Pilgrimage to Fifteen-Mile Gorge—A Self-Driving Tour Along the Yalu River (Part 4)

Wishing to the Swan Scenic Area, also known as Fifteen-Mile Gorge, is located in Changbai Korean Autonomous County, Jilin Province, and is a national 3A scenic area. The scenic area is 182 km west of Linjiang and 48 km east of Changbai City.

At 8:00 AM, starting from Linjiang City, you travel eastward along the Yalu River, with mountains and rivers intersecting, and will reach the Swan Fifteen-Mile Gorge scenic area around noon.

Wishing to the Swan Scenic Area, also known as Fifteen-Mile Gorge, is actually a valley. After entering the scenic area, you walk and reach the ‘Visitor Stop’ sign, and then return on the same route. Visiting the Fifteen-Mile Gorge scenic area takes about 4-5 hours.

When people hear the name ‘Fifteen-Mile Gorge’, they naturally associate it with: Is there ‘Fourteen-Mile Gorge’, ‘Nine-Mile Gorge’... That’s not entirely correct. Fifteen-Mile Gorge is not simply a gorge, but a river system. From the mouth of the Yalu River, upstream, whenever a larger tributary enters the Yalu River, the place where this tributary is located is called ‘XX Mile Gorge’. There are a total of twenty-four such gorges, starting from the first one in Jilin Province’s Jishan City, successively ascending as Head Mile Gorge, Two Mile Gorge, Three Mile Gorge, until Twenty-Four Mile Gorge. Fifteen-Mile Gorge is just one of these systems, and this system is also called ‘Sky River’ by locals.

A gorge and a river system can become a national 3A tourist attraction, naturally because of their special features. Personally, I think the main landscape of Fifteen-Mile Gorge is divided into three parts: Forest, Stone, and Water. These three landscapes can be summarized with one character each: Dense, Strange, and Odd. That is, the main characteristic of the Wishing to the Swan Scenic Area is roughly summarized as: Dense forest, Strange stone, and Odd water.

Dense forest:Wishing to the Swan Scenic Area is located at the foot of Mount Changbai, here the vegetation is dense, with lush greenery, ancient trees towering, entering the scenic area, feels like entering a pristine forest. Walking on the cool shady paths, the heat of the summer heat disappears instantly.

Strange stone:The main peak of Wishing to the Swan is a huge volcanic crater, a huge central volcanic eruption and overflow of basalt, when the volcano erupts, molten rock scatters or overflows into the gorge, forming unique volcanic geological relics and strange ‘stone landscapes’.

The scenic area has vast areas of basalt-formed cliffs and pillars, with very obvious columnar joints, mostly four-sided and six-sided, the pillars are tightly arranged, forming a ‘stone forest’, looking from a distance, it appears as if there are thousands of wooden planks.

Odd water:After entering the Fifteen-Mile Gorge scenic area, you can first hear the sound of rushing water, follow the sound, you can see ‘turbulent and surging’ Sky River. The river water is clear and cool, dispelling the summer heat. Many tourists can’t help but stop to wade and play, and get close to nature’s wonders.

In addition to the Sky River in the middle of the valley, there are many smaller streams and waterfalls in Fifteen-Mile Gorge. These streams either fall from the sky or spill out from the forest, some like silk ribbons dancing, some like dreamy gauze, beautiful and exquisite.

Therefore, in a sense, saying that the Wishing to the Swan Scenic Area is a wonderful water world is not an exaggeration, because the water here is indeed magnificent: it has both the elegance of the south, like bridges and streams, waterfalls and clear pools; it also has the vigor of the north, like the sound of rushing water, turbulent and surging Sky River.

Due to visiting Fifteen-Mile Gorge scenic area in the summer, the trees and plants in the area are all one color ‘green’, there is nothing special. However, Fifteen-Mile Gorge is more famous for its autumn colors, about November, here the trees are all dyed red, only then can it be called ‘Grand View’. So if you have the opportunity, you will definitely return to Fifteen-Mile Gorge to see its magnificent autumn colors.