Hailuogou Glacier Park lies on the eastern flank of Minya Konka — at 7,556 metres the highest peak in Sichuan and one of the highest in China outside Tibet — about 350 kilometres south of Chengdu. The glacier descends from the permanent snowfields of Minya Konka to an unusually low altitude, making it one of the most accessible glaciers in the country. The approach through bamboo and old-growth forest before the landscape transitions to ice and bare rock is part of what makes the place distinctive.
The gateway town is Moxi, a small village with basic accommodation and a Tibetan Catholic church that dates from French missionary activity in the late nineteenth century — an unlikely relic in a remote Chinese mountain village. From Moxi, the park runs about 30 kilometres up the valley; shuttle buses are required and walking the distance is not realistic. A cable car provides the higher-elevation views and a walkway leads to the glacier's lower terminus.
Minya Konka itself (called Gongga Shan in Chinese) is the dominant presence. From viewpoints within the park on a clear morning, the summit pyramid rises above the glacier in a way that establishes its scale with some force. Clear weather is not guaranteed — the eastern side of the Tibetan plateau creates its own meteorological conditions and the mountain generates clouds — but the hot springs within the park provide compensation on overcast days.
The journey to Hailuogou from Chengdu takes most of a day. The road descends from Kangding through the Luding gorge and then climbs again toward Moxi. It is among the more spectacular drives in Sichuan and the context it provides — the sudden drop from high plateau to deep river valleys and back up again — is part of understanding the geography of this corner of the province.