About Lashi Lake

Lashi Lake is in the basin in Hengduan Mountain Range, 10 kilometers away from the Old Town of Lijiang.

The warm climate makes it possible for them to pass the long winter safely. When next spring comes and flowers bloom, the birds will leave for the north for reproduction. They bring life to the villages at the foot of Jade Dragon Mountain. Especially when black-necked cranes fly over Jade Dragon in rosy clouds of dawn, you will feel that the legend about the Naxi has come true. (According to book of Dongba, the goddess Chenhong Baobai transformed herself into a crane, and carried Chongrenli'en who had survived the floods to the heaven and begged her father to let them get married. Their children then became the ancestor of Naxi people.)

Lashihai International Wetland Park was approved as a plateau wetland nature reserve in Yunnan Province in June, 1998. Since then, the nature reserve has been rehabilitated, protected and improved, which turns to be a paradise of thousands of birds consisted of 57 species, a place where biodiversity has been effectively conserved.

With an area of 5,330 hectares, Lashihai Lake is about 9.3 km long from south to north and 8.2 km wide from east to west. It is the largest lake in Lijiang County. Surrounded by the mountains, the catchment of Lashihai is about 256.6 square meters.The Rivers of Meiquan and Keluokang are merged together into Lashihai. With good quality of water, which meets water quality requirement of Grade II. It is one of the reserved drinking water sources for the city of Lijiang.

There are Naxi and other minority nationalities inhabited around Lashihai Lake, who are rich in cultural and folk customs. Zhiyun Temple situated by Lashihai Lake is regarded as one of the five temples in the city of Lijiang. It is a famous tourism spot of Tibetan Lamaism.

(1) Animals

At the turn of each autumn and winter, thousands of water fowls migrate afar from the north, among which there are some of national protected birds, such as Black Storks, Black Neck Cranes, Chinese Mergansers, etc. as well as great numbers of ordinary water birds like Ruddy Shelducks and Mandarin Ducks and so on. According to the records, the quantity of bird species in the area of Lashihai wetland each year amounts to 25,000 ~ 30,000, the Anatidae of Anseriformes takes the dominant. 9 from 57 species of birds in wetland are of special, rare and distinctive ones. They are distributed in the shallow lake areas in the south, west and east side of Lashihai.

(2) Plants

The wetland plants in nature reserve are divided into four major life forms, among which there are 21 kinds of helophyte plant, 7 kinds of merged aquatic plant, 5 kinds of floating plant and 11 kinds benthophyte (submerged) plant. The submerged ones are among the largest portion for the building of aquatic plant community in the lake. The Ottelia acuminate is not only edible but valuable for ornamental purpose as well, which is an endangered species listed as national protected species Grade III.

Recommend activities at Lashi Lake

Boating on the Lashi Lake 
The canoe of Naxi is made of a whole trunk of one tree, try to show the biggest smile as you can, borrow a canoe from local villages, and ride it to the center of the lake!

Vist local Naxi families in the villages surrounding the lake
Many typical villages have not been polluted by mordern tourism, lots of things to see for local interest.

Biking from Dayan town to Lashi Lake
Ask a local person to lead the way, lots of turns on the countryside paths.

Bird watch in winter time
Ask local persons for the time when is the perfect time.