Blue Moon Valley
Sapphire glacial lakes cupped beneath a snow peak, threaded by waterfalls and mirror-still pools.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Blue Moon Valley near Lijiang opens with a sound: the loudest of its four lakes hums like a reed instrument as its water level rises and falls, with no orchestra or machine behind it. It traces how this basin, once known simply as White Water River for its pale limestone silt, got recast under a very different name borrowed from a 1933 British novel that never actually described this place. From there it follows the mountain's next reinvention, as the backdrop for a large nightly outdoor performance staged nearby. Look closely at the color in the water as you listen, from the copper-tinted lake to the one that mirrors the peaks.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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