Lugu Lake 泸沽湖

About Lugu Lake

Daluoshui offers an accessible first view of the water and traditional pig-trough boats. Farther around the shore, Lige Peninsula gives a different perspective on the lake’s outline, while Gemu Mountain rises above its northern villages. Choose a few shore stops and allow time for the road connections; the lake is a regional outing, not a compact circuit on foot.

The lake occupies a karst-eroded fault depression in the Hengduan Mountains, with basin walls that are steep on the Yunnan side, where mountains descend almost directly to the lake bed, and gentler on the Sichuan side. It sits at an elevation of 2,690 metres, ringed by mountains whose northern peaks rise 1,800 metres above the water. Although its surface area is modest, the lake is deep, averaging 40.3 metres and reaching a maximum of 93.5 metres, with a volume exceeding 2 billion cubic metres, more than the much larger Dianchi Lake (滇池) near Kunming; its water is exceptionally clear and rated Class I for drinking use in China.

It drains through the Grass Sea (草海) wetland into the Gaizu River (盖祖河) and on to the Yangtze (长江) via the Yalong (雅砻江) and Jinsha (金沙江) rivers, mainly in the June-to-October flood season, and supports a diverse aquatic ecosystem including the Nymphoides plant (波叶海菜花), notable in the Grass Sea, and the wintering black-necked crane (黑颈鹤), a national first-class protected animal. It is a provincial tourist scenic area (省级旅游风景区) shared by Yunnan and Sichuan, a national key scenic area (中国国家重点风景名胜区), a 4A tourist attraction (4A级旅游景区), and a designated nature reserve of the People's Republic of China.

What to look for

• Lige Peninsula projects into the open lake beneath the mountains.
• Traditional pig-trough boats and wooded islands give the Daluoshui shore its distinctive view.

Location & getting there

Getting to Lugu Lake

Take a coach from Lijiang Passenger Station to the Lugu Lake visitor station at Daluoshui; confirm the current departure before travelling.