Small Island at Black Dragon Pool 黑龙潭
One of the primary reasons why I wanted to visit Yunnan province is to be able to go to one of the most photographed sites in the country. The Black Dragon Pool in Lijiang county is host to one of China’s most famous sights. I have seen photos of this place and it was really gorgeous, and convinced me to visit the place even more. The Black Dragon Pool is conveniently located right beside the Lijiang Ancient Town. However, it seems that there is a separate entrance fee for this famous landmark, Lijiang Ancient Town itself doesn’t have an entrance fee but you probably have to spend quite a bit of money when coming here. Anyway, Black Dragon Pool has a totally separate entrance, most likely to keep the money coming. I don’t expect to see much in this place apart from that postcard picture but we shall see.
Black Dragon Pool 黑龙潭
The entrance to the Black Dragon Pool is an old looking Ming style gate, it seem that it is in need of maintenance. You can purchase the ticket at the entrance. Where you can immediately see the park inside. The park basically features a few pools of water when you can walk around and take in the scenery. From the outset, it already doesn’t look too good. The water level of the pools seem to be low, too low in fact. You can see right to the bottom and how can I tell? It is not because the water is crystal clear but because the water level is that low, so low that I can see the cracks on the ground. It seems that the water ran out fairly recently, probably during the summer causing the cracks on the lakebed. It wasn’t the picture perfect scenery that I was hoping to see it may in fact be a horrifying peek into the future.
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