Golden ice

The magnificent view of the glacier attracts 130,000 to 150,000 visitors every year to the national park, 280 kilometers northwest of Chengdu, Sichuan province.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A glacier in Southwest China has been feeding its surroundings with tourism, Li Yang reports in Aba, Sichuan province.

Dagu Glacier on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is thought to have been formed millions of years ago, but it remained unknown until 1992, when scientists discovered it through satellite images.

Located in Heishui county in the Aba Tibet autonomous prefecture of Southwest China's Sichuan province, the glacier is 280 kilometers northwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital, making it among the world's rarest ice bodies to be at close proximity of a full-fledged urban space.

Dagu can swell up to 200 meters in thickness and covers an area of 8.25 square kilometers along three adjacent mountains, with the highest being at around 4,600 meters above sea level. At the center of a large national park, the glacier is situated amid one of the country's least-populated places.