The city of 都江堰 is about an hour of bus ride (￥15.5, 56 Km) from 茶店子 transit center. Bus leaves as soon as it is filled, and it fills up quickly.
都江堰, on the west edge of the city, is an irrigation system built 2200 years ago (before gunpowder was invented) and still in use. No dam was erected. The clever design of 李冰 is still studied by every hydraulic engineers-to-be in China.
岷江 River is diverted here into two branches. Only one goes into the city for irrigation. By using different depth and width, this one never overflows nor dries out, while the outer river holds the majority of the volume when flooding, and bares its bottom when in drought. Another example, this picture shows 飞沙堰, a 200m buffer zone right at the water direction. On the side of it is the true water outlet at an angle. This effectively keeps the sediment of the inner river from flowing into the city.
青城山 is only about 15 Km away. A pleasant place to visit in hot summer (much cooler here). Lots of buses (￥4.5) go from 都江堰 city's transit center to the entrance gate of the mountain. ￥60 (senior 50%). It's possible to take a chair lift (￥35, real SLOW) to get up halfway. In order to take it, you'll have to first take a large flat boat to cross a tiny lake (￥5, crossing time < 5 minutes, waiting time 5-15 mins until the boat is filled). Then it's only 1-2 Km's walk up to ShangQing Temple 上清宫 (built from the 300s. The current three characters were written by 蒋介石 Chiang Kai-shek). Here, one can continue up to 老君庙, or walk down. The walk is a lot more pleasant than the chair lift. Narrow. You can buy a cucumber from the peasants along the way or light a joss stick at 天师洞, where 张天师 (Taoism's founder) studied. It's in a large natural cave. In the old days, people came here to seek solitude or study Taoism. Now, you walk among vendors and flirting students (it was a Sunday), only the music that were softly playing in the speakers (hidden in the trees) still convey a little bit of the serenity.
