Will the Qinling Mountains Become the Next Songtsam-Style Travel Route?
On the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains, at 33.1°N latitude, lies Yuwang Village, Ningshan County, Ankang, Shaanxi.
At 7 p.m. on a summer evening, the sky still bright and temperatures below 30°C, people prefer dining outdoors. A guest suddenly pats their pocket: "Oops, I left my lighter at the airport."
Hu Yingbing happens to overhear this. He’s standing at the restaurant entrance with his golden retriever, Ermao, chatting with a waiter.
He steps forward and pulls out a lighter from his pocket.
After a brief exchange, the guest learns that this tall, lean, and sun-tanned man is the "boss" here.
The boss turns and mentions heading up the mountain for dinner. The guest wonders: "The boss doesn’t eat at his own restaurant?"
Hu Yingbing smiles and explains: "Friends came from afar, so I’m taking them to a friend’s place up the mountain."
The friend’s home he refers to sits at an elevation of over 700 meters. Driving requires a detour, but walking is a straight path—crossing rice fields and lotus ponds, then ascending the mountain, taking just about ten minutes.
Passing through a Western-style living room, the host Jiajia is still busy preparing. The long table in the yard is already set with a checkered tablecloth, featuring schisandra berries as a pre-meal snack and freshly brewed chrysanthemum tea.
The vegetables were just picked from the garden, and the sizzling sounds of stir-frying now come from the kitchen.
This is the second home of Jiajia and Guo Qiang.
Luchai Shanji · Yuwan Yigu Holiday Homestay – Restaurant
Usually, the couple works as tour guides in Xi’an, leading foreign groups. Though the drive between the two places takes two hours, they still come here every few days to spend a night—it’s grounding in the mountains.
Summer keeps them both busy, as Xi’an is a destination city with many foreign tourists. Business only slows slightly in winter. The caveat: as long as the pandemic stays away.
Jiajia and Guo Qiang were longtime employees of the Han Tang Inn Youth Hostel in Xi’an. The pandemic devastated businesses reliant on foreign tourists, and the hostel’s founder, Wang Chen, shut it down.
Out of their 20-year employer-employee relationship, Wang Chen recommended the couple to Hu Yingbing.
At the time, Hu Yingbing’s Luchai Shanji had just opened in Yuwang Village and needed a caretaker.
Luchai Shanji · Yuwan Yigu Holiday Homestay – Restaurant
Luchai Shanji is not just an ordinary homestay.
As early as 2018, during site selection, Hu Yingbing had a grand vision: this would be a rural holiday community.
Unlike investment attraction, the community places more emphasis on co-creation.
Therefore, in addition to self-operated businesses like coffee shops and museums, Hu Yingbing has been searching for new villagers to settle in the village at relatively low prices and become part of the community.
Tony, a native of Manchester, rented this mountain cottage.
Luchai Shanji Yuwan Yigu Holiday Homestay
Tony was once an electronic engineer for the British Royal Navy. One day in 2002, he suddenly grew tired of his busy life and decided to sell his company, house, and car, leave the UK, and travel the world.
After arriving in China, he settled in Xi'an. In 2005, he founded the "Yellow River Charity Kitchen," providing free dinners to the homeless every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6 p.m.
Thanks to Wang Chen and Hu Yingbing, Tony moved into the mountains. At this point, he resembles Bill Porter, the author of *Road to Heaven*. Living a mountain life with his wife, they face the Yuwan Village below from afar.
However, due to pandemic-related visa issues, Tony and his wife had to return to the UK not long after. The couple Jiajia and Guo Qiang, who were working as caretakers, then took over the lease of the cottage.
Later, the couple quit their caretaker jobs and began a dual-city life between urban and rural areas. Their cottage became a unique presence in Yuwan Village, and Hu Yingbing often visits with Ermai or brings friends over for meals.
Hu Yingbing hopes there will be more and more new villagers like Jiajia.
