Cracks All Over at Black Dragon Pool 黑龙潭
I pretty much gave up getting a good photo here at the Black Dragon Pool and decided to continue on from the popular photography spot, there wasn’t much to see anyway. As it turns out, visitors can continue exploring the rest of the Black Dragon Pool scenic area. I was kind of relieved to know this since I was so disappointed with the scenery. At least it wasn’t raining, right? Speaking of rain, it was quite strange to see how dry the Black Dragon Pool were when it was already the rainy season. Not only that, the entire town of Lijiang is swimming through large amounts of water, which helped it gain fame.
Dry Pool at Black Dragon Pool 黑龙潭
Which brings me to my next curiousity. There was another pool at the Black Dragon Pool and it was bone dry. It wasn’t even the type where there was still some water left. It was as if someone pulled the drain plug on the pool. I understand that the pool is also one of the sources of water of the Lijiang Ancient Town but could it be there development has already taken its toll on the famed pool? Overpumping of groundwater might have also exacerbated the situation. It was really sobering to see such things and how much has changed since Lijiang’s founding. I don’t know if there is still anything that can be done for the pools, hopefully it doesn’t just become a reminder on how not to go about developing or ruining a tourist area.
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