Tickets and booking
Admission is 85 RMB in peak season (March 1 to October 31) and 60 RMB in the off season (November 1 to the end of February). The critical rule sits in the hours: the published closing time is actually the last ticket-sale and last-entry time, not a lock-up — buy and enter before it and you can keep touring normally. Treat the closing hour as your entry deadline, not your exit time.
Half price: minors aged 6-18, full-time undergraduate students and below, and seniors aged 60+ holding a Chongqing Elderly Care Preferential Certificate or their own ID. Free admission: children aged 6 or under (or 1.2 m and shorter), seniors 65+ with valid ID, active-duty military, families of martyrs, disabled veterans, retired military cadres, and disabled visitors with valid ID. The pack lists these categories against admission and does not state whether they extend to the rides. Published hours and prices are flagged as reference only — confirm on site.
Entrance and routes
The site is organized around two gates — the South Gate and the North Gate — plus the Bajiao Visitor Center, which runs documented one-way shuttles to each: 15 RMB to the South Gate, 5 RMB to the North Gate. The public-transport arrival point is the South Gate side: bus 113 from Wansheng stops at the Black Valley South Gate stop.
Two gates, one-way ride tickets and a one-day suggested duration point to a through-visit — enter at one gate, walk the valley, exit at the other — so decide your direction before setting out. Note that the shuttle fares from the visitor center are asymmetric (15 RMB south, 5 RMB north), which matters when budgeting either direction.
Photo spots
The pack names no individual viewpoints, so anchor your shot list to the documented features: the valley landscape itself, the sightseeing cableway (the one aerial vantage in the pack, 30 RMB one way), and the gate-to-gate route. For light, work backwards from the entry cutoffs: peak-season opening at 08:30 is the earliest start of the year and maximizes usable daylight inside the valley, while the November-December last entry of 15:30 makes a late start incompatible with a full day inside.
Timing and crowds
Hours shift three times a year, every day of the week: 08:30-16:00 from March 1 to October 31; 09:00-15:30 from November 1 to December 31; 09:00-18:00 from January 1 to February 28. Every listed time is a last-entry time — ticket sales and entry checks stop at that hour, after which you can continue touring.
The pack carries no visitor-volume data, so no weekday, month or season can honestly be called quieter; plan against the clock instead. One quirk: off-season pricing (60 RMB) runs November through February, but last entry is 15:30 in November-December and 18:00 in January-February. With a suggested duration of one full day, arriving at or near opening is the reliable move in every season.
Walking and effort
The pack’s suggested duration is one full day, which makes walking the default activity here. No trail lengths, elevation figures or difficulty grades are provided, so ‘1 day’ is the honest planning baseline. The documented ways to cut time on foot are the one-way sightseeing bus (30 RMB) and the one-way sightseeing cableway (30 RMB), with shuttle buses (15 RMB to the South Gate, 5 RMB to the North Gate) covering the visitor-center-to-gate legs. Because the published closing time is last entry, a walking-heavy day needs a start close to opening — especially in November-December, when the cutoff is 15:30.
Getting there
From Chongqing’s main urban area, take the long-distance bus from Sigongli Transport Interchange Hub to Wansheng, about 90 minutes. At Wansheng Bus Station, transfer to bus 113 and ride about 40 minutes to the Black Valley South Gate stop. That is just over two hours of riding each way, before transfer waits. The site itself sits in Heishan Town, Wansheng Economic and Technological Development Area, Qijiang District, Chongqing.
Cost breakdown
Documented prices, valid year-round:
- Admission: 85 RMB peak season (March 1 to October 31), 60 RMB off season (November 1 to end of February).
- One-way sightseeing bus: 30 RMB.
- One-way sightseeing cableway: 30 RMB.
- One-way shuttle, Bajiao Visitor Center to South Gate: 15 RMB.
- One-way shuttle, Bajiao Visitor Center to North Gate: 5 RMB.
Worked examples (simple arithmetic on the above): a peak-season adult riding the bus one way and the cableway one way spends 85 + 30 + 30 = 145 RMB before shuttles; the same rides off season total 120 RMB. Shuttles add 5 or 15 RMB per leg depending on the gate. The half-price and free-admission categories listed under ticket-booking apply to admission; the pack does not state whether they extend to the bus, cableway or shuttles.