Hu Yingbing, who comes from a real estate advertising background, is a native of Guanzhong. He arrived in Yuwan Village in 2018, where the 12.5-square-kilometer circular village resembles a Taiji diagram.
Even more remarkable is the frequent sightings of crested ibises.
Known as the "Oriental Gem," the crested ibis is a species particularly sensitive to ecological conditions and was once considered extinct in the mid-20th century.
Villagers told him there were originally eight crested ibises here. But as fewer people farmed and rice fields were abandoned, the ibises lost their habitat, leaving only three or four today.
This struck a chord with Hu Yingbing, who had been pondering the revival of Chinese land aesthetics for years.
Hu Yingbing and his team worked with villagers to restore Yuwan Village's wetland ecology, starting with repairing irrigation channels and cultivating rice fields. This is now the village's natural landscape—guests open their doors to vast rice fields and rapeseed flowers, both scenic and productive.
The rice for meals and the oil for cooking are sourced locally.
The lotus pond, left with withered lotus in winter, is a favorite spot for crested ibises.
The lotus pond is intentionally unlit, making it perfect for stargazing in summer.
Luchai Shanji Yuwan Yigu Holiday Homestay
The suffix of Luzhai Mountain Collection is "rural vacation community." Hu Yingbing joked that the reason he doesn't do standalone homestays is that the Qinling Mountains already have Xia Yuqing and Chen Changchun, so he "had to try something different."
His "different" approach carries traces of his real estate background. After seeing it, Wang Shi remarked, "He does everything a real estate developer does except sell houses."
Wang Shi said that when real estate becomes stock assets, developers are forced to transition into service providers—exactly what Hu Yingbing is doing.
Luzhai Coffee retains the old stone walls of the hydropower station and also serves as a tourist service center.
Downstairs is Under the Sky·Nature Bookstore, with ivy covering every window.
Upstairs is the Discharge Art Museum. At the project's inception, Hu Yingbing held an exhibition titled "Standing in Place," taking portraits of every remaining villager.
The Yuwang Village Museum displays farming tools collected from villagers.
The Crested Ibis Museum showcases physical specimens, cultural derivatives, and art exhibitions related to the bird, along with every book about crested ibises. The museum also doubles as a homestay reception hall to promote knowledge about the species.
The homestay section invited designers from different countries, with "Gazing at Wood" designed by Shinya Kojima of the Japanese firm KoDA.
When Kojima learned that crested ibises could be seen here, he voluntarily halved his design fee because the bird is Japan's national symbol.
After five years, Luzhai Mountain Collection has stable revenue, with an annual occupancy rate of around 70%.
"Sometimes the little train earns as much in a day as ten guest rooms," Hu Yingbing said with a laugh.
This isn't self-deprecation. The train passes through rice fields, lotus ponds, and rapeseed fields, with egrets and ibises flying overhead and ducklings leaving "V"-shaped ripples in the water—reflecting the preciousness of ecological diversity.
"But the bookstore, art museum, and museum aren’t very profitable yet, or their impact will take longer to materialize. That’s the challenge of rural community building."
Hu Yingbing admits this isn’t a quick-win path but believes rural community building is worthwhile because rural revitalization isn’t just about building homestays or imposing art without regard for village culture.
When Hu Yingbing’s car arrives, his adopted golden retriever Ermao rushes to greet him, and the grandma selling sausages at the train station insists on grilling one fresh for him.
The grandma, a local, always says, "Our village is so beautiful because of Hu Yingbing."
Luzhai Mountain Collection Yuwang Yigu Vacation Homestay
Hu Yingbing’s self-deprecating remark that "the Qinling Mountains already have Xia Yuqing and Chen Changchun" isn’t wrong—it was indeed they who introduced the homestay concept, giving most people access to the Qinling Mountains.
