Jade Dragon Snow Mountain of Lijiang

There are three cable cars up Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and they go to three different places. Choosing the wrong one is the most common mistake on this mountain: people book the highest without checking what 4,506 m does to them, or take a meadow car expecting snow and get a pasture. This page is about that choice.

The mountain in numbers

Shanzidou, the main peak, is 5,596 m and has never been climbed by a commercial route. Thirteen peaks run 35 km north to south, starting 15 km north of Lijiang old town, and the massif is a national scenic area and a Naxi sacred mountain — the “Third Kingdom of Yulong” in their cosmology. It is also the southernmost glacier in China, which is why the high cable car exists at all.

Three cable cars, three different days

All three share one park entrance and a shuttle bus system, so you buy entry plus the specific cable car. Doing two cars in one day is possible but leaves no time for either.

Glacier Park: what 4,500 m actually feels like

The cable car climbs from about 3,300 m to 4,506 m in ten minutes, which is faster than anyone acclimatises. At the top there is a wooden boardwalk, a viewing platform, and a set of steps that will make you stop every twenty paces whether you are fit or not. The temperature is 15 to 20 degrees below Lijiang, the wind is constant, and the ice is grey with rock dust rather than white.

Oxygen cans are sold at the base and on the platform. They help with the headache and the breathlessness for a few minutes; they do not replace acclimatisation. If you have arrived in Lijiang the night before, this is not the morning to do it.

The daily quota

The number of visitors allowed up the large cable car each day is capped, and in July, August and the first week of October the cap is reached. Tickets are released in advance and are tied to a time slot; your passport is the ticket. The meadow cars are much less constrained.

This is the one item on a Lijiang itinerary that has to be fixed days ahead rather than on the morning. If the large car is sold out, Yak Meadow is a better substitute than Spruce Meadow — same altitude gain, far fewer people.

Blue Moon Valley, at the bottom

Between the park gate and the cable car base, the Baishui River has been dammed into a series of terraces that turn an opaque milky blue-green in sunlight. It is on the shuttle route, takes twenty minutes to walk, and is the most photographed thing on the mountain after the peak itself. Stop on the way down rather than the way up, when the light is better and the buses have gone.

When the mountain is visible

The rule that matters most is the time of day, not the month. The mountain is clear from first light until about ten or eleven, then cloud forms on the ridge. Book the earliest slot you can get and be at the gate before it.

Getting there

The park gate is 30 km north of Lijiang old town, about 40 minutes by road, and the road continues to Baisha and Shuhe on the way back. There is no public bus to the cable car base that is worth the effort; a driver for the morning is the normal arrangement, and it also solves the stop at Blue Moon Valley.

What trips people up

• Wearing trainers. The boardwalk at 4,500 m is often icy, and there is snow from November to March.
• Buying the highest ticket because it is the highest. The other two cars are the better visit for half of travellers.
• Doing it on arrival day. Lijiang is 2,400 m; the top station is 4,506 m.
• Forgetting sunglasses. Snow at that altitude burns your eyes within an hour.
• Booking a midday slot in October. You will arrive as the cloud does.

We hold the cable car slot before confirming a Lijiang itinerary, and we will tell you honestly if the meadow car is the better fit for your group. Send us your dates and the ages of everyone travelling.