Sichuan Daocheng Yading Super Detailed Guide!!!
👍🏻Recommended reasons:
Folks, you really must visit Daocheng Yading once in your lifetime! 🏔There are stunning snow-capped mountains, golden meadows, crystal-clear lakes, and lush forests🌳. Every scene is breathtakingly beautiful, as if you have stumbled into a fairyland, and your soul is cleansed🥰. Daocheng Yading in spring🌸 is like a love letter💌 written by God to the world. From April to June, the snowmelt awakens the entire valley, wildflowers bloom everywhere on the plateau🌼, glaciers and meadows snuggle up to each other, and prayer flags flutter in the wind with the sound of chanting. It is indeed a must-visit "last pure land on the blue planet". And Daocheng Yading in summer is also super beautiful, with green grasslands, gurgling streams🌊, clear lakes, and towering snow-capped mountains. The scenery is simply amazing!
🗺Attraction Introduction:
📍Daocheng Yading is located in Yading Village, Shangri-La Town, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
The altitude here is around 3,000-4,700 meters😮. It's easy to get altitude sickness when you first arrive, so be sure to prepare in advance.
✨Classic attractions include:
- Chenresig🙏: The northern peak of the three sacred mountains of Yading. It is particularly majestic and spectacular, with snow on its summit year-round, like a sacred temple. It's a great place for atmospheric photos📸.
- Jampayang🧐: The southern peak. The sharp peak is like a sharp blade piercing the sky, appearing particularly holy against the blue sky.
- Milk Lake🥛: An ancient glacial lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The lake water is crystal clear and blue, with a milky white ring around the lake, as beautiful as a fairy tale scene.
- Five-Color Lake🌈: Due to the refraction of sunlight, the lake water presents five different colors, dreamy and magical.
- Pearl Lake💎: A lake formed by the melting snow of Chenresig. The lake water is crystal clear and incredibly beautiful.
🚗Transportation:
There are several ways to get there👇
✈Airplane: Many places don't have direct flights, so you need to transfer. The airport's altitude is 4,411 meters, and you're likely to experience altitude sickness when you arrive (👋Not recommended).
🚗Self-driving: The entire journey from Chengdu to Daocheng is 800 km, taking about 15 hours to drive directly. It's difficult to appreciate the beautiful scenery along the way, and it's also very tiring (👋Not recommended).
🚐Joining a tour: I recommend joining a small, no-shopping tour group. They take care of the photos, driving, and everything! It's really convenient (👍Recommended).
🗺Itinerary:
Here's a 5-day relaxed itinerary suitable for working people😎
📅D0|Evening arrival in Chengdu
▪️Fly directly to Chengdu after work and check into a hotel within the Third Ring Road. You can still go out for a delicious hot pot in the evening, for only 50 RMB per person, and enjoy all kinds of snacks!🍲
📅D1|Chengdu → Highway 434 → Red Sea → Yuzixi
▪️Drive🚗 along the scenic snow mountain road and enjoy the fresh air.
▪️The lake💦 under Gongga Mountain🏔 is crystal clear✨️.
▪️At sunset🌄 in Yuzixi, you can also encounter the beautiful sight of the sun illuminating the golden mountain.
📅D2|Eighteen Bends of Heaven → Kazila Mountain → Litang
▪️Continuous Z-shaped bends wind up the mountain like a giant dragon, overlooking the earth like fingerprints👀.
▪️Prayer flags flutter on Kazila Mountain, and on clear days, you can see the Gongga Snow Peak in the distance.
📅D3|One-day trip to Daocheng Yading
▪️Head to the scenic area at 7:00! Go for a light hike🚶♀️ to Chonggu Temple - Luorong Cattle Farm - Pearl Lake, avoiding the crowds on the long route, and you can even bring a self-heating pot for a picnic on the mountaintop.
📅D4|Tagong Grassland → Moishi Park
▪️Take some dark, otherworldly photos in Moishi Park. The outfits are super cool🆒.
▪️Take some photos in Tibetan clothing at Tagong Grassland, a super memorable experience📷.
📅D5|Four Girls Mountain Shuangqiao Valley → Cat's Nose Ridge → Chengdu
▪️Shuangqiao Valley is like the Switzerland🇨🇭 of western Sichuan, with snow-capped mountains, lakes, meadows, and forests.
▪️View the majestic Yaomei Peak from Cat's Nose Ridge.
🍱Food Recommendations:
When you get there, you must try Tibetan butter tea🥛, which is salty, fragrant, and rich, very unique; there's also barley cakes, crispy and delicious; and don't miss the hand-grabbed mutton, it's so satisfying to eat meat in big bites! Of course, there are also various special Tibetan yogurts, rich and creamy, add a little honey, and it's amazing😋.
💰Expenses:
If you join a small group tour, it's only about 1K+ RMB per person! The tour covers transportation, accommodation, and travel photography, which is really cost-effective, saving you half the cost compared to traveling independently🅱. If you go on your own, the airfare and accommodation alone can be quite expensive, plus meals, entrance fees, and so on, it can easily cost 5K RMB per person.
📌Other tips:
1️⃣ Dealing with altitude sickness: Stop exercising in advance, and don't wash your hair or take a shower when you first arrive! Otherwise, it can easily worsen altitude sickness😣.
2️⃣ Pack light: A 26-inch carry-on suitcase + backpack is enough. Otherwise, carrying too much luggage is really cumbersome.
3️⃣ Avoiding tour scams: Be sure to check for hidden costs, and the terms of the contract should be clear, so you don't get scammed without knowing it.
4️⃣ Outfit formula: Hiking jacket + cowboy hat, both stylish and windproof, essential for taking photos and posing on the plateau🧢.
5️⃣ Photography guide:
✔️Choose cool-toned outfits for Moishi Park to create dark, dramatic photos.
✔️The west gate of Litang has good lighting in the afternoon for photography, bringing your own reflector is even better.
✔️The Yading short route has fewer people and softer light in the morning, perfect for taking photos with Chenresig.
6️⃣ Open flames are strictly prohibited in the scenic area. Protect the environment and do not litter.
7️⃣ Respect local religious beliefs and customs. Turn prayer wheels clockwise🙏.