The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain locates in the northwest of Lijiang, revealing in north-south trend. The west-east width is 13 kilometers and the north-south length is 35 kilometers. It faces the Haba Snow Mountain, with the surgent Jinsha River running through it. There are 13 peaks belonging to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, each has snow covering in the whole year, which makes the whole mountain look like a proud white jade dragon, which is going to jump into the Jinsha River. So that it named “Jade Dragon Snow Mountain”. It has been a famous snow mountain with beautiful scenery since ancient time. In Tang dynasty, the king Yi Muxun of the Nanzhao countury, which is one of the Tang’s client states, worshiped here and granted it “Beiyue” (means a giant mountain in the north). There is still a Beiyue Temple preserved in the Baisha Village, with deep and serene court and blazing buddhas. Countless pilgrims are on the way to the mountain.

The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is famous for its steepness, vagary, beauty and elegance. It has majestic manner and graceful posture. With the changes of seasons and climate, the scenery looks different in cloud and mist, the white dragon is sometimes visible and sometimes hidden. In clear whether without could, the group of peaks are dazzling and sparking. The whole scenery of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain could be divided into the snow land view of alp, waters scenery of springs and ponds, forest scenery, meadow scenery and so on. Main attractions are the “Jade Pillar Holding the Sky”, the “Spruce Lawn”, the “Ropeway in the Snow Mountain”, the “Heishui River”, the “Yunshui River”, the “Baoshan Stone City” and so on. In Naxi people’s view, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is the avatar of the divinity called “Sanduo”.

Travel Tips

The Yak Lawn, which is the three ropeways’ arrival position, is a good point for viewing the snow peaks. The better place for viewing the whole snow mountain is the Mingyin Village on the road to the Baoshan Stone City (50~60 kilometers away from the Yak Lawn)—But few travelers go there since it is far away and the road condition is not good. It’ll be dangerous in rain and snow.