The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, part of the Yulong Mountains is categorized as the southernmost snow mountain of the Northern Hemisphere. Yulong Snow Mountains is a site that attracts visitors to Lijiang City and consists of 13 peaks with Shanzidou being the highest measuring at about 5596 meters above sea level.
This mountain range stems a length of 35 kilometers from south to north and 15 kilometers from east to west. The fog shrouded and snowy mountain resembles a massive jade dragon when viewed from the Old Town of Lijiang, hence its Jade Dragon Snow Mountain moniker. Yulong Snow Mountain is also known as White and Black Mountain as the mountain primarily consists of black whinstone and white limestone.
The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is regarded by the Naxi people as a holy mountain. In Naxi mythical legend, the mountain is the sole personification of their god, Sanduo. Blessed with native landscapes of cold, temperate and subtropical zones, the mountain has meadows, canyons, glaciers, blossoms, waterfalls etc. Quite a few rare plants and animals call the mountain home. The Yulong Snow Mountain scenic area was approved as a national 5A-class scenic location by the National Tourism Administration back in 2007.
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (simplified Chinese: 玉龙雪山; traditional Chinese: 玉龍雪山; pinyin: Yùlóng Xuěshān) is a mountain massif or small mountain range in Yulong Naxi Autonomous County, Lijiang, in Yunnan province, China. Its highest peak is named Shanzidou (扇子陡) and is 5,596 m (18,360 ft) above sea level.
Etymology
The Chinese name, Yulong Xueshan, translates directly as Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The same is sometimes translated as Mount Yulong or Yulong Snow Mountain.[3] The mountain's Naxi name is Mount Satseto.[4]
Geography
The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain massif forms the bulk of the larger Yulong Mountains, that stretch further north. The northwestern flank of the massif forms one side of the Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiao Xia, 虎跳峡), which has a popular trekking route on the other side. In this gorge, the Jinsha (upper Yangtze) River descends dramatically between Jade Dragon and Haba Snow Mountain. The Yulong Mountains lie to the south of the Yun Range and are part of Southwest China's greater Hengduan Mountains.[5]
Settlements surrounding Jade Dragon Snow Mountain include Baisha Town to the south, Longpan Township to the west, Daju Township to the northeast, and Jade Water Village at the foot of the mountain to the east.
Exploration history
Shanzidou has been climbed only once,[6] on May 8, 1987, by an American expedition. The summit team comprised Phil Peralta-Ramos and Eric Perlman. They climbed snow gullies and limestone headwalls, and encountered high avalanche danger and sparse opportunities for protection. They rated the maximum technical difficulty of the rock at YDS 5.7.[2]
The Austro-American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock spent many years living in the vicinity of Mt Satseto, and wrote about the region and the Naxi people who occupy it. An interest in Rock later drew the travel writer Bruce Chatwin to the mountain, which he wrote about in an article that appeared in the New York Times[7] and later, retitled, in his essay collection What Am I Doing Here?.[8] Chatwin's article inspired many subsequent travellers, including Michael Palin,[9] to visit the region.
Tourism
Public performance in Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Open Air Theatre.
The view of the massif from the gardens at the Black Dragon Pool (Heilong Tan) in Lijiang is noted as one of China's finest views.[citation needed] The mountain is part of Yulong Snow Mountain National Scenic Area and National Geological Park, an AAAAA-classified scenic area.[10] The Park operates a tourist cable car that takes you to an observation platform at an elevation of 4,506 m (14,783 ft) and if you feel up to it you can climb a few hundred steps to one of the highest observation platforms in the world at an elevation of 4,680 m (15,350 ft) for close views of the snow peak. Due to the extremely high elevation many people become oxygen starved and carry cans of compressed oxygen to help. Some have criticized the cable for accelerating the melting of the snow and reducing the water retention by the mountain.
