This is the most crowded sites of any kind in China, with fall peak visitor at 30,000 in the park. The admissions are about US$40, the ride from any decent hotel is about 45 minutes if you leave early in the morning. Fly from Chengdu, the jumping-off point for Western China, or 14 hour perilous, but scenic bus ride from there.

Why? Because it is all worth it.

Alpine forest and mountains refelcted in chrystaline lakes. Waterfalls. Alpine meadows and wild flowers. Granite outcrops. The water is so high in calcium, that bateria and algae do not grow. What you get is deep, clear, blue water. The fallen logs are clearly visible on the bottom. So in one photo, I captured the trees, their reflection in the water, and the logs at the bottom. (Polarizing filter highly recommended). I went in August, as it is almost impossible to get in in October, peak foliage season.

Of the perhaps 30 or so places I have visited in China, this is the cleanest, and park management tries hard to keep it clean. There is only one place to eat, a huge B grade Chinese cafeteria, very little facilities, no smoking, and a Tibetan worker appears every 5 minutes to pick up whatever trash the Chinese visitors throw.

Once in the park, you travel by LPG mini-buses that go around in a circuit to most of the scenic spots. Walking around by yourself off the designated trails is permitted but not encouraged or recommended. The park is big, and elevation range from 2,000 to 3,000 meters. Stick to the program for maximum effect. There are so many wonderful sites, you are going to miss some of it anyway. What's on the official trail already made a 500 slide photo album.

This site is not well-advertised to the Western world (like the Great Wall), perhaps there are already more Chinese tourists than they can handle. But it will give a Western visitor a completely different impression of China. Think Yellowstone in China.