A valley of lakes in northern Sichuan so blue and so clear that photographs of it are routinely assumed to be faked. They are not: the lakes were made by glaciers and by natural damming, and the colour is carbonate deposition, calcium carbonate in the water and out of it, varying with concentration and depth. The reserve runs from 2,000 to 4,500 metres with ground above 4,800, and covers 72,000 hectares. UNESCO World Heritage since 1992 and a Biosphere Reserve since 1997. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit in August 2017 and damaged two of the natural dams, at Nuorilang Waterfall and Huohua Lake, and the valley was shut until March 2018. It is busy now: 5.11 million visitors in 2024, with a hard daily cap of 41,000 on timed tickets, so book it.
Sichuan, China
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