made of glass. There you will get to have an amazing view of Siming Mountain area. Once you start hiking, soon you will reach a chilling area with hammocks. Then you can start to walk the trail, which is paved and well maintained. For hiking lovers, there is one point where you can go down the mountain and enjoy a natural walk in the forest. I walked like 15min and then went up as I didn’t know how long it will take and whether there are more routes to get back to the tourist area. I asked in the ticket office about it later, and found out that it was actually a short trip of around 30min and I would have to climb back same path.

A more “natural” path for hikers

The best viewing platforms were definitely at Siming Mountain Geological Park.

Viewing platform

Siming Mountain National Forest Park

Siming Mountain National Forest Park 四明山国家森林公园 is located only about 10km from Siming Mountain Geological Park. The park includes five spots 深秀谷，风情园，仰天湖，大帘洞 and 镇东侨. Area is huge though, and without a car it will be difficult to visit all of them, because only two spots are located in the place of main ticket office. It was very strange at first that you buy ticket and most of the attractions are not even located there. It was also difficult to find all of them, as there were no obvious signs on the street. We were asking locals, and with their help we reached all destinations.

Shenxiugu深秀谷

Shenxiugu was the first to visit. It took less than an hour to walk the trail. There was a viewing platform and a lake. We started to look for the second scenic spot Fengqingyuan风情园, which we couldn’t find. We went back to the ticket office and they told us only then that it is closed for reconstruction. Then we were heading to the next one.

Yangtianhu仰天湖

Yangtianhu was a marvelous small lake with a beautifully designed garden. It was around 10min drive from first two spots, and the easiest to find.

Daliandong大帘洞

It  took us a while to find Daliantong. It was the closest spot from the main ticket office. But we didn’t see any directions on the road and kept driving till we reached Yangtianhu. After we went back, and on the way saw a resort, which we decided to visit and ask about the Daliandong. Luckily, that was the right place, and the hiking trail started there. It takes around an hour to climb down. It was a nice hike through forest. We reached a small ticket office there, but as we had our tickets already, we had to show them only. There was a small construction going on. It seems that they want to develop the place to attract more tourists. After climbing down for about 40min we reached a beautiful waterfall. While other tourists climbed back, we kept walking and discovered that there is a marked hiking trail in the forest. As we had to visit one more spot we went back soon after.

Final Scenic spot

The most difficult was to find the last one- Zhendong Bridge 镇东桥. We drove it past couple of times; even after asking locals it was difficult to understand where exactly it is. Luckily we didn’t give up searching and found it in the late afternoon. It happened to be a nice village in the mountains. The Zhendong Bridge was not very impressive, though we enjoyed a walk there.

Siming Mountain is a great place which offers truly amazing panoramas. It is said that autumn is the best time to visit, but we were not disappointed also in spring season.

Tickets:

Siming Mountain Geological Park- 40RMB

Siming Mountain National Forest Park- 50RMB

Leave a comment below!