In 2017, the Liuba County Party Secretary waited a whole day for Xia Yuqing at Xiaoshan Airport; a year later, the same secretary chased Chen Changchun across Beijing, from Miyun to Yanqing and back to Dongzhimen, to finally "catch" him after a day.
Liuba, nearly a 5-hour drive from Xi'an, has inconvenient transportation; industrial development is restricted by Qinling protection efforts; agriculture is pursued yet lacks farmland; its cultural identity pales in comparison to places like Lantian, and traditional tourism efforts have failed to gain significant traction.
How can this area, blessed with stunning scenery yet indistinct among the 26 counties of the Qinling Mountains, break through?
Xia Yuqing chose the breathtaking scenery of Tianxingliang Village in Huoshaodian Town, while Chen Changchun launched his first courtyard outside Beijing in nearby Loufanggou.
In the summer of 2019, the ideal season for escaping the heat in the Qinling Mountains, "Secluded Countryside · Loufanggou" opened—the first true branded homestay in the region.
Looking back now, Chen Changchun feels it was somewhat like a gamble:
At first, there was anxiety. What if no guests came to this first government-invested project of Secluded Countryside?
When the first promotional article was published and the first booking came in, he immediately informed the county Party secretary. Yet locals mistook it for a pyramid scheme: a courtyard costing around 2,000 yuan—what kind of homestay could be so expensive and still sell?
As bookings increased, Chen had the sales team track the orders: Where were the guests from? Why did they book?
The answer was: "We’ve long hoped for homestays around Xi'an, just like Zhejiang people have their Moganshan."
Chen’s worries eased: "We and Liuba fulfilled each other, setting a foundation for others: See, even a place this remote can make waves."
What opened was not just a homestay but a new era for Liuba—and even the Qinling Mountains.
Xia Yuqing invented a "fifth" season.
Feiniaoji X Kongshan Jiutie · Qinling Red Leaf Season
In October 2017, Xia Yuqing visited Liuba for the first time and saw maple leaves rivaling Kyoto’s.
He wondered then: Why do we repeatedly travel to Kyoto for autumn foliage, yet no one turns to the Qinling Mountains to trace the origins of this beauty?
During this annual "fifth season," the Qinling Country Fair became a brand, gathering hundreds of lifestyle labels and connecting specialties from across China.
Feiniaoji Homestay promptly launched its limited-time "Qinling Red Leaf Season" package:
Stargazing, mulled wine, honey lip balm making, custom aromatherapy crafts, DIY kiwi wine, plant-printed cloth bags, and the Qinling "Eight Delicacies" hotpot.
Before this, the Qinling Mountains were just a vague, distant concept—merely the "North-South climate divide" from geography class, with no compelling reason to visit beyond Wang Wei fans seeking his Wangchuan Villa.
Feiniaoji X Kongshan Jiutie · Qinling Eight Delicacies Hotpot
After this, the Qinling Mountains became more tangible.
In 2021, the Hidden Countryside·Daoban Lodge, a renovated road maintenance dormitory, opened on the Most Beautiful Country Road.
In 2023, Yongguichuan opened nearby.
It’s worth mentioning that Lai Guoping was invited here earlier than Xia Yuqing and Chen Changchun, and now he feels the timing is ripe.
Wang Qiuan, hailed as "the designer who best connects with ordinary people," also arrived, guiding over 200 households to convert their homes into homestays.
Someone calculated that a farmer’s 4-room homestay earns more than their 20-plus-room setup, with annual revenue exceeding 3 million yuan and a gross profit of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan.
As a result, Liuba is acclaimed as the county with the "densest concentration of cultural tourism talent."
In July last year, Liuba had over 200 registered homestays; this year, the number grew to 400, with more than 30 homestays along just over 30 kilometers of the Most Beautiful Country Road.
More importantly, business is thriving for everyone.
Loufang Valley is fully booked every day, forcing them to hire 9 temporary workers; the Feiniaojii housekeeper joked about hoping for a break to catch their breath.
