Jade Dragon Snow Mountain 玉龙雪山

About Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

The valley’s pools and cascades offer a lower-elevation landscape, while the mountain platforms bring the snow and rock faces closer. Spruce Meadow provides another distinct section. Select the specific areas before booking: park entry, internal transport and cable-car access are separate parts of the trip, and weather can alter operations.

In 1938 an expedition led by the Australian mountaineer Marie Byles failed to reach the summit due to bad weather. The main peak, Shanzidou (扇子陡), has been climbed only once, on 8 May 1987, by American climbers Phil Peralta-Ramos and Eric Perlman, though the claim has faced some doubt for lacking summit photographs.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is a north-south range in the Hengduan Mountains' Shaluli range, reaching 5,596 meters at its main peak, Shanzidou. The massif runs 35 kilometers north to south and 13 kilometers east to west, and is the southernmost peak in China, and in Eurasia, to carry snow year-round. Vegetation on its eastern slope forms belts from subtropical evergreen broadleaf and Yunnan pine forest at 2,400-2,900 meters, through mixed conifer-broadleaf forest, to subalpine dark coniferous forest, alpine rhododendron scrub-meadow and sparse scree vegetation, above which lies permanent permafrost.

In 1988 Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, together with the Old Town of Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge and Lugu Lake in Ninglang, was combined into the Lijiang Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Scenic Area and approved by the State Council as part of the second batch of National Scenic Areas. On 8 May 2007 the National Tourism Administration approved the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain scenic area as a national 5A tourist attraction.

What to look for

• Blue Moon Valley presents pools and cascades below the mountain.
• Cable-car viewpoints show the high rock and snow landscape.
• Spruce Meadow offers a different forest-and-meadow setting.

Location & getting there

Getting to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Arrange a road transfer from Lijiang to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain visitor centre and ticket gates. Continue by the authorised internal transport for your selected valley, meadow or cable-car section.