Landscape photography – Ancient landscape in China

At the foothills of the Haba Snow Mountains, some hundred kilometers southeast of Shangri-La County, there is a very unique landscape. The place is called White Water Terrace. We were a small group of people who had hired a driver to take us to Shangri-La. On the way we made a stop here, since we were passing anyway. It's possible to walk from here on foot, across the mountains to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. We did the opposite. We came from Tiger Leaping Gorge. Only we didn't walk. We had allready done hiking at the gorge.

Unfortunatly it was raining heavily all the time. The visibility was poor, but we did walk along most of the paths anyway. From where we started, at the carpark, it's only uphill. The view is supposed to be great from up there, but unfortunatly we didn't see much of that.

These terraces were formed thousands of years ago, due to the deposition of calcium that covers the area,transforming it into these terraces.

It is said that the Dongba ancestor had something to do with some religious doctrine, which was the reason that White Water Terrace became regarded as a Dongba ashram. The Shangri-La county has many Tibetans and each year the local minorities will come to this place for ritual activities.

The best time to visit should be from February to April, but also in September to November. The rainy season is during the summer. We were here in May, so that might have meant that the rainy season had startet. Even it was raining, it's still amazing landscape.