Baishuitai is a village between Lijiang and Shangri-La City, located on the bottom area of Ha-Ba Snow Mountain. It is about 110 kilometers south of Shangri La city.
it becomes well-known for its Natural Mineral Terraces. It is even thought to be the “Source” of Dongba culture of Naxi Ethnic group.
Brief
Baishui Terraces is one of the biggest limestone terraces among China, measuring 140 meters from its bottom to the top, and 160 meters wide; with size of 3 square kilometers or so. There is one other well-known limestone terraces Nationak park is Huang Long in the east edge of Kham in Sichuan province, which is another World Nature Heritage.
Baishui Terraces
Baishui Terraces is composed by the sediments of high Calcium Carbonate in spring waters which flows downwards from Ha-Ba Snow Mountain to semicircular-shaped limestone steps. After hudreds of thousands of years, it eventually forms up the natural terraces look as the white marbles.
Legend
There is a legend to say that the founder of Dongba religion on his way back from Tibet settled here to spread his beliefs, and teaching local Naxi people how to adapt the region’s hillsides for agriculture.
As such, this becomes an important local pilgrimage site, and there are several shrines in and around the terraces. The date 8th of the 2nd Month of Chinese Lunar calendar is believed the day that the Dongba culture founder held his founding ceremony.
The “Er-Yue-Ba” Festival
Hence, local villagers gather together to celebrate in order to memorize the founder on this same day every year. Gradually, a folk festival formed up and was named after the date for this festival as “Er-Yue-Ba”
In chinese Pinyin,
“Er” means 2nd,
“Yue” means month,
“Ba” means the digit of “8”
Baishuitai Data
Address
Contact : +86 887 886-6139
Add : Baidi Village, San Ba county
Entrance fee
RMB 30 per person
Opening hour
08:00am – 16:00pm
Altitude
2,380 meters
Baishuitai Festival
“Er-Yue” means the 2nd month of Chinese Lunar calendar; “Ba” means the 8th day of the month; the name of this festival is actually from the festival date, which is indeed different in every year; the below listed is “Er-Yue-Ba” in different years
- Yr 2022 on March 10th
- Yr 2023 on February 27th
- Yr 2024 on March 17th
- Yr 2025 on March 07th
- Yr 2026 on March 26th
Fesitval Programs: Naxi people and local Tibetan whom live in Ha-Ba Snow mountain, some of those are from further places; They gather together in Baishuitai to sing, dance in their customs. Roosters are slaughtered in sacrifice to the gods according to the custom, which was thought to be to create Baishui Terrace land in order to teach the people how to transform the area’s mountainous terrain into arable land.
How to get to there
- By bus from Shangri La City Two daily buses with departures: 09:30am, and 14:00pm, rate: RMB 26 one way, get off at “Bai-Di-Village-Stop”
- By rent vehicle from Shangri La City it usually cost RMB 600 – 800 round trip
- By bus from Tiger Leaping Gorge Town one daily bus with departure of 12:00 at noon, with rate: RMB 55 one way
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