Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

To celebrate our independence, on July 4, we hired a taxi to drive us to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, about 30 minutes outside of Lijiang. Jeremy had been in the area before and had tales of green meadows, horseback and yak-back riding with mountain views.

The lodge was a combination of mormon tabernacle and Polynesian Cultural Center. We noticed they sold warm weather jackets and oxygen canisters that looked like tall aerosal hairspray cans with an apparatus that fit over your mouth and nose. Hmm.

A recording told us, in Chinese, Japanese and English, that we were riding the highest cable car in the northern hemisphere.

We went higher. Jeremy squinted, "I think when I came here before, we were in that valley over there, " he said pointing to a green hillside with verdant meadows.

We got to the top of the cable car and the elevation signs said over 4200 meters.
That's over 13,000 feet.
And there were stairs ahead...

We got to the top - somewhere around 4600 meters - higher than Mount Rainier and found an altar.
Praise be!

"TheTeam" - a little dizzy and lightheaded.

The sign says, "Communist Party Member Responsibility Area". We didn't enter.


Midway down lodge.