Taihang in Six Days: Red Flag Canal, Grand Canyon and Wanxian Mountain, 6 Days 5 Nights

We leave Luoyang at half past seven, run north through Jiaozuo and Xinxiang and reach Linzhou around noon. After lunch, the diversion works: here the main channel splits into three, water pushing out of the gates and heading in different directions. The memorial hall holds a room of the tools of the digging years, steel chisels, hammers, barrows, rope ends still frayed. We sit by the channel afterwards, the water never stopping.

Attraction introduction: The Red Flag Canal was cut through the Taihang cliffs by the people of Linxian in the 1960s to bring water from the Zhang River, begun in 1960 and finished in 1969, its main channel 70.6 kilometres long, levelling 1,250 ridges and piercing 211 tunnels. The diversion works is the point where the main channel becomes three, and the memorial hall displays tools, drawings and film from the construction.

Tips: The works and the hall share a site and take over two hours at an unhurried pace, so do not treat them as a photo stop. Guests generally find the old photographs harder to walk past than the objects, and that people fall quiet at the channel edge. In practice the first day is mostly sitting in a vehicle, so keep it light and save the legs for the climbing ahead.

The second day goes to Young People Cave, twenty five kilometres from the memorial hall with a free shuttle on the ticket. This stretch was cut by three hundred young volunteers who gouged more than six hundred metres out of the cliff face. The walkway runs between rock on one side and the Zhang River on the other, the channel at foot level, nowhere wider than two metres. Characters carved into the rock at the entrance have been worn pale by hands. A shuttle continues higher for the view of the canal bending with the mountain.

Attraction introduction: Young People Cave is the choke point of the main channel, over six hundred metres long, named for the youth brigade that cut it. The channel wall runs along the waist of the Taihang, the Zhang River gorge outside and sheer rock inside, the most representative stretch of the whole project and its emblem.

Tips: The walkway is narrow and two people passing must give way, and wet stone matters more than any camera. Guests generally find the light before nine free of glare and the water at its clearest. In practice the boat inside the cave and the glass slide both cost extra, and skipping them leaves the same canal to look at.

The third day enters the Taihang Grand Canyon at Taohua Valley. A boardwalk starts at the mouth with the stream directly below, shallow enough in places to cross on stones. Soon comes the Nine Linked Falls, dropping one after another with little height but tight rhythm. Further in lie Huanglong Pool and Feilong Gorge, the water deep green and the stones rounded smooth. The whole valley takes over two hours and the trouser cuffs are usually wet at the end.

Attraction introduction: Taohua Valley is the core of the Grand Canyon, about four kilometres long, built around streams, stacked falls and red rock walls, with the Nine Linked Falls, Huanglong Pool and Feilong Gorge in sequence. The rock is the red quartz sandstone typical of the Taihang, and the water has cut down along the joints into continuous drops and pools.

Tips: The valley runs several degrees cooler than its mouth and the air is damp, so add a layer in November. Guests generally find the best of Taohua in the first two kilometres and turn back at Feilong Gorge rather than pushing to the end. In practice the combined ticket covers Taohua, Wangxiangyan and the ridge road, while shuttle inclusion varies, so confirm at the ticket office.

The morning goes to Wangxiangyan, which starts steep and stays steep, stone steps stacked almost against the rock face, one at a time with a hand on the chain. Halfway up a platform opens and the valley mouth below turns the houses into matchboxes. Above that a walkway crosses the cliff with air underfoot and wind pushing up. Lunch at Shibanyan, a town whose street is all easels and art students. The afternoon follows the Taihang ridge road, cliff on one side, villages on the other.

Attraction introduction: Wangxiangyan stands on the western side of the Grand Canyon, named for Fu Yue of the Shang who is said to have lived in retreat here, known for sheer walls, a cliff walkway and a summit platform. Shibanyan is the base town of the canyon and a sketching centre, while the ridge road links the villages and viewpoints along the crest.

Tips: The steps at Wangxiangyan are dense and steep, and half the climb is enough for weak knees. Guests generally find the path emptiest between half past eight and nine, with groups queuing on the walkway after ten. In practice the ridge road bends constantly, so take motion sickness tablets early and sit on the right for the closer cliff view.

We drive south from Linzhou through Huixian and into the mountains, reaching Wanxian Mountain in a little over two hours. The afternoon belongs to the Guoliang cliff road, cut by thirteen villagers with hammer and chisel, 1,250 metres long with thirty five windows punched through the rock so the light arrives in bands and the road alternates bright and dark. At the top, the cliff dwellings: a few stone houses pinned to the mountainside, corn drying at the doors, a drop of several hundred metres below.

Attraction introduction: The Guoliang cliff road inside Wanxian Mountain was begun in 1972 and opened in 1977, 1,250 metres long and cut entirely by hand by the villagers of Guoliang, with 35 windows for light and air, often called the father of Taihang tunnels. The cliff dwellings are the old village itself, stone houses built against the rock, a textbook example of southern Taihang mountain settlement.

Tips: The road can be walked or ridden, and only walking shows the windows, but the surface is narrow and vehicles require stepping to the wall. Guests generally find the light raking through the openings between ten and eleven. In practice the Wanxian ticket follows the daily notice, and village rooms vary widely, so confirm private bathrooms when booking.

The last day stays at Nanping, where the mountain softens and the path follows the stream between persimmon and hawthorn trees, most leaves down by November with the fruit still hanging. At the mouth of Danfen Gorge water seeps from the rock and gathers into a thin thread. Lunch is hand pulled noodles in the village with a plate of scrambled eggs. We board at noon, join the expressway at Huixian and reach Luoyang by evening.

Attraction introduction: Nanping is the other district of Wanxian Mountain, facing Guoliang across the valley, built around Danfen Gorge, the sun moon star stone and a streamside path, its slopes gentler than Guoliang. The area belongs to the southern Taihang, with villagers earning from hawthorn, persimmon and medicinal herbs, gathered in late autumn.

Tips: The Nanping paths mix earth and stone and turn muddy after rain, so a deep tread helps. Guests generally find far fewer visitors than at Guoliang, and before eight the stream makes the only sound. In practice the drive home runs about five hours, so do not let lunch drift past one, as mountain fog builds in the afternoon.