Shennongjia Forest Region

Shennongjia is locacted on the edge of western area of Hubei province, covering an area of 3253 square kilometers. Once was a deep sea, now it has become mountains and land because of the earth movements. Shennong was a famous ancient herbalist according to Chinese folk story. He built a wooden ladder trying to pick up some precious herbs and cure the illness. Jia means the shelf or frame. The word Shennongjia is named after the story.



We hit the road in the early morning cuz it wss a long trip. The destination is a small town called Muyu town, which is situated in deep of Shennongjia. Most of the tourists would spend the night there. Despite the 4 hours bus ride, the view along the road really is something to look at, Xiang River flowing quietly with deep green trees besides the road.



It just happened it was cloudy on that day. So the mountain was wrapped with mysterious mists, for me it only made the place more beautiful. All these mystical atmosphere only reminded me of the Shennong beast that’s been talked about for a long time. Some say it’s another human race, some say it’s just a beast. The record of such beast could be seen in ancient Chinese literature in hundred years ago.



Tons of reports exsit when it comes to the Shennong beasts. In 1915, a hunter was taking a rest in the forests. Suddenly he heard a scream and when he opened his eyes, he saw this 2 meters tall, red-hair covered beast killing his dog. He tried to run but the beast moved much faster, thus the beast took him to the cave.

When our bus drove into the reserve area, the road was getting narrow very obvious and suddely it seemed very dangerous to cruise on. After a short break, we were heading to the Shennong Peak, the highest spot with 3105 meters above the sea level. Tourists can get to 2900 meters in cars then continue the journey on foot.



Shennong valley is the place with best view. Standing on the scenery platform, tourists can get a clear view of the shape of valley, very spetacular view. It makes you feel so small. Sadly we didn’t enjoy the view too much cuz the mists. A few photos might be the best memories for us.

The last tourist spot we visited was Shennong altar, which was a good mixing of natural scene and human landscape. It was formed with three parts, upper, middle and lower. The lower part was a worship square with two pillars on both sides, with a gient stove located in the middle. Tuorists would worship Shenong in front of the altar. The middle were some just stone stairs leads to the top, where the statue of Shennong was located. Besides the alter grew a cedar tree with more than 1000 years, locals called it The holy tree.