6 Days Yubeng Trekking Tour

Morning depart from Lijiang Ancient Town at 08:30am and drive 180km / 3.5 hours to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Upon your arrival at Tiger Leaping Gorge Scenic Area, you would need to walk down for around 20 mins along the wooden plank road and get to the side of Tiger Leaping Gorge. Spend around 20 mins to take picture about it and appreciate the nice view. Then go back along the original way. Then we drive around 1.5 hours / 78km to Benzilan. Benzilan is a small town lies along a stretch of the Jinsha River (a major headwater stream of the Yangtze River) that forms the border with Sichuan Province, roughly halfway along the road from Zhongdian to Deqin. After stop a while in Benzilan, we continue to drive 95km/2.5 hours to Feilaisi. On the way we would pass White Horse Pass, and arrive Feilaisi. We would stay at 2* plus Guanjing Tiantang Hotel. (The best hotel near the viewing deck of Golden Meili Snow Mountain View). Feilai Temple is a small but interesting Tibetan temple, located about 5 km (3 mi) southwest of Deqin County Town. It is always the first stop for tourists to the snow mountains. Feilaisi Temple is the perfect location where you can enjoy the incredible sunrise of the Meili Snow Mountain. 

Remark: 

1. The water crushes heavily mostly in Jun-Sep because of the raining season in Tiger Leaping Gorge. And the water color is yellow and muddy at these months. Because of the flooding river, the gorge was drowned as well. And the color of the water is clean in rest of the months, the gorge is re-appeared. 
2. The White Horse Snow Mountain looks the most beautiful in each May and Oct, so if the weather is good, we would drive 30 mins more distance to follow the old national way but not high-way and show you the best point to view White Horse Snow Mountain. 

Get up at around 06:20am and go to the viewing deck to watch the sunrise on the Meili Snow Mountain. It is important to get there before sunrise to see the color changing and suddenly catch the first ray. The first golden light hit the top of Kawagarbo, which of course was the highest in the range. The 2nd one was the Mianzimu on the far left which was the 4th highest peak in the range. The golden light show ended in about 10 minutes, and the mountains turned to white color of the snow. After breakfast, we would head to Xidang Village from Feilaisi Temple. Xidang Village is a must pass way to enter Yubeng Village. There are 2 ways to enter Yubeng, one is hiking, and the whole distance is 18km (Uphill is 12km and downhill is 6m). It takes 4 hours for hiking if you are physically fit. And the other way which is China Adventure Specialist suggested you taking the local SUV run by villagers. The charge is a bit high cost RMB200/per person per way but it does help you to save physical strength which is only 20 mins then you can reach Yubeng Village. You can decide on spot according to your physical condition. And the view along Xidang to Yubeng Village is mostly alpine forest which is no stunning view. This section of hiking is a lot of effort (5hr hike, 1000m climbed) with very little reward. It would make sense to stay for a night at Upper Yubeng, visit the Glacier Lake the following day, before heading down to stay at Lower Yubeng, from which the Sacred Waterfall is easily accessible. Although the accommodation condition in Upper Yubeng Village is not as good as Lower Yubeng, we still recommend you to stay there to save time and physical strength. Upper Yubeng Village is 1.5km to lower Yubeng Village which cost you to walk around 30 mins in the high-altitude area. 

Remark: There is a Mingyong Glacier near Meilin Snow Mountain which famous as an extremely long ice under the Kawakarpo Peak, is the largest, longest and lowest valley glacier in Yunnan Province. But we do not recommend you to spend time there, as the glacier is getting dirty in these days, it's really not worthy for your time. 

Today's whole hiking route is 15km, it's the highlights of Yubeng Trekking Tour but also the most difficult section. By following the way from Yubeng to Glacier Lake, you would see the forest, glacier, clean streams and snow mountains and they looks breathtaking if under the nice weather. The morning breakfast in the guesthouse is quite simple, which offers only Tibetan Butter Tea, Crisp fried cake, noodles and eggs. Then we depart from the guesthouse at around 08:30am, we need around 9-10 hours for hiking the round trip today, arrive Glacier Lake and back to Yubeng but Lower Yubeng Village at around 0600pm. The water of the glacier lake is melt from the snow on the mountain and also the main water resource of Yubeng Village. If the weather is good, the glacier water is in dark green, together with the reflection of blue sky, white clouds and white snow mountain, it's a beautiful landscape picture. The first section is from Upper Yubeng to Xiaonong Base Camp which cost around 3 hours, and you can take a rest there by having simple food. Only instant noodles is provided at the shop in Xiaonong Base Camp. Then you need around 1 or 1.5 hours to walk to the Glacier Lake which mostly uphill road. You would follow the original way back to upper Yubeng then extend 30 mins to reach Lower Yubeng Village for your staying.

Today the trekking tour is easier than last day, only 7km in total. So we can depart a bit late at around 9am, we can back at around 2-3pm in the afternoon. We would walk to the Sacred Waterfall. There are green trash cans along the path. There is a tea shop about 2/3 of the way to the waterfall. The waterfall is sacred for the Tibetans, who would walk clockwise around it for an odd number of times. Many would also collect the water from the waterfall (which tastes really good too). You would see the Marnyi Stone , Prayer Flags which stand for Tibetan people's religion on the way. 

Today we would take the 4 X 4 SUV back to Xidang Village firstly, if the weather is good, we would hike from Xidang to Ninong. Put the unnecessary luggage on our car, and hike with the necessary belongings, then you would walk around 5 hours from Xidang to Ninong. You would pass by Ninong Grand Canyon, the view is better than the way from Xidang to Yubeng. Have lunch at Ninong Village. And our driver would wait you there and drive you to take a rest in Shangri-la Town. On the way we would stop at Gadan East Bamboo Temple for a visiting. Built in the 6th year of Emperor Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1667) and prosperous for the whole Qing Dynasty with 200 years history. And it was destroyed in Cultural Revolution Period and then rebuilt in 1985. We would stay at The Blue Moon on the mountains Inn.

We would drive 3 hours back from Shangri-la to Lijiang and you can take bullet train from Lijiang to other cities in China.