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Hailuogou Glacier Park featured with translucent glaciers, verdant virgin forest, comfortable glacier hot springs, golden snow mountains, changing sea of clouds, etc. beautiful throughout the year and reputed as “half in paradise, half on earth” for the impressive spectacular sceneries.
Name: Hailuogou Glacier Park(海螺沟冰川公园)
Type: National Nature Preserve, National Geo-park, National Forest Park, National AAAAA Tourist Attraction
Best Seasons: All seasons, especially September - next April
Altitude: 1,600m (Moxi Town) - 3,600m (No.4 Campsite)
Recommended Visiting Time: 1-2 days
Time for Entry: 07:30-12:30 in Summer and Autumn; 8:30-12:30 in Spring and Winter;
Ticket: CNY 90/person
Address: Moxi Town, Luding County, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China
Hailuogou Glacier Park (海螺沟) in Hailuogou Scenic Area in Luding County of Sichuan Province in China is the only one glacier forest park within the country. Preserving the precious modern marine time glacier at low altitude, being the largest scaled and most beautiful among those at the same latitude, it is very popular to admire nature and listed as National Nature Reserve, National Geo-park, National Forest Park, and announced many other praised titles. Besides, covering 350 hectares at the east slope of Mount Gongga (7,556m, the highest mountain in Sichuan Province), Hailuogou Glacier Park is one of the best place to admire the highest peak’s holy appearance and also regarded as the “Gate to Shambhala”. It is highly favored by visitors to see closely its characteristic glacier icefall drifting vertically, multilayered primitive forest of diverse verdant trees, gorgeous snow mountain peaks under sunshine, healthy warm glacier hot springs amongst the ice and snow, bright red rocks, alpine lakes, sea of clouds, rare animals, and so on to catch the charm of nature! Furthermore, located at the transitional zone from Qinghai Tibet Plateau to Sichuan basin, Hailuogou enjoys advantageous natural and tourist resources to be complimented as “beautiful throughout the year”!
Hailuogou Glacier Park as the national rare glacier and forest park not only keeps the ancient glacier sites and dense forest for your seeking of primitive times, but also boasts a rich series of beautiful sceneries for your exploration, including cloud-kissing snow mountains, amazing red rocks, mysterious sea of clouds, enjoyable hot springs, and so on! Do not miss them during your Hailuogou Glacier Park discovery!
Hailuogou Glacier at such a low altitude can be called a miracle in the world. Seen from the lower place in the valley, the ice glacier pours down from the high precipitous gorge, which is really magnificent. And the world only enormous Large Icefall (大冰瀑) of more than 1,000 meters tall and about 1,100 meters wide seems a silver river hanging from the blue sky, looking impressing and particularly charming with countless shining spots illuminated by sunny glory. That is even more than 10 times larger than the well-known Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guiyang Province. Therefore, it is often said “a Hailuogou trip is never complete without a visit of the Large Icefall”. On the 5,700 meters long glacier tongue of 2,850 meters high altitude, ice lakes, ice rivers, ice gulfs, ice mushrooms, ice holes, ice bridges, ice arches, etc. that are clear in blue and green can be discovered to marvel at the power of nature!
Four Faces Buddha (四面佛) is one of the best places to admire the Large Icefall and Mount Gongga main peak, which is also the must go place to Red Rock Shoal.
The unbelievable Hailuogou Glacier Park has a quite large altitude difference of over 6,000 meters; thus, it holds the 70 hectare wide forest kingdom of 7 vegetation zones and 7 soil zones, unique worldly and with more than 4,880 plant species from subtropical to frigid zones. Along your sightseeing bus access up, the thick spirited trees, plants and flowers of different kinds greet on both sides, including birches, cedars, mognolia trees, etc., which is your pure dream to seek another amazing wonderland and also a pleasant welcome ceremony for your following discovery of the ice glacier on the higher levels. The primitive forest zone is particularly charming covered by winter snow! Moreover, the park is a theme park for rich types of adorable animals, and I wonder if you would luckily encounter a macaque, squirrel, etc. during your trip?
Sitting at the mountain foot area, Hailuogou Glacier Park is surrounded by 45 snow-covered peaks rising over 6,000 meters. On every sunny morning, the several snow mountains will be dressed by the first wisp sunlight with a piece of golden robe like the guardians guarding Hailuogou and the entire valuable nature reserve. However, the Mount Jinyin (Gold and Silver Peak) (金银峰) of 6,410 meters above sea in front of the No.3 Camp is very fascinating changing its coat from light grey to pink rose and to golden yellow, and that is the famous scenery of “Golden Snow Mountain”(日照金山) expected by visitors. With the brilliant floating clouds in various beautiful colors, the snow peak looks extremely elegant like a holy goddess.
Time to see Golden Snow Mountain scenery: Around 06:40 in Spring, around 06:20 in Summer, around 0630 in Autumn, and around 07:00 in Winter.
