The road trip from Chengdu itself took 3 days, including some sight seeings along the way to reach the Shangri-la town just outside the nature reserve. We spent around 1 1/2 days in Daocheng Yading, with a night spent in Yading Village, in the nature reserve.
On day 1, the journey in the morning started with a shuttle bus to Yading Village to check in our luggage before we proceeded to the final checkpoint, where the main attractions are located. The first eye popping scenary is the Luorong Pasture at 4180m. This is the perfect spot for photography with high alpine glacier mountains standing tall behind. From there most will trek up to Milk Lake at round 4500m with a distance of 5km. I did not manage to trek to Milk Lake, short of 500m due to timing as I need to turn back to catch the last shuttle bus, supposedly at 5pm. However, the journey up along the trail is incredible with many photo stops, which is also a way to catch the breath due to high altitude. Hence, it is best advised to start the journey earlier, better if one were to stay in Yading Village to save the time for trekking. There was a heavy snow and the temperature dropped to zero at night in Yading Village. It was end of October.
On day 2, we were lucky to see a totally different landscapes in the Yading Reserve. As it was snowing the night before, the whole scenery was turned into white snowy trees. In fact, it was a blessing to see two different season views in 2 consecutive days, autumn and winter magnificent sceneries. As we had only 1/2 day, we explored Chonggu Monastery and the surrounding views.