Sunday, August 11, 2013

Stairway to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

17 July 2013 (Wednesday): Mt Yulong (玉龙雪山) - Lanyuegu (蓝月谷) - Shuhe Ancient Town (束河古镇) - Black Dragon Pool (黑龙潭)

Chronologically, I'm supposed to blog about Lijiang old town first but since we ended up staying longer in Lijiang, I'll fast forward and blog about Mt Yulong first. =P Even though I'm against following tours in China, we actually took a day tour for this Mt Yulong trip. My original plan was to go there ourselves but mom kept looking for tours while we were walking around Lijiang old town the day before and found this travel agent. After comparing the price to what we would have spent if we went ourselves, the price of the tour of 320yuan/pax was actually quite reasonable (provided no hidden costs). So for the convenience, we decided to take the tour and it turned out to be a good choice coz we were lucky to have a good tour guide and there were no hidden costs. So it's a win for this tour. =) However, I'm still against following tours coz the probability of getting a good tour guide is low. =P I'll share more about this in the next post. 

We were told that our tour guide would pick us up from our hotel at 7.10am but our tour guide (小魏) was already waiting for us by 7am. First impression - pass.  =)

Along the journey to Mt Yulong, I started getting worried coz it was very cloudy and we could hardly see the mountains at all. Not a good sign coz the weather could really ruin this entire trip. It would be such a let down and waste of money if we went all the way up the mountain and see nothing but mists. 

The good thing about following this tour is that we were able to skip the queue at the ticket office and went straight to the cable car entrance. But when we arrived at the cable car entrance around 9am, there was already a long queue coz all the tour groups arrived almost at the same time. See the visitor counter? We were already the 1781st visitor for the day. For independent travelers, it's better to go later to avoid the crowd. 

That's what we saw along the cable car ride. NOTHING but mists...we're so doomed!! =.=
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and after the 10 minutes boring ride...
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Tadaa...clear blue skies with no mist?!?! Wow...what an unexpected surprise!!! Lucky us! 

Quickly took some pics of the clear mountain before it got misty again. =P Btw, even though this 'snow' mountain is supposed to be capped with snow all year round, the effect of global warming (mainly caused by the huge amount of Chinese tourists coming here over the past few years) have caused the snow line to increase. That's why we see no snow but rocks. =P


There were tourists-friendly steps from the cable car station at altitude 4506m to 4680m. Even though 174m sounds very short and easy, it was actually a lot more difficult to hike due to the high altitude. Fortunately, the weather was very nice when we were there. 

Spectacular view from high up!!

The mists that come and go. =P

Breathtaking misty-cal scenery. =) 

Last stretch of steps before reaching altitude 4680m!!

Stairway to 'heaven'...lol!!

After hiking slowly for 40 minutes, we finally arrived at altitude 4680m!! The highest altitude I've ever been. It was very misty when we got there so we could only see the stone and a few topless guy showing off their fats and making the background of my pics look ugly. Dude...it's not even cold, what are you trying to show off? So annoying! =.=

Waited awhile for the mist to clear off a lil'. That's the best we could get coz we had to rush back downhill to gather with the tour group. I would have stayed longer to take more pics if we had more time but I think 2.5 hours is quite sufficient. 


Notice many people wearing 'red' jacket?? There are two 'essential' items that all tour groups encourage tourists to buy/rent before going up Mt Yulong...oxygen & winter jacket. I guess you'll only see this trend in China. I've been to the Alps in Switzerland and hiked Mt Kinabalu, nobody ever mentioned about getting an oxygen tank. Anyway 'just in case', we bought an oxygen tank in Lijiang old town for only 20yuan (as compared to 60yuan at the shop that the tour brought us to). Luckily we didn't rent the winter jacket like what most other tourists did coz the weather really wasn't cold at all. These people ended up lugging their jackets as they walked up all those steps making them even more tired and they probably thought it was altitude sickness so they kept breathing from the oxygen tank...lol!! Personally, I don't think its necessary to get these, just bring a windbreaker during summer, follow your own pace and walk slowly, you'll be fine. =)

Last few pics before we took the cable car down. See the contrast between the pics taken when we first arrived and these pics?? That's why I say the weather could really ruin this trip. We were very lucky to be able to see clear blue skies. =)

The mist added some cinematic effect to our cable car ride. Looked as if we were entering another 'paradise'...lol!!

Tour group lunch = cramping with all other tour groups for lousy food. Instant noodle is actually a much better option at times like this. =P

Our next destination, Lanyuegu is actually part of the entrance fee for Mt Yulong but we had to pay an additional 50yuan/pax for this green eco-car. Kinda pricey for this hop-on-hop-off ride with only 4 stops but we've got no choice. The place was too big to finish walking within an hour. 

Hop-off the eco-car, snapped some pics, hop-on the eco-car...that's all we did...lol!!

This place is actually pretty nice for photos with the blue water and mountain as the backdrop. Guess what's behind this tranquil scenery??

PEOPLE!!! A LOT OF PEOPLE!!!!! Grrrrr....I really hate crowds!!!! =.= We actually spent more time queuing for the eco-car than sightseeing. Worse still...it was raining...arghhh!!!

Country roads, take me home...oh no no I'm not going home yet...lol!!

Next destination...Shuhe Ancient Town. The effect of high altitude was kicking in so dad & I decided to rest and have a drink instead of walking around. 

Our tour ended at 4.30pm and we were dropped off at our final destination of the day...Heilongtan Pool. This place used to be the best place to get a view of Mt Yulong and its reflection but our tour guide told us that the pool is already dry. I can't really believe how this is possible until I saw it with my own eyes. This dry and cracked lake bed really spoils the view...how disappointing!! 

Aight that's all for now, not very effective blogging over this long weekend. =.= Still 3 more blog posts to go for this trip. Anyway, next post...Shangri-la.

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