Hailougou Glacier Park has multiple great hot springs. Step into one of the healthy hot springs with the really warm temperature from the deep of Hailuogou to release your body. Just enjoy the relaxing time with the surrounding primitive trees and flowers decorated in silver and white showing and appearing in the mists, and the flying snow to feel the nice distinct experience of “warm and cold”!
The red rock is one of the rarest treasures to Hailuogou Glacier Park. At the Red Rock Shoal (红石滩) at the No.4 Camp, every rock is wrapped by a kind of orange algae into bright orange red and seems the red agates placed by god along the river bed. That large spread of red looks quite eye-catching against the blue sky and white snow mountains.
The Sea of Clouds is another wonderful splendor of Hailuogou. When the east part is lit up, the changing deep clouds roll among the snow peaks, sometimes floating gently, sometimes running fast to the end of the world. With the morning sunlight spreading to the surface of this mysterious sea, the scenery makes you confuse to be the paradise. However, when the tips of the alpine tree show indistinctly in the clouds, it takes you back into the real world and stimulates your praise of the natural wonders again!
Besides the above, Hailuogou Glacier Park also has many other interesting and beautiful highlights for your admiration, including the Wolf Totem (狼图腾) looking really like a powerful wolf between No.1 Glacier and No.2 Glacier, Chengmendong (城门洞) to see various ice glaciers in its palace-like crystal world and the only glacier lake called Moon Lake, Caohaizi Lake with colorful blossoms and grasses, and so forth. Discover more according to your time to catch more beauty of Hailuogou Glacier Park!
| Camp | Altitude | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| No.1 Camp | 1,940m | Chinese yew forest |
| No.2 Camp | 2,580m | Chinese yew forest, primitive forest, monkeys, lakes, 92.5 hot springs, etc. |
| No.3 Camp | 2,940m | Azalea, golden snow mountains, primitive forest walking, etc. |
| No.4 Camp | 3,600m | Large Icefall, Appreciate Mount Gongga main peak, Red Rock Shoal |
● 1 Day Classic Route:
Entrance - Sightseeing bus (via primitive forest, No.1 Camp and No.2 Camp) - No.3 Camp - Cableway - No.4 Camp - Cableway & sightseeing bus - Moxi Town;
● 1 Day Classic Hiking Route:
Entrance - Sightseeing bus (via primitive forest, No.1 Camp and No.2 Camp) - No.3 Camp –walk 1.5 hours through primitive forest - viewing platform - sightseeing bus - Moxi Town;
● 2 Days In-depth Hiking Route:
Day 1: Entrance - No.1 Camp - Walk 2 hours - No.2 Camp - Walk 3 hours - No.3 Camp - sightseeing bus - Stay in Moxi Town;
Day 2: No.1 Camp - Sightseeing bus 30 minutes - Cableway Station - Walk 1 hour - ice glacier - Cableway - No.4 Camp - Cableway & sightseeing bus - Moxi Town.
Moxi Old Town (磨西古镇) 10 minutes’ walking distance to the entrance of Hailuogou Glacier Park is nice to seek the historical feature around that area. Architectures from Ming and Qing dynasties standing on both sides of the rock paved road tell the old history there. And the typical Gothic church built by a French missionary still stands to demonstrate the cultural communication between China and the Western world during last century. That church is also where Chairman Mao held the famous meeting during the war period!
Mount gongga (贡嘎山) or Minya Kongka is reputed as the King of Mountains in Sichuan Province with its provincial highest altitude of 7,556 meters. Often rising above the floating clouds, Mount Gongga is super magnificent with the golden dressing put up by the first morning glow! With particularly hard terrain, this mountain is even worldly famous for alpine expedition and mountain climbing, however, very few people have succeeded.
Being the sister valley of Hailuogou Valley, Yanzi Valley (Swallow Valley燕子沟) is popular among visitors and photographers with its fabulous glacier, azalea flowers, snow peaks, colorful autumn forest, and particularly its nearly 20km long river belt of red rocks to dazzle your eyes and mind!
Hailuogou Glacier Park is situated in Luding County, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, which is about 290 kilometers driving distance from Chengdu City and about 49 kilometers to Kangding City (the capital city of Garze Prefecture). Most travelers visit Hailuogou from Chengdu, since that provincial capital city is well linked by flights and bullet trains from most cities in China. So far, visitors can get to Hailuogou Glacier Park by private car or long-distance coach form Chengdu, and it usually takes 5 hours by car. Road condition from Chengdu to Hailuogou is good, but you still need to get prepared for icy road sometimes in winter.
