Lugu Lake is a national scenery spot and one of the major tourism routes of Sichuan Province. Lugu Lake is called Luqu Lake in ancient period, also Zuosuo Sea or Liang Sea. In the Mosuo language of Naxi Nationality, “Lu” means valley, and “gu” means “in”, so that Lugu means a lake in valley. The local people also call it “Xienami”, meaning mother lake.
Lugu Lake is located the border of Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces to the southwest of Yanyuan County of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. It is about 170 km away from Yanyuan county capital, with an elevation of 2,700 m. The scenery spot has a total area of 238 km2, including the lake area of 58 km2 shared by Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, with 33 km2 located in Sichuan. The whole lake has a length of 9.4 km and a width of 5.2 km, with average depth of 45 m and the maximum depth of beyond 90 m, and thus it belongs to a large plateau freshwater lake at the middle of Hengduan Mountain Chain. Lugu Lake has favorable ecological environment and transparent water, in the shape of crescent moon, calm and beautiful.
Lugu Lake combines natural scenes and human cultural scenes, and particularly, the unique national culture and custom of Naxi Mosuo people has profound historic connotation, and is the irreplaceable world cultural heritage of China and even the world. With its poem-like scenes, pleasant weather, ancient social states, simple and unique nationality presentation, primitive and mysterious religion culture, attractive dancing and the natural paradise of rare animals and birds, Lugu Lake has become a precious lake of fairyland and a tourist resort.
The appearance of Lugu Lake changes with season. In spring, the peach and pear trees are blossoming everywhere, with the azure blue water and green trees, just reflecting a scene of ideal world. In summer, with waves blinking and fogs floating, and red and white azalea in forest, making it a pleasant summer resort. In autumn, the ground is covered with golden leaves, which adds color to the mountains, water, wave, cloud and wild gooses flying in sky. In winter, the watercolor changes for several times in a single day.
It is this lake-cultivated Mosuo—a nationality with long history and the mysterious state of lady as described in the Adventure of Monkey.