Jiuzhaigou, water in impossible colours

Jiuzhaigou, the Valley of Nine Villages, cuts a Y through the Min Shan mountains of northern Sichuan between roughly 2,000 and 3,100 metres, and it is famous for one thing: water so clear and so mineral-rich that the lakes read as turquoise, cobalt and jade. The colour is real, produced by calcium carbonate dissolved from the limestone, which also builds the travertine dams and shoals that make the whole valley a set of natural terraces.

Three branches share a shuttle-bus road and kilometres of raised boardwalk. The Rize valley holds the Five Flower Lake, whose bed is a tangle of fallen, calcified trunks visible through five metres of water, plus Pearl Shoal, where the river spreads across a wide travertine slope before dropping over its waterfall. The Zechawa arm climbs to Long Lake, the deepest in the park, and to the small Five Colour Pond. At the fork stands Nuorilang Waterfall, some 320 metres across and often called the widest waterfall in China, and below it the Shuzheng lakes step downhill past prayer flags and water-driven prayer wheels.

The nine villages are Tibetan, and several are still inhabited; Shuzheng and Zharu keep white stupas, hand-carved mani stones and small guesthouses serving yak butter tea and barley wine. The valley reopened after the 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake with reshaped trails and a daily visitor cap, so tickets are worth booking ahead. Come in October for larch and maple against the blue water, or in winter when the waterfalls freeze into blue curtains. It pairs naturally with Chengdu and the rest of Sichuan on a longer route through China.