While traditional tourism thinking remains fixated on diverting客流 from Xi’an, Liuba has formed an open "Qinling Lodge Cluster," becoming a lifestyle service provider for "Qinling in Liuba."
Meanwhile, the government has focused on football and Chinese herbal medicine, making the Qinling Mountains even more tangible.
At the entrance of Yuwang Village’s Luzhai Mountain Cluster, the white house behind bamboo fences is the Han Tang Inn·Mountain Youth Hostel.
Over 20 years ago, Wang Chen, a Xi’an native with experience in hotels and off-roading, began operating the Han Tang Inn Youth Hostel.
If not for the pandemic, the four hostels, including Han Tang Inn, might not have vanished so quickly.
Youth hostels are less an accommodation product and more a state of being, a reflection of an era, especially suited to destinations like Xi’an, where foreigners pour in daily.
Wang Chen often said how wonderful it would be if Chinese could stay for a week in places like Rome.
"Youth hostels are connectors between young people and the world."
The year of the pandemic, Wang Chen closed three hostels, keeping only the Han Tang Inn on Nanchang Lane. After nearly a year of suspension, it was upgraded into a homestay.
The bunk beds and other furnishings from those hostels found a perfect match with Hu Yingbing and were relocated to Yuwang Village, offering an alternative lodging option for study tour groups.
The Han Tang Inn in Nanchang Alley still carries its strong distinctive mark, with very few Chinese guests seen. Wang Chen has been contemplating creating an accommodation brand for young Chinese travelers.
"If our young people go to Japan or the UK and want to explore a city for an extended period, how should they choose their accommodation?"
For Hu Yingbing, this question becomes, "If people come to the Qinling Mountains, how should they elegantly traverse them?"
After Yuwang Village, Hu Yingbing has expanded Luzhai Shanji along the Qinling Mountains, setting up locations in Taibai Aoshan, Bamu Xigu, Shuanghekou Ancient Town, Hanjiang Old City, and Fengyan Ancient Terraces—some for urban renewal, but mostly for rural revitalization.
The newest one is located in Lantian District, Zhongnan Mountain, and just opened this year's Dragon Boat Festival.
The labels "Lantian" and "Zhongnan Mountain" already encapsulate the essence of the Qinling Mountains.
While expanding locations, he and his team delve deep into the Qinling Mountains, bearing the triple mission of ecological security, cultural heritage, and future technology, much like the mountains themselves.
Some say Luzhai Shanji could become the second Songtsam, ultimately forming a network rather than a single product.
This is also what Hu Yingbing aims to achieve, but he believes that whether focusing on points or lines, three forces are indispensable: the government, for infrastructure and social security; cooperatives, as cultural hubs to channel rural resources; and enterprises and social organizations, to handle top-level design and industrial operations. All three are essential.
Among the enterprises and social organizations he mentioned, fellow travelers are also indispensable.
Secluded Countryside · Joy Mountain Courtyard View
This spring, Secluded Countryside expanded to Zhenba, Hanzhong. The homestay named "Joy Mountain" still adheres to the brand's signature "small courtyard" style but with a stronger vacation vibe.
Strictly speaking, Zhenba lies south of the Han River, outside the Qinling range. But for Secluded Countryside, Joy Mountain represents a milestone breakthrough in enriching southern Shaanxi.
On an ordinary weekday during the summer, the 40-room Joy Mountain was often fully booked. Chen Changchun believes Shaanxi residents have strong spending power and desire—as long as there are good products.
Secluded Countryside · Joy Mountain Interior Corner
As for Xia Yuqing, he believes Fei Niao Ji has always been about setting an example, creating a benchmark.
"Look, the Qinling Mountains are like the Alps—perfect for vacations."
"Others imitate us, saying, 'Look, this is my budget version of Fei Niao Ji.'"
Image sources: Jiang Kan, Luzhai Shanji, Wang Ning, Da Mi