Minya Konka — Gongga Shan in Chinese — is the highest peak in Sichuan at 7,556 metres, and on clear mornings from within Hailuogou Park it presents itself with unusual directness: the summit pyramid rising above the glacier, sharp against blue sky, with no intervening ridge blocking the view. This kind of accessible high-altitude mountain panorama is rare anywhere in the world.
The peak is extremely technical and is not climbed by recreational mountaineers. What the park offers instead is something rarer — the ability to stand at roughly 3,000 metres and look directly up a glacier to a 7,500-metre peak, a vertical mile and a half of ice and rock above you. The best viewpoints within the park are from the upper cable car terminus and the higher trail sections. Weather is capricious — locals say the mountain is visible clearly perhaps one morning in three — so an early start and some patience are both advisable.
The name Minya Konka means "Great White Mountain" in Tibetan, and the local Tibetan population regards it as a sacred peak. Circumambulation of the mountain — a journey of many days through high passes and remote valleys — is a pilgrimage route undertaken by Tibetans, though rarely by foreign visitors.