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Trekking / Yading hiking & photo tour
Private hiking tour
Eight days based out of a village inside the Yading sanctuary: the famous lakes — Pearl, Milk and Five-Colour — plus the hidden ones most visitors never hear of, at photography hours rather than tour-bus hours.
Ask about this itineraryAutumn larches under Chenrezig · Yading in its best month
sleeping inside the sanctuary, before the gates open
Boyul Lake day; the park's highest pass is 4,900 m
the upper park closes mid-Nov to mid-April
walking distances adjust day by day
Why this route
Yading — the 'last Shangri-La' — holds three holy peaks and a scatter of the most photogenic lakes in China. Most visitors see them from a day-trip bus. This trip sleeps in the village inside the sanctuary for four nights, so the lakes are walked at first light and at dusk, before and after the crowds, and the hidden ones — Boyul, Zhage, the Frog Lake — are on the plan at all.
The days are built for photographers but the walking stands on its own: Pearl Lake under Chenrezig, the big day up to Milk Lake and the Five-Colour Lake at 4,500 metres, a forest climb to Boyul Lake at 4,700, and a morning with the Frog Lake before flying out of the mountain airport.
It is a private departure on your dates. The walking is flexible — every day can be lengthened or shortened — and one rule governs the calendar: the upper park, above the boardwalks, closes from mid-November to mid-April.
The route
West along the G318 to the sanctuary, four nights inside it, then out via the highest civil airport in the world. One road in, one flight out.
Day by day
Four nights in the village inside the sanctuary. Each day names its lake and its altitude; the walking flexes around both.
Chengdu → Xinduqiao
Six or seven hours along the G318 — the road to Lhasa — to Xinduqiao, the photographers' town. If the day is long enough, the evening ends at Julisi above town for the fifteen minutes when sunset turns the Minya Konka range gold.
The night at 3,400 metres starts the acclimatisation. Tomorrow is the big drive.
Xinduqiao → Daocheng
The G318 onward through Yajiang and Litang, over the Kazila and Jianziwan passes near 4,500 metres, and across the Haizi Shan plateau — a boulder sea scattered with hundreds of small lakes, one of the strangest landscapes in China — before dropping to Daocheng.
Stock up here: the village inside Yading has almost no shops. The night is at 3,700 metres.
Into Yading · Pearl Lake
Into the sanctuary at Riwa, the park bus up to Longtongba, and the first walk: an hour or so of forest trail to Pearl Lake at the foot of Chenrezig — the smallest of the holy lakes, and the classic front-row view of the peak.
The strong option carries on by park vehicle to Luorong and walks seven kilometres of boardwalk back down to the Chonggu meadow. The night is in Yading village at 3,900 metres — inside the park, where the light is.
Luorong pasture
Dawn in the village for whomever wants it, then the valley trail up to Luorong Yak Ranch at 4,100 metres, the great meadow amphitheatre between the three holy peaks. The afternoon belongs to the light and the yaks; return on foot or by the park's small vehicles.
Today and tomorrow can swap places — the guide watches the forecast and gives the better weather to the bigger day.
Milk Lake · Five-Colour Lake
The longest day: up to Luorong, then the trail beyond it toward Milk Lake at about 4,500 metres — five kilometres each way, gentle at first and steep at the end, three to four hours up. Horses work the trail in season, when available.
Milk Lake first, then the 100 metres higher to the Five-Colour Lake. The very strong can add the Songduo Pass at 4,600 metres, the park's high point, or push to Snake Lake beyond. The descent is easier than the climb and the village is waiting.
Boyul Lake
The day that keeps the photographers loyal: a steep forest path climbing from 4,000 to 4,700 metres, crossing above the treeline with the whole Chonggu valley and Mt. Jampayang below, to Boyul Lake — which the day-trippers never see.
The strongest walkers can add the 4,900-metre Chenrezig pass. When park access restricts this route in high season, an equivalent hidden-lake day at Zhage Lake takes its place.
Frog Lake → Daocheng
A morning walk from the village to the Frog Lake and back — four or five kilometres on wild paths, horses available — and out of the park by three. The road climbs back to Daocheng for a final night and a free evening in town.
Ten kilometres in all, and the gentlest day of the week: deliberate, before the flight.
Daocheng → flight
An hour of road to Daocheng Yading airport — at 4,411 metres, the highest civilian airport in the world — and the flight back to Chengdu. The tour ends at the airport gate in Chengdu; onward connections are yours, and we will advise which fit the flight.
Along the way
Yading is a sacred-landscape trip first; its animals keep the fringes.
The park · the Haizi Shan crossing
Blue sheep work the crags above Luorong and around the hidden lakes. The Plateau's bigger animals are residents of the same country and rarely met.
Chances are field estimates, not promises. Altitude is the real companion here: all walking is above 3,900 metres.
What's included
Guide, road, park tickets and seven hotel nights are in the price.
Arranged and paid for before you arrive.
An English-speaking guide
Photography-literate, all eight days.
Private transfers
The whole G318 run and the park logistics.
Park entry and transport
Yading tickets and its internal buses.
Seven nights' accommodation
Twin share with breakfast, including four inside the sanctuary.
Arrangement and logistics
The plan and the season's adjustments.
Yours, or yours to ask us about.
Flights
The Daocheng–Chengdu flight, and everything international.
Meals
All meals are outside the quote; arrangements assisted.
Chengdu nights
The city at either end is yours to book.
Park extras
Horses, park vehicles beyond the itinerary, and the like.
Tips and personal expenses
At your discretion.
The upper park closes from mid-November to mid-April — trips in that window walk the lower valleys instead. Access beyond Milk Lake is officially restricted and can change; the guide will say what is open before you commit.
Enquiry
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. We will come back with what the park is allowing this season, and a written outline with a price.
Read next: Daocheng Yading · The Wild Sichuan in-depth hike · The Western Sichuan hiking tour · Yading gives you two trips · Permits and park rules for western Sichuan · The three holy peaks, by name
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