A cafe that claims to be the world's highest at 4,860 meters. [Photo by Xu Lin/China Daily]

The nature reserve hosts 1,000 plant species and 150 types of wild animals, such as golden monkeys. Tibetan macaques eat and frolic near the Golden Monkey Lake.

Mountains are reflected in the water in ways that resemble traditional Chinese paintings.

An orchestral rhythm of waves taps against its stony shoals.

Visually, it's a photographer's dreamland.

Red boulders bulge from the riverbanks. Their hue hails from a special kind of algae that fleeces such rocks at high altitudes.

Dagu's snows start in August. I witnessed one turn from gold to white on one late-October day. It was as if Elsa from Frozen had flashed her wand.