Jilin Herping Expedition 2027
Unlike any other herping tours we offerred previously, this is a herping tour featured in Northeast China of Jilin Province. Jilin or the Northeast as a whole is a special place in China where the culture and traditions are greatly different from any other parts of China, and we will be herping in the Changbai Mts. near China/North Korea border and in here the major ethnicity group locally are Koreans. In most temperatre places, herpetofauna diversity is limited and there is no exceptions in Jilin, but it has a great numbers of showstopper tier snakes such as the Blue Phase Mainland Tiger Keelback (Rhabdophis lateralis), the Russian Black Ratsnake (Elaphe schrenckii), the Rock-dwelling Viper (Gloydius intermedius) and the Sakhalin Adder (Vipera b. sachalinensis).
June 7-June 13, 2027
Itinerary
June 7-9th 2027 Day 1-2 Jiaohe City, Jilin City
June 9-13th 2027 Day 3-6 Fusong County, Baishan city & Antu county, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture
Picking up location could be Changchun Longjia International Airport.
We will meet up in the downtown of Changchun, and head to Jilin City the first day.
We can drop you off anywhere around Jilin City or Changchun after the trip is over.
Day 1-2 📍Jiaohe City, Jilin
We will begin our journey in Changchun city, once we meet up, we will quickly head east to our first herping spot— Jiaohe city. Jiaohe in Chinese means “River of dragons”, as its name suggested, it is a place loaded with snakes.
We will be herping in a few scenery places such as the Red leaf valley, it is only beautiful when its in autumn but we will see a lot of snakes in early summer here. Also it is the only place where a few grassland species can be found, the Amur Ratsnake (Elaphe anomala) is not officially documented in Jilin province, however, we can find them in here. We can also find all the other widespread species from here such as the Russian Black Ratsnake (Elaphe schrenckii), the Japanese Keelback (Hebius vibakari), and the Mainland Tiger Keelback (
Rhabdophis lateralis). If we are lucky, we might be able to find the mysterious David’s Ratsnake (Elaphe davidi) — one of the rarest ratsnake from China. Unlike other parts of China, night herping is limited and not productive in a temperate place like Jilin, but it is a great place here to road cruise the Ussuri Mamushi (Gloydius ussuriensis) at night, and this will be the only night herping we do this whole trip.
We will stay in a nice franchise hotel and it will be in the middle of the city, since we will be herping in the morning for the most part, we can spend the night chilling in the city and do some tourist stuff (but highly suggest to sleep early for the early wake up purposes).
Day 3-6 📍Baishan City & Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture
Our second and final destination will be near the Holy Mountain — Changbai Mountains. Changbai Mountains are the holy place for many cultures, especially for Manchurians and Koreans, the mountain itself is one of the top tier scenic spot in China. As far as herping goes, in here we can find more than a hundred snakes pre day, including a few “endenmics“.
We will spread out into different groups to look for our targets, the Sakhalin Adder (Vipera berus sachalinensis) is documented in Changbai Mountain range but our team is yet to find it, it will be a top target to find one of the only two adders from China. The Russian Black Ratsnake (Elaphe schrenckii) are relatively common in here, and they are more colorful with yellow chins and orange bands compare to the pale ones from Jiaohe, the local ranger here even found a melanistic individual from here. It is also the only place where the Blue Phase Mainland Tiger Keelback (Rhabdophis lateralis) can be found, but other than the blue morph there are a great variety of these snakes, some of them are darker than other, and some are more orange, they are also if not the biggest Rhabdophis species in the world, much larger than the southern China counterpart of the same species. The Rock-dwelling Viper (Gloydius intermedius) are another variable species can be found in here, they known as one of the most toxic viper from the old world and one of the largest member of Gloydius, but lesser known as a communal snake species that can be found as a big group, and all individuals of the group can be different from each other which made looking for them more interesting. The Steppe Ratsnake (Elaphe dione) is another communal species that like to live as a group, they are one of the most common snake from here and finding more than 100 of them is not a dream.
We will stay in the same brand of the franchise hotel before, the rooms are nice and big for good rests. We will grind hard in the morning, so resting at night is essential here. We will have local Korean food and Northeastern Chinese food for the most part.
Included: Not Included:
Transportation Snacks and extra drinks
Daily meals and drinks Flights on arrival
Accomodation Visa
Park entrance fees Traveling insurance
Difficulty & Comfortableness:
Mostly we are going to hike on the road side and road cruise by vehicles, on our jerdonii hunt in the morining, we will walk in some steap mountain side meadow, but usually not too difficult for most of herpers. Hiking will be huge in this trip, be prepared to hike 15-25k steps per day, but if you are tired you can always jump in one of the car to rest and join the road cruise instead. The temperature in Guizhou is always cold at night and morning, no matter the weather, usually we will be hiking around 15-18 degrees in Liupanshui, 17-20 degrees in Leishan, 22-25 degrees in Libo. During the daytime in Guizhou summer, it is going to be the best summer ever, but get yourself a sun screen before entering the highland.
Food & Accomodation:
We will mostly have local Guizhou cuisine, Guizhou cuisine is one of the most underrated cuisine in the world, we will have a lot of grilled fish, rice noodles, beef hotpots and Guizhou style barbecue. It is gonna be spicy but make you stay warm hiking in at night in low temperature. We also have a choice of American fast food at some point, but be prepared, Guizhou is not like east coast of China, the choice of western food is limited, the deliciousness of local food made up for it. On first four days, we will be staying in franchise hotels that are very nice and clean with big room spaces but only 20-30 minutes away from the herping spot. On day five to seven, we will be staying in a mountain resort that is on our herping location, the boss of the resort is the best chef ever, his cooking skill is unrivalled, so get ready to have some feast.
Travel & Visa requirement:
Be sure to arrive Guiyang before 1pm on June 23th, 2027, we recommend everyone to arrive a day before the trip. Since it will take almost three hours to drive to Liupanshui from Guiyang on the first day, we HAVE to leave Guiyang before 3pm. We will return to Guiyang around 1pm on June 30th, 2027. Usually a Visa is required traveling to China, be sure to check on that for your country, it is participants’ responsibility to get the proper Visa or meet the requirement to enter the country. We can provide help on obtaining the Visa if it is needed.