● By Long-distance Coach
A lot of independent visitors choose long-distance coaches to arrive at Hailuogou Glacier Park from Chengdu. At present, Chengdu Xinnanmen Bus Station offers about 1-2 coaches in the morning to Moxi Town (entrance of Hailuogou Scenic Area), which takes usually 7 hours. Besides, Chengdu Xinnanmen Bus Station and Chengdu Shiyangchang Bus Station have a few coaches to Luding County, which needs a transfer to Hailuogou by hiring a car in Luding.
So far there is not coach or bus from Kangding to Hailuogou or Moxi Town. Visitors can only choose to go by hiring a private car. It usually takes 2 hours covering about 75 km by car.
Since Hailuogou Glacier Park has a very large difference of altitude, climate there is very special. From the entrance of the park valley to the top, there appears subtropical zone, warm temperature zone, cold temperature zone, subfrigid zone, frigid zone, and polar zone gradually. Foot of the mountain area usually has long spring and no summer, with an annual average temperature around 15°C. But the peak area is very cold with snow covered all year round, annual average temperature around -9°C. People want to see the modern glacier above 2,850m shall prepare thick clothes to keep warm.
Hailuogou Glacier Park is suitable to visit all year round for holiday, expedition, appreciation of the ice glacier, etc. And the best time to visit is during November to April of the next year, when there are more sunny days after snowing, air is fresher and the pure snow white ice glacier far away can be admired clearly! Besides, Autumn during October to middle November is also very popular to see the colorful primitive forest full of wonderful autumn leaves in red, orange and golden, when is also great to enjoy clear blue sky with comfortable temperature! Apart from that, you can also visit during middle April to middle June to admire the lovely azalea blossoms. June to September is favored to spend a cool summer, but July to August is the rainy season not suggested due to some dangerous landslide.
● Entrance Fee: CNY 90/person
● Cableway (between No.3 Camp and No.4 Camp): CNY 135/person (round trip)
● Sightseeing Bus: CNY 70/person (round trip) (necessary)
| Sightseeing Bus Operating time: | 08:00-12:30 from Scenic Area Tourist Center; |
| Last Sightseeing Bus to Go Downhill: |
16:30 from Ganheba; 16:40 from No.3 Camp; 16:50 from Hailuo Temple; 17:00 from Caohaizi Lake. |
1. For second entry to Hailuogou Glacier Park, please register with your ticket of that day and ID (or passport) at the No.1 Camp before your exit on day 1. On day 2, you just need to pay the sightseeing bus fee again and show the certificate. (If you travel with China Discovery, our guide will deal with that for you!)
2. It usually takes about 1.5 hours from Tourist Center up to Ganheba and about 1 hour from Ganheba down to Tourist Center by sightseeing bus.
Most visitors choose to stay at Moxi Town where offers rich types of accommodations from comfort 4 stars to budget hotels and exquisite inns and homestays. Although facilities and services in those accommodations cannot match that in big cities, most hotels can meet your basic needs such as hot water, etc. And staying at Moxi Town, you can take some nice stroll along the old streets and enjoy some drinks in the pubs during your night hours. Hailuogou Gongga Shentang Hot Spring Hotel of 5-star only 15 minutes' drive from the Tourist Center is your nice choice to enjoy the better facilities and services, plus the relaxing hot spring service.
● Altitude Sickness: Hailuogou Glacier Park in Sichuan belongs to the high altitude localities and the visiting area is between 1,940-3,600 meters above sea level, so to avoid or relieve altitude sickness, you need to sleep well, drink enough water, have enough fruits and vegetables, and keep a calm mood to release your body, which is also helpful. Strenuous exercise and alcoholic drinks are better to avoid.
● Safety: Do not shout on ice glacier. Watch your steps before entering the ice glacier area. Follow your guide to visit Chengmendong.
● What to Wear: Temperature in Hailuogou Glacier Pak is usually lower than most cities in Mainland China, so you are highly suggested to pack you thick sweaters, thick coats, waterproof clothes, scarves, gloves and antiskid hiking shoes in spring, autumn and winter season. Long-sleeves coats are also suggested in summer for the cold night. Sun block, sunglasses, hats, lip balm, etc. are recommended for protect your skin from UV rays. And rain gear is suggested for there are sometimes rains.
Interested in appreciate Hailuogou Glacier Park? 1-2 days is most planned to visit the ice glacier, primitive forest, four camps, golden snow mountain view and more sightseeing in this scenic area! And visitors usually travel from Chengdu that is well linked by convenient flights and bullet trains and also is worldly popular to get close to the chubby giant pandas and leisure life style, which is worth to enjoy for 1-2 days.
Besides, for travelers who can bear long journey, see and explore along the way, it would be a nice idea to travel together with Luding, Mount Gongga, Kangding, Xinduqiao, Daocheng Yading, Danba, Mount Siguniang, etc. to have an in-depth admiration of the awesome Western Sichuan region. We China Discovery based in Chengdu, Sichuan is specialized in customizing trips to Hailuogou and various destinations in Sichuan and China, please contact us and let us customize a tour for you!
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