Hailuogou Glacier
Hailuogou Glacier Forest Park; National Geopark; National 5A Tourist Attraction · Luding, Sichuan
A river of ice that pours down the eastern face of Mount Gongga, at 7,556 metres the highest mountain in Sichuan, into dense subtropical and alpine forest in western Sichuan. Hailuogou - the Conch Gully - is famous as one of the lowest-reaching modern glaciers in Asia: its tongue descends to below 3,000 metres, far lower than most Himalayan glaciers, so that visitors can see ice, moraine and old-growth forest side by side. Above the tongue hangs the Grand Icefall, a frozen cascade more than a kilometre high and roughly as wide, one of the largest in China, from which avalanches thunder down in warm weather. The scenic area climbs from the old town of Moxi through a sequence of camps linked by shuttle buses, with boardwalks through forests of fir, rhododendron and hanging moss, a Red Stone Park where boulders are stained bright red by algae, and hot springs where visitors bathe in steaming pools within sight of the snow. A cable car lifts visitors to a viewing platform level with the icefall, and on clear mornings the rising sun sets Gongga's summit glowing gold. The park reopened in December 2023 after a year of repairs following the 2022 Luding earthquake, with new viewing platforms, although the glacier itself has retreated sharply in recent decades.
Hailuogou Scenic Area, Moxi Town, Luding County, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Luding, Sichuan, China
Daily; entry about 7:00-15:00 from May to October and 8:00-14:30 from November to April, with buses and cable car returning later. Closes in severe weather or landslides.
Hailuogou Glacier on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos