North of Aba town, the plateau opens into the vast Zoige grasslands — a high-altitude wetland at around 3,400 metres that ranks as one of the most important ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. The landscape is startlingly flat after the mountains to the south: a treeless expanse of cropped grass, meandering rivers, and shallow lakes that fills with migratory waterfowl in spring and autumn. Herds of yak and horses graze here under enormous skies.
This is the habitat of the black-necked crane, several species of duck, and in winter the bar-headed goose. The nomadic Tibetan herders still practise traditional pastoralism, moving their yak herds through seasonal pastures. A visit here, away from the tourist infrastructure of Jiuzhaigou, is one of the most genuinely remote experiences available in this part of China.