Yulong Snow Mountain
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is a snow-covered massif of thirteen peaks in Yulong Naxi Autonomous County near Lijiang, Yunnan, at the southern end of the Hengduan Mountains. Its highest summit, Shanzidou, stands 5,596 m above sea level, and the massif is clad in snow throughout the year, its glaciers among the southernmost in China. The northwestern flank drops into Tiger Leaping Gorge, where the Jinsha, the upper Yangtze, roars between Jade Dragon and Haba Snow Mountain. The Naxi people call the mountain Satseto and revere it as a guardian, and the view of its white ramparts from Lijiang's Black Dragon Pool is counted among China's finest. The botanist Joseph Rock lived for years beneath it, and the travel writer Bruce Chatwin later followed in his footsteps, drawn by the mountain and its Naxi culture. Shanzidou was climbed only once, in 1987, by an American party that rated the rock climbing hard and the avalanche danger severe. A cable car now lifts sightseers to an observation deck above 4,500 m, making the mountain one of Yunnan's premier attractions.
- Region
- Yunnan, China
- Model area
- ≈ 674 km²