travel * Climbing Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Yunnan, China

After our day in Lijiang and the hike through the gorge, we had one more day left in the area. We decided to go and climb the snow mountain.

It’s set up like a large, touristy national park and after entering you can decide where you want to head to.
The options include the Glacier Park itself and different meadows, which offer stunning views of the glacier and snow mountain.

Once again it was great to travel off-season. I cannot even imagine what’s going on up there in the summer!

It’s absolutely amazing to see the Chinese doing any sort of physical activity. At the entrance to the glacier park you can rent your very own, warm Bosideng down coat and buy some Oxygen bottels for around 60 RMB.

(On a little side note: Bosideng (pronounce Boston) is China’s largest supplier/factory for down coats and they are retailing as well. If you come across one of their winter jacket stores, check it out. High quality down for very low prices and in complete current Chinese fashion and style. It’s somehow kind of fabulous!)

We skipped the oxygen and also the coat and magically survived the crazy altitude and were rewarded with spectacular views!

And we of course took the ultimate Chinese tourist picture, screaming, peace signs and all….

After “finishing” the glacier, we then had a few hours left and ventured over to the meadows. Note: you have to buy a separate ticket at a separate booth in a separate parking lot. If you do so before visiting the glacier you can catch a bus that will carry right on to the meadows. Otherwise you have to get down the mountain, buy another ticket and back up the mountain.
We, of course, didn’t know…

From the meadow you can venture slightly down again to get to White Water River. A completely artificial little pond and river – it comes with Yaks, waterfalls and crystal clear blue waters. You can take a little electro cart down the hill for an additional 15RMB, but if you’re an able person, I’d recommend to take the walkway through the woods and then just stop the regular bus on the bridge.

This day concluded our time in Yunnan and we were ready to catch a Sichuan Airlines flight. To Sichuan.

Related posts: