Yading Nature Reserve is a stunningly beautiful, little-visited area in China’s Sichuan province. Accessible from Daocheng, the average elevation of the whole area is more than 4000 metres! The reserve contains the three Tibetan holy mountains of Chenresig at 6032 metres, and Chana Dorje and Jampelyang, which are both 5958 metres high.
Come to Yading Nature Reserve to hike amongst stunning alpine scenery and glacier-fed lakes. Stroll next to clear cold rivers and through beautiful forests. If you’re lucky you’ll see some of the plentiful wildlife.
The Yading area was possibly the inspiration for James Hilton’s paradise of ‘Shangri-La’ in his book Lost Horizon, and if you’ve read the novel you can see why. A deep river valley between the mountains leads up to a grassy pasture surrounded by peaks on three sides, creating an amphitheatre-like area. Prayer flags flap in the wind, and the sound of horses neighing and the creek gurgling are all around you.
Hike from here up higher to Milk lake and Five-Colours Lake, hidden in between the mountains and breathtakingly beautiful. If you want more, you can join the pilgrims in doing one of the kora paths around any (or all) of the holy mountains.
For my complete travel guide to Yading Nature Reserve, click here.
Click on any of the photos to open up a slideshow in full colour!
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Hi
i have some question about Yading.
i will stay here for 2 nights
if i buy ticket, can i use same ticket for 2 days ? or buy for each day ?
because i wanna go to Yading nature reserve for 2-3 days
(buy 1 ticket for monday and tuesday
or on monday buy one and tuesday buy another one)
Thank you so muchhhhh
Puu
Hi Puu,
It depends on whether you leave the park in between your days. Where the hikes start is about an hour’s bus ride from the entrance where you pay for both your park entrance ticket and a bus ticket, and this same entrance is the only place I can remember showing my ticket. They don’t ask for it once you’re on the bus and within the park. So if you stay in Yading village (about 3km from where the hikes start) or camp within the park you won’t have to pay again. If you take the bus back out you’ll have to pay both the park entrance and the bus fare each time you, go back in (I don’t recommend this – just stay in the village!) The only issue you might encounter is if you take the bus back and forth between Yading village and where the hikes start, the driver might make a fuss about you only having the one ticket. They don’t seem to have other options though, so the driver let us go anyway! Hope this helps!
Jenny