Meili Snow Mountain and Yubeng Village

Sacred Mountain Of Tibetan Buddhism, Never Summited; Within The Three Parallel Rivers Of Yunnan UNESCO World Heritage Site · Deqin, Yunnan

A range of glaciated peaks on the border of Yunnan and Tibet, crowned by Kawagebo, at about 6,740 metres the highest mountain in Yunnan and one of the most sacred in Tibetan Buddhism, believed to be the home of a warrior deity. It has never been climbed: in 1991 an avalanche killed seventeen Japanese and Chinese climbers on a joint expedition, and local authorities later banned climbing out of respect for Tibetan beliefs. Tibetan pilgrims instead walk a kora around the whole massif, a journey of a week or more, especially in the Year of the Sheep. Most visitors see the mountains from the viewing platforms near Feilai Temple outside Deqin, hoping for clear dawns when the first sun turns the Prince Thirteen Peaks gold. Below the range, the Mingyong Glacier tumbles down through forest to unusually low altitude. The great adventure is Yubeng, a pair of Tibetan villages in a hidden valley beneath the peaks, long reached only on foot over a 3,700-metre pass or by rough off-road track; from there trails climb to the Sacred Waterfall, where pilgrims walk through the spray, and toward the glacial Ice Lake. A new paved road into Yubeng was reported nearly finished in 2026, and access and trekking rules are changing.

Feilai Temple viewing platform, Deqin County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Deqin, Yunnan, China

Viewpoints open from before dawn for sunrise; Yubeng trails usable in daylight. Access rules and the new Yubeng road are changing (check before travelling).

Meili Snow Mountain and Yubeng Village on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos