How to visit the Shilinxia Scenic Area

Plan your Beijing excursions to escape the bustle and hustle of city life? The Shilinxia Scenic Area (石林峡) is a good destination out of Beijing city to touch the unique stone and rock formations in a 6-km long valley or gorge.

Shilinxia location

Besides its official name as “Shilinxia Scenic Area”, it also has several different names such as “Jingdong Stone Forest Gorge”, “Pinggu Stone Forest Gorge” and “Jingdong Stone Canyon”.

How to get to Shilinxia

Getting off Bus 852 at the bus stop of Pinggu District Hospital (平谷区医院), then you change for the local bus No.25 for the Shilinxia Scenic Area.

For self-drive, just drive along the Jingping Expressway and get off at Pinggu District and follow the road sign leading to the Shilingxia scenic Area.

Shilinxia Entry Fees

Shilinxia Travel Tips:

Smoking, campfires and barbecues are forbidden in the scenic area. Just follow the road sign and keep from unmarked areas.

The rocks in the Shilinxia Scenic Area is composed of marine sedimentary sandstones that dates back to 1.9 billion years ago. At that time, the canyon or the gorge was just a crystal basement consisting of metamorphic rocks.

Then like the whole area of Beijing, this area was attacked for the first time by the sea transgression in the history of geology, which lasted one billion years. As a result, the sedimentary rock like the sandstones came into being. The sandstones in the Shilinxia was formed under a coastal environment.

Virtual tour of Shilinxia

Well, follow me and enter the Shilinxia Scenic Area.

At the entrance, there is a signboard with a brief introduction to the Shilinxia Scenic Area and its 1 and half hour travel route.

To walk close to the entrance to the Shilinxia Scenic Area, you have to cross over a stone bridge leading to the final entrance.

Most travelers prefer to hike along the narrow (about 3 meters wide) valley to touch the greatness of the sandstone gorge.

Walking on the rock mountain road gives you a kind of adventure.

A stream is winding down past the cracks of the rocks.

This is the Shilinxia Peak (Stone Forest Peak). The peak looks like a forest of stones, hence the name for the Shilinxia Scenic Area.

Walking along the deep valley brings much romance to the couple.

A huge rock on the cliff "Carrying Giant Rock on back"

The major Attractions in Pinggu, Beijing

Hassle-Free Private Tour to Visit the Glass Sightseeing Platform

If you don’t want go the daunting do-it-yourself-route and prefer an organized hassle-free private tour to visit the glass sightseeing platform, no worry and we have the following options:

Further Readings