Lashi Lake is in the basin in Hengduan Mountain Range, 10 kilometers away from the Old Town of Lijiang. Located on the Tea-Horse Road, Lashi Lake has become one of the core attractions in Lijiang tourism. The visitors even said that Lashi Lake was the first stop of Lijiang tourism.

In fact, Lashi Lake is a fault structure. With an area of 5,330 hectares, Lashi Lake is about 9.3 km long from south to north and 8.2 km wide from east to west. It is the largest lake in Lijiang. Surrounded by the mountains, the catchment of Lashi Lake is about 256.6 square meters. The rivers of Meiquan and Keluokang are merged together into Lashi Lake. With good quality (Grade II), the water in the lake is one of the reserved drinking water sources for the city of Lijiang.

Lashi Lake is a popular bird watching place. There are 57 kinds of birds founded in Lashi Lake wetland. Each year in winter, there are about 30,000 birds, including nine kinds of unique rare endangered birds, such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau endemic birds headed goose, the national level protected birds mergus ducks, black-necked crane, black stork and so on.

There are Nakhi (Naxi) and other minority nationalities inhabiting around Lashi Lake, who are rich in cultural and folk customs. Zhiyun Temple which situated near by Lashi Lake is regarded as one of the five famous temples in the Old Town of Lijiang. And it is a famous tourism spot of Tibetan Lamaism.

The lake reflected upside to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain as a mirror, the overwintering water birds peacefully habitat here, or flutters around the blue sky among the white clouds, which all constitute the peculiar scenery of plateau wetlands.

There many interesting things to do in Lashi Lake Scenic Area. The local peasants offer horse riding around the lake or to Wen Lake. Cycling is also available around the lake and to the local ethnic villages. Boating and birding are also popular with tourists from home and abroad.