Discover Lijiang
Blue Moon Valley
蓝月谷
A chain of travertine-dammed pools below the Jade Dragon glacier whose meltwater turns an improbable milky turquoise in sunlight. It sits inside the snow mountain park and costs nothing extra, which makes it the best-value stop of the day.
The story
What makes this place special
Blue Moon Valley is the stretch of the Baishui River on the eastern flank of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, north of Ganhaizi and south of Spruce Meadow, and it was known simply as Baishui He, White Water River, before it was renamed for tourism. The water carries dissolved limestone from the mountain and the river bed and terraces are white marble and limestone gravel, which is why the pools read as turquoise in sunlight and turn milky white after rain. Four weirs hold the river back into larger pools, named Yuye, Jingtan, Lanyue and Tingtao.
What you’ll discover
A chain of shallow, intensely blue-green pools stepping down a white gravel valley, with the snow mountain filling the view upstream. A boardwalk and road run alongside, and shuttle buses stop at three points so you can walk one section and ride the next. The lowest pool has a dam lip you can walk out along, and the water is shallow enough at the margins that people wade for photographs.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- The colour is sunlight-dependent. In flat cloud the pools are grey-green and ordinary; in direct sun they are startling. This is a place to visit in the middle of a bright day, which is the opposite of the usual advice.
- After heavy rain the river runs white and muddy rather than blue, sometimes for days. During the June-September rains, ask at the gate before committing.
- Walk the section between the second and third shuttle stops and ride the rest. That stretch has the best pools and most people photograph only from the bus stops.
- It is inside the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain scenic area, so the entrance fee and in-park shuttle are shared with the cable cars. If the Glacier Park cableway is closed, this is the part of the park still worth the trip.
- At roughly 3,000m the walking is easy but you will notice the air on the boardwalk steps. There is no shade on the gravel; sun at this altitude is strong.
When to come
Late morning to mid-afternoon on a sunny day, when light is on the water. The dry season, October to May, gives clear water; the rainy season often does not.
Getting around
One of the more manageable mountain sites. Shuttle buses drop you close to the water, and long stretches of boardwalk and lakeside path are level and wheelchair-feasible. Some linking sections have steps, and the gravel shore is loose. A bad knee can do most of the valley comfortably.
Worth knowing before you go
The water is only blue in direct sun — after rain or on a grey day it runs grey-white, so schedule it for the brightest part of your mountain day rather than late afternoon.
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