Hebei•Chengde | Bashang Grassland Money-Saving and Pitfall-Avoiding Guide

You must visit Bashang Grassland this summer😉, here comes the detailed guide for saving money and avoiding pitfalls! Just came back from a weekend trip to Bashang Grassland, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, and I didn't want to leave after two days of fun🤩. Make sure to save this practical guide! Practical tips to avoid pitfalls: 1. Bashang Grassland covers a vast area, highly recommend self-driving or carpooling🚗, public transportation is not very convenient, and if it's not an off-road vehicle, try not to challenge the wild hills; 2. Choose a sunny day to go, you can enjoy the blue sky, white clouds, and starry sky✨, August is the perfect time to visit the grassland, July might be a bit cold; 3. It is suggested to stay in Fengning Datang Town, where dining, shopping, and access to scenic spots are more convenient. Book hotels in advance during the peak season in August; 4. For food, the Charcoal Camp and Xicun No.1 are worth recommending. The roasted whole lamb is quite large, if there are fewer people, you can order roasted lamb leg or lamb chops, which taste great and have no mutton smell. The Charcoal Camp has decor and lighting suitable for taking photos during dinner📷, Xicun No.1 has a homestay, which is nice and within walking distance to the grassland, and you can also watch the sunset. For breakfast, you can go to Wangtong Roujiamo, where you might need to queue due to the crowd but the serving speed is okay, the neighboring sheep soup shop has fewer people but the taste is just... 5. You must go horse riding! The horses here are very strong, riding by yourself costs 80 yuan/hour, with a guide it's 100 yuan/hour (you can bargain a bit if there are many people), but usually, it doesn't reach 1 hour; 6. Horse farms include: Aima Farm, where you can ride around the flat land of the farm; Junwei Horse Farm, also a flat ride with a photographer taking pictures (one or two), photos cost 25 yuan each, we bought two and got one free; there's another one next to Licheng Lake Resort, where you can lead the horse up the hill, the guide and horses will work harder, and the riding time is longer, the guides will help take photos; 7. Must visit Matown Aima Farm for its dreamy fairy-tale scenery (free grassland view); 8. Fengning Gushi Ranch is worth a visit, as well as the reservoir Junma Camp, where you can see rolling hills and many cattle and sheep grazing (free scenery). The price for a nearby Mongolian yurt was over 1300 yuan; 9. Fengning Mangniu Gou Village is beautiful and close to Yunzhong Grassland (free scenery); 10. Yunzhong Grassland is great, with both toll and free sections (adult ticket 68 yuan). We went to the free section, you can navigate to Licheng Lake Resort, there are Mongolian costumes for rent at 20 yuan, and we also saw wild birch forests and fighting groundhogs; 11. Fengning Junwei Horse Farm, with many horses and pleasant scenery; 12. Guyuan Lightning Lake is nice (adult ticket 30 yuan), after asking locals we went to the free lakeside for a stroll, on the way back to Datang Town we saw a large field of sunflowers; 13. In the evening, you can go to Matown Food Street, where there are free song and dance performances, and fireworks last until 23:00; 14. Many homestays have bonfire parties, ask before checking in; 15. Choose hotels that can be canceled at any time or before check-in, to avoid being unable to cancel if you change your mind; 16. Pair the grassland with pastoral or French style, wear long dresses with sun protection shirts in August, and bring a coat and long pants (pants are for horse riding), the grassland just has a large temperature difference, it's a bit cool in the morning and evening but very hot and sunny at noon; 17. Do good sun protection, if it's windy, wearing sunglasses and a hat will be more convenient; 18. During the peak season, you can consider not going to the Yunzhong Grassland toll area, as the experience may not be very good with too many people; 19. Grass sliding is actually similar to sliding down a slide, you can skip it. Recommended route: Day 1: Aima Farm→Junwei Horse Farm→Lightning Lake→Matown Tourist Resort😎. Day 2: Gushi Ranch Reservoir Junma Camp→Mangniu Gou→Yunzhong Grassland (Gushi and Mangniu Gou are a bit far apart)😎.