Glacier hiking in Yunnan ❣🙏

I spent two nights in Deqin of Shangri-la County in Yunnan, mainly to visit the Meili Snow Mountain. Unfortunately the clouds around the mountain range never fully cleared up but anyhow I found another highlight which was the hike up to the Mingyong Glacier.

The Mingyong Glacier is just below the main peak of the 6,740m high Kawagebo. From the hotel it took a bit more than an hour by car to get to Mingyong Village, where I paid about US$12 for a ticket to visit the glacier. From the ticket office, I had to drive another 10 minutes or so to get to the park entrance.

The path up to the top observation deck was about eight kilometers and an ascendance of more than 1000 meters.

To get to the top observation deck, one could take the elevated wooden pathway running parallel to the old unpaved dirt road which used to be the only way up until a few years ago. The dirt road is still in use by construction workers and their donkeys which hauled heavy building materials up the mountain. If you want to challenge your physical capability you can try the dirt road – there are ample opportunities for you to get back to the wooden pathway. However, you may want to save your energy for the last stretch of the climb.

The wooden pathway was reasonably well built, but the hike took me about two hours, partly because I often stopped to take photos but also because walk up at high altitude area was quite an exhausting exercise.

Finally, I came to a small plateau where there was a Taizi (crown prince) Temple. From this point onward, the climb became much more steep and it felt like never ending 🤣.

I did get to the top observation deck and I really enjoyed the view of the scenery around me. The glacier shrinks quite significantly every summer (presumably because it is located in low latitude as well as in low altitude). Therefore parts of the lower Glacier is very dark due to rocks and dirt which is quite natural but a good reminder to humanity that we need to preserve our nature!

At Taizi Temple, the old dirt road continues upward to the Lianhua (Lotus) Temple at an elevation of 3,470m (quite a bit higher than the top observation deck at a mere 3,150m).

I'm luckily I brought my childhood snack, Snickers, with me so I sat down at the top and enjoyed the quietness of my surrounding and interestingly I even heard the nearby ice cracking.
#themepark#nationalpark#lakes

Post by davylegrand | Oct 17, 2021