CHINA 5A TRAVEL
China's largest alpine barrier lake — lava-dammed 5,000 years ago, crowned by the world's largest basalt waterfall, daily cliff dives and a winter ice curtain.
Some 5,000 years ago, eruptions on a northern lava plateau sent molten rock across the Mudan River and dammed it; the water pooled behind the black wall became Jingpo Lake (镜泊湖) — China's largest alpine barrier lake and the world's largest lava-dammed lake. A 1984 joint China–US geological study traced five eruptions across roughly 8,000–5,140 years, the last of them finally sealing the channel. The result is the 'Hundred-Li Long Lake' (百里长湖): about 45 km long, 300 m to 6 km wide, lying some 350 m above sea level among peaks wearing more than 68% forest cover and fed by over 30 mountain streams.
Dynasties keep its records: the Han knew it as the Meituo River, the Tang as the Huhan Sea, and Qing-era exiles — struck by reflections 'clear as a mirror' — gave it the name it keeps today. It joined China's first batch of National Key Scenic Areas in 1982, earned UNESCO-backed Global Geopark status in 2006, and has held the national 5A rating since January 2011. Marshal Ye Jianying's famous couplet still frames it best: 'A lake atop the hills, hills upon the lake — northern scenery to rival the south.'
The 5A area unfolds in three separately ticketed worlds: the main lake, where Diaoshuilou Waterfall (吊水楼瀑布) — billed as the world's largest basalt waterfall — crashes into Heilong Pool and cliff-diver Di Huanran has leapt nearly every day since 1983; the Crater Underground Forest some 50 km away, where primeval Korean pine grows inside extinct craters; and the Tang-era Bohai Kingdom capital ruins at Bohai Town. Summer days average a cool ~22°C, autumn sets the shores ablaze with 'Five-Color Mountain' foliage, and in deep winter the falls freeze into a translucent 300-metre ice curtain while the geothermal pool below refuses all ice.
Highlights
Diaoshuilou Waterfall
The world's largest basalt waterfall: a 40–60 m crest that swells to 100–300 m in the July–September floods, its roar carrying for kilometres.
Di Huanran's Cliff Dive
China's No.1 cliff diver has plunged the ~12 m basalt wall into Heilong Pool since 1983 — shows at 10:00 and 14:00, and at 14:00 in winter off the frozen cliff.
The Pool That Never Freezes
Geothermal springs hold the ~60 m Heilong Pool at 8–10°C even at −30°C air — mist, rainbows and open black water in a white world.
Hundred-Li Long Lake Cruise
Half-lake (~1.5 h, ~¥100) or full-lake (~¥280) cruises from Shanzhuang Pier past the eight classic sights — Maogong Hill, Pearl Gate, White Cliff and more.
Crater Underground Forest
A dozen extinct craters 50 km northwest — 70–550 m across, grown over with primeval forest — plus lava-tube caves that keep their ice in midsummer.
Winter Fishing Festival
Mid-January to late February: thousand-year-old net-pulling rituals on the ice, snow sports and winter swimming beneath the frozen falls curtain.
Photo Gallery
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