Yulong Snowmountain

Regular ticket price: Peak season (April 1st October 31st): 190 yuan/person - Off season (November 1st March 31st): 165 yuan/person

@Yulong Snow Mountain is located at the junction of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and Yunnan Guizhou Plateau, as well as at the junction of the Hengduan Mountains in northwest Yunnan and the plateau in eastern Yunnan. It is the main peak of the Yunling Mountains in the Hengduan Mountains and is a young limestone fault folded mountain. Due to the uneven rise of the earth's crust, a landform pattern of alternating high mountains, deep valleys, and intermountain basins is formed, belonging to the Hengduan Mountains cutting mountain canyon area and the northern section of Hengduan Mountains high mountain canyon sub area. In geological history, it is a part of the western Yunnan trough and has been affected by several marine invasions and retreats from the Paleozoic to Mesozoic eras. The Himalayan orogeny of the Tertiary period continued into the Quaternary period, and Yulong Mountain was finally formed at this time@The 3#

Yulong Snow Mountain strata belong to the Yunnan Tibet stratigraphic area. Mainly consisting of carbonate rocks from the Middle Devonian to the Middle Carboniferous, followed by basalt interbedded with limestone from the Permian, and limestone interbedded with sandstone and shale from the Triassic. The southern section of the mountain has interbedded Carboniferous and Permian basalt and limestone, as well as other metamorphic rocks. The area south of Baisha Village is mainly composed of Triassic rock layers. The Permian basalt and metamorphic green schist and greenstone of basalt are found in the Tiger Leaping Canyon and Jinsha River Valley areas on the western slope. Ice deposits and glacial sediments from different glacial periods of the Quaternary can be seen on Dongpo and its foothills

Yulong Snow Mountain is the southernmost modern monsoon oceanic glacier distribution area in the Eurasian continent. According to the 1994 publication "Glacier Catalog", Yulong Snow Mountain has 19 modern glaciers, 15 on the east slope and 4 on the west slope, with a total area of 11.6 square kilometers. Baishui No.1 Glacier is the largest glacier among them, with a length of 2.7 kilometers, an area of 1.5 square kilometers, a balance line elevation of about 4800 meters, and a glacier end elevation of about 4200 meters

Geological Structure

Yulong Snow Mountain is located at the junction of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and the Yunnan Guizhou Plateau, as well as at the junction of the Hengduan Mountains in northwest Yunnan and the plateau in eastern Yunnan. It is the main peak of the Yunling Mountains in the Hengduan Mountains and is a young limestone fault block folded mountain. Due to the uneven rise of the earth's crust, a landform pattern of alternating high mountains, deep valleys, and intermountain basins is formed, belonging to the Hengduan Mountains cutting mountain canyon area and the northern section of Hengduan Mountains high mountain canyon sub area. In geological history, it is a part of the western Yunnan trough and has been affected by several marine invasions and retreats from the Paleozoic to Mesozoic eras. The Himalayan orogeny of the Tertiary period continued into the Quaternary period, and Yulong Mountain was finally formed at this time^[3]

The Yulong Snow Mountain Formation belongs to the Yunnan Tibet stratigraphic area. Mainly consisting of carbonate rocks from the Middle Devonian to the Middle Carboniferous, followed by basalt interbedded with limestone from the Permian, and limestone interbedded with sandstone and shale from the Triassic. The southern section of the mountain has interbedded Carboniferous and Permian basalt and limestone, as well as other metamorphic rocks. The area south of Baisha Village is mainly composed of Triassic rock layers. The Permian basalt and metamorphic green schist and greenstone of basalt are found in the Tiger Leaping Canyon and Jinsha River Valley areas on the western slope. Ice deposits and glacial sediments from different glacial periods of the Quaternary can be seen on Dongpo and its foothills^[3]

Yulong Snow Mountain is the southernmost modern monsoon oceanic glacier distribution area on the Eurasian continent. According to the "Glacier Catalog" published in 1994, Yulong Snow Mountain has 19 modern glaciers, 15 on the east slope and 4 on the west slope, with a total area of 11.6 square kilometers. Baishui No.1 Glacier is the largest glacier among them, with a length of 2.7 kilometers, an area of 1.5 square kilometers, an equilibrium line elevation of about 4800 meters, and a glacier end elevation of about 4200 meters^[4-6]

Yulong Snow Mountain Glacier

Soil Distribution

Yulong Snow Mountain Soil has a clear vertical distribution pattern, including 5 soil classes, including dry red soil, red soil, yellow brown soil, floating lime soil, alpine meadow soil, alpine desert soil, black lime soil, and swamp soil, with 17 subtypes of 12 soil classes distributed regularly from low altitude to high altitude^[7]

The soil types of Yulong Snow Mountain from low altitude to high altitude are red soil (2700-3200 meters), mountain grass gray soil (3100-3300 meters), humus carbonate soil (3300-3800 meters), and alpine meadow soil (3800-4200 meters)^[8]

The soil texture of Yulong Snow Mountain is mainly composed of loam and loam clay. From low to high altitude, the soil texture gradually transitions from clay and loam clay to sandy clay, sandy loam, and loam. The soil developed under forest vegetation accumulates a significant amount of organic matter, forming a distinct humus layer. According to the Chinese soil system classification scheme, the vertical band spectrum structure of the soil in Yulong Snow Mountain is divided into three categories: normally moist embryonic soil (altitude 3400~4200 meters), moist bauxite (altitude 2700~3400 meters), moist embryonic soil (altitude 2500~2700 meters), and moist bauxite (altitude below 2500 meters)^[9]

Vegetation Distribution

Yulong Snow Mountain is an important distribution area of biodiversity in northwest Yunnan, and also one of the important transitional areas connecting vegetation distribution in northwest Yunnan and central Yunnan^[8]

Plants in the Yulong Snow Mountain area are distributed from low to high altitude, including warm temperate valley shrubs, moist evergreen broad-leaved forests, deciduous broad-leaved forests, warm temperate coniferous forests, hard leaved oak forests, cold temperate coniferous forests, cold temperate shrubs, and sparse meadows on high mountain rocky beaches

The vegetation of Yulong Snow Mountain belongs to the Yunnan pine forest, Lijiang spruce, and long bract fir forest in the high mountain plateau of central and northwestern Yunnan in China's vegetation zoning. The forest mainly consists of Yunnan pine forest, Lijiang spruce forest, big fruited redwood forest, and fir forest from bottom to top

The forest vegetation of Yulong Snow Mountain can be divided into four community types, namely: Yunnan pine forest community, Lijiang spruce forest community, large fruit redwood forest community, and fir forest community. The richness of plant species (including woody, shrub, and herbaceous) first increases and then decreases with increasing altitude. The species richness of the shrub layer shows a significant decreasing pattern with increasing altitude^[13]

Yulong Snow Mountain is located at an altitude of 2000-2900 meters in the Yunnan pine forest and hillside cultivation zone; At an altitude of 2900-3100 meters, there is a mixed forest belt of alpine pine and oak needles and broad-leaved trees; The subalpine coniferous forest belt is located at an altitude of 3100-3800 meters, consisting of fir, redwood, and spruce forests (pure or mixed forests); The high-altitude shrub meadow belt is located at an altitude of 3800 to 4500 meters, with alpine shrub meadows below 4100 meters mainly composed of various cushion or creeping rhododendrons; Only scattered high-altitude rocky beach plants can be seen between 4100 and 4350 meters above sea level