The Alpine Lakes And Waterfalls of Jiuzhaigou

The Jiuzhaigou Valley, located at the foot of the snow-capped Minshan Mountain, in the north of Sichuan province, China, is a place of exceptional beauty. A nature reserve and a national park, Jiuzhaigou is known for its spectacular jagged alpine mountains, coniferous forests, blue, green and turquoise-colored lakes, waterfalls, limestone terraces, caves and other beautiful features. The magic of Jiuzhaigou lies in the water —the alpine lakes and waterfalls. There are more than one hundred lakes in this valley with water so clear that the bottom is often visible even at high depths. The lakes also vary in color according to their depths, residues, and surroundings, as well as by season and time of the day. The local Tibetan people call them "Haizi" in Chinese, which means "son of the sea". The most famous of the lakes of Jiuzhaigou is the Five Flower Lake , also known as Wuhua Lake. It’s a shallow multi-colored lake whose bottom is covered with ancient fallen tree trunks. The Five Flower Lake. Photo credit: GreenArcher04/Flickr The Five Flower Lake. Photo credit: GreenArcher04/Flickr The Five Flower Lake. Photo credit: chensiyuan/Wikimedia The Five Flower Lake. Photo credit: B_cool/Flickr Panda Lake is so called because Giant Pandas used to come to this lake to drink, though there have been no sightings for many years. The lake empties into the multi-stream, multi-level Panda Waterfalls, dropping 78 meters in three steps. Panda Lake. Photo credit: Chris Nener/Flickr Panda Lake. Photo credit: Uwe Aranas/Wikimedia Mirror Lake is a quiet lake casting beautiful reflections of the surroundings when the water is calm. Mirror Lake. Photo credit: C Kheong Lim/Flickr Mirror Lake. Photo credit: Culantor Lin/Wikimedia Pearl Shoal is a wide, gently sloping area of active calcareous tufa deposition covered in a thin sheet of flowing water. It empties into the famous Pearl Waterfalls. Pearl Shoal.