Taking the Bullet Train to Ride a Steam Train - A Tale of 2 Trains in China
China's last steam-powered passenger train is called Jiayang Steam Train. It's located south of Leshan, Sichuan in Qianwei county. While it does take locals everyday to their homes and to work, it is also a tourist attraction. The train was originally setup to ship coal from the coal mine in Baguo, at the last stop. It expanded to include passenger cabins, mostly workers at the mine. When the coal mine shut down, the passenger train remained open, because the roads in the area were really bad and the coal mine had increased the population in the area. Nowadays, the roads are fine, but the local government decided to keep the train running as a heritage railway.
We started our journey on China's incredible high speed train system, which is nothing like riding the steam train. It took us from Chengdu to Leshan in just an hour. That's 135 km. Compare that to the steam train, which takes the same amount of time to go just 20 km.
HOW TO SEE THE JIAYANG STEAM TRAIN
There are day trips from Chengdu with tour groups. If you book with a company that caters to westerners, you'll likely pay 3 times as much. If you book with a fully Chinese company, they won't speak English but it will probably be dirt cheap (unless they find out you're a westerner and they jack up the price).
I also read about a bus from Chengdu that goes directly to Jianyang (嘉阳). It supposedly leaves at 9AM. If wish I had known about this a week ago.
If you can't make that bus, from Chengdu you can head to Leshan. There are many trains that leave the East and South Chengdu train stations everyday. The ride takes an hour.
In Leshan, you have to take a bus from Lianyun Bus Station. There are 3 buses that I know of that go to Jiayang. One leaves super early in the morning (around 5:30AM, but I'm not sure of the exact time), one leaves at 10AM, and one leaves at 2:30pm. There may be more, but it's also possible to take a bus to Qianwei (犍为), which takes about an hour, and then get another bus from there to Jianyang (about 45 minutes). Buses leave every 10 minutes to Qianwei (which is sometimes called Jianwei).
My advice, get to Jianyang as early as you can because the trains tend to sell out quickly. We arrived at around 12:30 and had to wait until 5PM to get on a train (which isn't worth it because it gets dark before you're back and there is no way back into town at that time).
If you want, you can stay at the hotel in Jianyang. It is down the street from the square where the ticket office is.
The experience was a bit much, but I'm glad we did it. It's always fun getting off the tourist trail in China. The locals loved seeing westerners roll through their town. Everyone was hospitable. I got to practice my Chinese a lot. And the train was something special.
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SONGPAN THE OLDEST TOWN OF SICHUAN PROVINCE
Hello everyone,We stayed 2 nights in Songpan old town.Of all the town we visited, Songpan is my favourite town.(This is the entrance oldest building when you enter Songpan town by night).It is small, but yet there is western food serve in a few fast food shop and restaurant.Good coffee is serve in few corners too.(Look of Entrance to the old town by day)A few shopping such as clothing and so many fruits along the road side are up for grabs and it is cheapThe reason we stayed here is for us to see the Huanglong Nature park, the Mounigou waterfall and Jade Lake.Huanglong Nature ParkHuanglong has a many big and small ponds.At this time we were here, it is almost dry and icey.However, we still able to see the beauty of Huanglong nature park.2 nights was good enough for us.In Mounigou WaterfallThis waterfall is pretty and has a long stretch to walk down to see the over all fall.It took us about 2 hour from the start to finish.Walking up and to walk down back to the car park.My best moment in Mounigou Waterfall is the streams of water flowing between the trees.Jade lakeOf all this 3 nature I mentions here, Jade lake fascinates me much of the colours. No wonder it is name Jade lake.These are the most and best 3 things you can do when you are in Songpan.Of course, do not missed out the shopping for winter clothes.They are reasonable in price and quality. Just do not buy fake brand name bags.This is the place we stayed in Songpan. ( will follow up the correct address)From Songpan, our 10 Day tour with rented car that cost as RMB 750 per day indeed and we will be back to Chengdu, get our flight there to Singapore.If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.As always❤️ elvie lins#thingstodoinchina
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