Lugu Lake was once a paradise for birds. According to the elders, in those years, every night the calls of swans, geese, black-necked cranes and red-crowned cranes rose one after another, so that it was sometimes hard to sleep. There is a local saying: "no earlier than the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, no later than the third day of the third lunar month" — meaning these migratory birds enter Lugu Lake on the ninth day of the 9th lunar month each year and leave again before the third day of the 3rd lunar month, an annual rendezvous that never fails to startle.
The Disappearance and Return of the Migratory Birds
Later, as outsiders grew more numerous, hunting began — and after that, the birds were never seen again. Those migratory birds that once wheeled over Lugu Lake and played on its surface vanished overnight. The swans came no more, the geese came no more, the black-necked cranes came no more, the red-crowned cranes came no more.
After Lugu Lake became a provincial tourist area, things began to change. Mandarin ducks, wild ducks and red-crowned cranes began to return, but rare birds such as the black-necked crane never came back. The black-necked crane is a first-class national protected animal in China, with extremely high demands on its habitat — it needs clean water, ample food and a quiet environment. Although Lugu Lake's ecology is recovering, it has not yet recovered to the point where black-necked cranes would settle again.
Cosmos Flowers: A Flower Brought by a Botanist
When spring comes, the fields around Lugu Lake burst into bloom, and cosmos flowers (波斯菊) bloom the most brilliantly of all. People say cosmos was brought here in the 1930s by the famous American botanist Joseph Rock (约瑟夫·洛克).
Rock reached southwest China in 1922 and made Lijiang in Yunnan his base, spending 27 years of his life in China. He collected plant and bird specimens in remote mountains and took photographs non-stop, ranging across Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. From April to September 1928, he travelled from Lijiang via Yongning (the Lugu Lake region) to Muli in Sichuan, deep into the heart of Mount Gongga, and back to Lijiang. On this expedition he collected several thousand plant specimens — and brought cosmos seeds to Lugu Lake as well.
There is also an unverified folk belief: wherever cosmos grows, Rock once stopped; and wherever Rock went, cosmos now grows. This is perhaps a kind of tribute to that work-obsessed doctor — a scholar who left his best 27 years in southwest China also left his most beautiful flowers at Lugu Lake.
A Lake on the Mend
Lugu Lake's ecology went through a hard period. Tourism development brought wealth, but it also brought pressure. Guesthouses at Luoshui village and on Lige Island (里格) went up more and more, and the number of tourists grew; but landfill sites and sewage treatment plants failed to keep up. On the bay beside Lige Island, some 20 buildings shot up overnight, like mushrooms suddenly sprouting; the tentacles of tourism had reached here, yet there was not even a landfill or a sewage plant.
These years, things are slowly improving. After the Natural Forest Protection Programme was implemented, the trees on the surrounding mountains began to recover; after the loop-the-lake pollution interception works were built, the lake's water quality began to improve; the migratory birds are coming back, and the cosmos still blooms every spring.
But recovery is a slow process. The black-necked cranes have not returned, the lake water has not recovered to the level of 30 years ago, and the pressure of tourism development remains. Lugu Lake is like a patient slowly convalescing — she is getting better, but she is not yet fully well.
A Little More Awe, a Little More Care
A philosopher once wrote: "When human beings cut down the first natural tree, civilization began; when human beings cut down the last natural tree, civilization will end." True. Against floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, the ozone layer, sandstorms, and even so many epidemics, are not human beings quite helpless, quite fragile, quite powerless? A little more awe, a little more care, a little more sense of equality — these are the principles humanity must observe.
It is a simple truth: the Earth can exist without people, but people cannot exist without the Earth. The migratory birds of Lugu Lake, the cosmos flowers, and the clear water are not a favour bestowed by humanity — they are a gift of nature. To protect them is to protect ourselves.
Related reading: Rock and Lugu Lake: how a botanist introduced the "Kingdom of Women" to the world · Where to Stay Around Lugu Lake? Choosing Between Daluoshui, Lige and Langfang