Ertan National Forest Park is located at the middle part of Panzhihua City, crossing Yanbian and Miyi counties. It was authorized to be built in 1993 by the Ministry of Forestry of China, which is 38 km away from Panzhihua City proper. The park centers on 101 km2 water surface impounded by Ertan Hydropower Station, covering an area of 732.4 km2, of which water surface reaches 63.4 km2. The park covers a scope above Ertan Hydropower Station dam and the first ridge on the whole lake surface of Yalong River system in the park, extending to Tengqiao River mouth.
The planned area of the park is more than 40,000 hm², of which the T-shape lake surface formed by Ertan reservoir area is 10,000 hm², forest land area is about more than 30,000 hm². The forest coverage will reach over 50%.
Ertan National Forest Park is a key region to try out state-level ecological nature reserves, with diverse and unique natural ecological landscape, world-famous human landscape, time-honored, simple and  primitive ethical culture and demeanor. The folk-custom ecological tourist resource of Southwest Sichuan, Northwest Yunnan and Southeast Tibet integrates natural ecological tourist resource in Panzhihua including unique rift valley landforms, naturally formed pit and floor drain, plateau scene, natural geological museum, etc, which forms a ecological corridor and many elaborate tourist routes.
The park will be divided into nine scenic spots: candlenut Forest, Bodhisattva Rock, High Dam Calm Lake, Cervus Elaphus Village, Baipo Mountain, Laojun Temple, Lake Island Scene, Natural Bridge and Qinghe River Fairy Cave. At present High Dam Calm Lake, Bodhisattva Rock and Lake Island Scene have taken shape through the development and construction in the past several years. The scenic spots are featured by double-arch dam, high dam waterfall, industrial tour such as high technology underground power plant and so on, European health and vocational camp, high gorges and flat lake tour.

Beautiful Lakes and Mountains
The grand Ertan Hydropower Station dam impounds Yalong, Ganyu and Xiangshui River, which form a huge artificial lake with a length of 185 km, an average width of more than 700 m and a total reservoir capacity of 5.8 billion m3. The dam and green mountains on both banks constitute a majestic landscape. 10,000 hm² of water surface creates good condition for water tourism. The mist-covered water of Ertan Reservoir extends to the distance. There are 5 islands in the lake and 11 peninsulas at the lakeside, dotted by garden villas and mountain villas. When rowing a boat in the lake, at the sight of blue sky and green water, you will enjoy and forget yourself.
Beautiful lake and mountains in the park form an organic whole. Marvelous peaks touch the sky, caves are deep and dazzling. Old trees are here and there. Birds sing. Mountain flowers are charming. Soughing of the wind is in the pines. Waterfalls are flying and springs are flowing. Zemulong Forest is boundless and indistinct, which stretches to the horizon. Peaks are lofty and precipitous in Juziping and Dingjiashan. Mountains and ridges stand facing each other at both banks of Yalong River, where ridges and peaks are luxuriantly green. Today tourists may visit Qinghegou Natural Karst Cave and Qinghe Waterfall by boat. All of these build Ertan National Forest Park into a grand, abrupt, deep and serene, marvelous and beautiful natural landscape.

Cultural Tradition
The park and neighboring regions were the places where mankind had once lived and worked in early stage, and ethnic minorities also had once inhabited here. There are site of Stone Sarcophagus in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period and the site where Zhuge Kongming crossed Jinsha River to enter barren land in May.

Reservoir Scene
In fact Ertan scenic spot is the Ertan Hydropower Station and Ertan reservoir, which consists of the following four parts:

Dam
This is a double-arch dam, which ranks Number One in Asia and Number Three in the world, with a height of 240 m. The height of dam top is 11m, width thereof is 56 m, and length thereof is 778 m. The total reservoir capacity is 5.8 billion m3. The maximum flood-carrying capacity is 23,600 m3/s. The unit capacity is 550,000 kW. When the flood spillway of the dam drains the flood, the huge waterfall rushes down in arc shape, with a drop in height of more than 200 m. The huge waterfall surges in arch shape, with a drop height of more than 200 m. Suddenly, mist and flying droplet hides the sky, uttering great rumble that can be heard several thousand meters away. As it is set off by sunshine, you may see many spectacular rainbows.

Exhibition Center
Mainly pictures and real objects are exhibited., which shows the course of construction of Ertan Hydropower Station and its beautiful scenes.

Reservoir Scene
After river closure by Ertan Hydropower Station, huge reservoir is formed. This lake is a " Y”-shape artificial one, with a height of 1200m above sea level, a length of 145 km and a width of more than 700 m. There are 5 small islands and ten-odd peninsulas. You may reach the farthest place Yanyuan County by boat. The feeling and scenery on the way stands comparison with famous Three Gorges of Changjiang River, whereas nobody conducts research and development at present.

European Camp
International bidding of Ertan attracts a great batch of foreign experts. Altogether more than 600 foreigners from 43 countries participated Ertan construction, which was called “multinational forces” and “small united nations” in joke.
What foreigners advocate is to work and enjoy life. The simple work sheds originally prepared for them became luxury western style villas. They also selected the camp site at the beautiful scenic spot, about 8km away from the dam, where the geomantic omen was good. Various facilities of the camp were complete, including small schools, supermarket, swimming pool, barbecue shed, club, reception room, etc. Various luxury and unique villas such as individual villas and single apartments were also built according to different levels. It is said the total expenditure is about RMB 100,000,000 Yuan.
Now the project is completed. The experts left Ertan. The camp is developed for tourists to enjoy sightseeing and vacation.