Changbaishan — the Ever-White Mountain — is a dormant volcano straddling the border of Jilin province and North Korea, and the most mythical landscape in China's northeast. At its summit, in a caldera left by an eruption so vast it is studied worldwide, sits Heaven Lake: China's deepest lake, an unnervingly blue bowl of meltwater at over two thousand meters. Manchus trace their ancestors here; Koreans hold the same mountain sacred. Around the crater falls a complete ladder of ecosystems — primeval forest, hot springs, waterfalls, alpine meadows — managed as a UNESCO biosphere reserve with separate north and west visitor zones. Weather decides everything, and the lake famously reveals itself to only some of those who climb to it.
The full handbook is part of the paid series
You have read the free preview — the introduction and the route map. The complete handbook adds the day-by-day plan, tickets and transport, culture and etiquette, food, useful Chinese, and the dated source list.