The Most Beautiful Places in Sichuan
7 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Sichuan are Huanglong, Jiuzhaigou Valley and Leshan Giant Buddha. The list covers 7 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Sichuan is a province of two worlds. Its eastern half is a fertile basin ringed by mountains, long one of China's richest farming regions, while the west climbs abruptly into the Hengduan ranges and the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where peaks rise above seven thousand metres. Limestone, glaciers and fast rivers in that transition zone produce some of China's most colourful lakes and gorges, and Tibetan Buddhism shapes the high grasslands.
In the north, Huanglong and the Jiuzhaigou Valley are both World Heritage Sites famous for water: at Huanglong, terraces of golden travertine hold pools of turquoise and green, and at Jiuzhaigou, chains of clear lakes, waterfalls and forests run between Tibetan villages. Near the basin, the Leshan Giant Buddha, carved from a red sandstone cliff during the Tang dynasty, sits at the meeting of three rivers and is the largest stone Buddha in the world.
The west is mountain country. Mount Gongga, the highest peak in Sichuan, rises in a great pyramid of ice, and Mount Siguniang, the 'four sisters', lines up four snow peaks above alpine valleys. In Yading Nature Reserve, three sacred snow mountains stand over glacial lakes, and on the grasslands of Sêrtar, the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy covers a valley with thousands of small red wooden houses around its halls.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huanglong | Protected area | ✓ |
| 2 | Jiuzhaigou Valley | National park | ✓ |
| 3 | Leshan Giant Buddha | Sculpture | ✓ |
| 4 | Mount Gongga | Mountain | |
| 5 | Mount Siguniang | Mountain | |
| 6 | Larung Gar Buddhist Academy | Monastery | |
| 7 | Yading Nature Reserve | Nature reserve |
01 Huanglong
People's Republic of China32.741° N 103.831° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Image by ymyphoto from Pixabay Huanglong, the Yellow Dragon, is a high valley in the Minshan range of northern Sichuan where mineral-rich water has built one of the finest travertine landscapes on Earth.
Did you know? Golden Sand Pavement is a single sheet of golden travertine about 1,300 metres long, with water sliding thinly over it.
02 Jiuzhaigou Valley
People's Republic of China33.200° N 103.900° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Image by HI-MXWG from Pixabay The name means, roughly, "valley of nine villages," after the Tibetan settlements scattered through it — villages that predate its 1978 designation as a protected scenic reserve by centuries.
Did you know? The protected area climbs from roughly 2,000 metres at the valley mouth to more than 4,700 metres at Mount Ganzigonggai.
03 Leshan Giant Buddha
People's Republic of China · 4.4 km from Leshan29.547° N 103.769° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by christels from Pixabay The Leshan Giant Buddha is carved directly into a sandstone cliff at the point where the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet below the city of Leshan in southern Sichuan. At 71 metres high it is the tallest stone Buddha in the world and by far the largest pre-modern statue anywhere.
Did you know? Two stone guardian kings in battle robes, each more than 16 metres tall, are carved into the cliff on either side of the Buddha.
04 Mount Gongga
People's Republic of China29.596° N 101.879° E
Kogo · CC BY-SA 3.0 Mount Gongga, the "King of Sichuan Mountains", lifts a pyramid of ice to 7,509 metres at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It is the highest mountain in Sichuan, and the easternmost 7,000-metre peak in the world, standing far apart from any other summit of comparable height.
Did you know? The first known measurement was made from afar by the Hungarian count Béla Széchenyi's expedition of 1877-1880, which called the peak Bokunka.
05 Mount Siguniang
People's Republic of China31.106° N 102.902° E
Image by finnesia from Pixabay Four snow peaks stand in a row at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and the highest of them, a sharp pyramid of rock and ice, is the summit of the Qionglai range.
Did you know? In 2023 China's Ministry of Natural Resources published a new official height for the summit of 6,247.8 metres.
06 Larung Gar Buddhist Academy
People's Republic of China32.153° N 100.469° E
Image by 龚 from Pixabay Larung Gar fills a high valley in the Tibetan grasslands of western Sichuan with thousands of small red houses, packed so densely up the slopes that from the ridge above the whole bowl seems to be painted crimson.
Did you know? More than 500 khenpos and khenmos, holders of the highest scholastic title, have graduated here since 1980, women among them.
07 Yading Nature Reserve
People's Republic of China28.463° N 100.281° E
Toni Wöhrl · CC BY-SA 4.0 Yading is a high-mountain reserve in Daocheng County, in the Tibetan uplands of western Sichuan, built around three snow peaks that Tibetans have venerated for centuries as the abode of three bodhisattvas.
Did you know? The two lower sacred peaks, Jampelyang and Chanadorje, are each given as about 5,958 metres high.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Sichuan?
- On our list, Huanglong ranks first, followed by Jiuzhaigou Valley and Leshan Giant Buddha.
- Why are the pools at Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou so colourful?
- The water is rich in dissolved calcium carbonate, which builds travertine terraces and dams. The clear water, mineral deposits and algae combine to give the lakes their blue, green and yellow tones.
- How tall is the Leshan Giant Buddha?
- The seated Buddha is about 71 metres tall. It was carved into a cliff above the confluence of the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers during the Tang dynasty.
- What is the highest mountain in Sichuan?
- Mount Gongga, also called Minya Konka, is the highest peak in Sichuan at about 7,556 metres.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Sichuan?
- In our collection, the places in Sichuan are most often mountains (2), nature sanctuaries (2), national parks (1) and nature reserves (1).
- How many places are on this list in Sichuan?
- The list covers 7 places.