Songpan Ancient Town

Introduction to Songpan Ancient Town (松潘古城)

Songpan Ancient Town, known as Songzhou Town in ancient times, is located in northeast of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. It was built in Tang Dynasty and has a long history of being regarded as the "West Portal of Sichuan" as an important military base and trading center for horse and tea exchange because of its unique geographical location. Nowadays, Songpan has gained its reputation and attracted a lot of tourists every year as one of the most interesting historical towns in Sichuan Province.



When travel to Songpan ancient town, what attracts most is the spectacular city gates and city wall there. Although there were built in Tang Dynasty and rebuilt during Ming Dynasty, these grand gates and walls are well preserved and still stand there majesty and proudly by protecting Songpan town from the outside world. The whole Songpan town comprises two cities, the inner and the outer city, each has their own grand city gates which were built with giant flagstones. The city wall was constructed with huge blue bricks to the dimension of more than 10 meters high and 6,200 meters long. The huge project of these gates and wall shows how strong and important Songpan town was in the history. When you mount the wall, you get the whole view of this ancient city, the easy and casual life there, the quiet and well-arrange dwelling houses, bridge and stream, surrounded beautiful mountains and forests. This seems like a time-space travel, you see how Songpan works in its specific ancient time.



Yet there are many other interesting things to keep you busy in Songpan ancient town. Walking through the streets, you will find many exotic and exquisite objects and ornaments sold in ancient stores. Those delicate bracelets and earrings, the gorgeous costumes and hair accessories of Qiang and Tibetan ethnic, all these would tempt you to stop and buy some favorites. Still when travel to Songpan, there are many special local foods like yak meat, butter tea, highland barley wine and so on for you to enjoy.


 

Location

Jinan Town, Songpan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China

Main Sights

Ancient City Wall, Tongyuan Bridge, Ruins of Ancient Battlefield

Travel Information

Entrance to the town: free

Ticket to the ancient city wall: CNY150

Opening Hours

Old town entrance: all day

Ascending ancient city wall: 9:00AM - 6:00PM

Transportation 

From Chengdu Chadianzi Coach Station,tourists can take frequent bus to Songpan Bus Station. (fare: around 117)

Travel Tips 

1. Recommended length of visit: 2 -3 hours

Tour including Visiting Songpan Ancient Town (Sichuan)

Jiuzhaigou & Qiang Village 6 Days Tour