China observation tower
West Pearl Tower
You can see 245 km from here, looking south-west.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 245 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 245 kmFarthest ridgelooking south-west
- 99%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 5Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 497 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 5 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are in August and in December.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west8 min before the sea-level sunset19%
- Febwest6 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Marwest8 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Aprwest12 min before the sea-level sunset18%
- Maywest12 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Junnorth-west14 min before the sea-level sunset15%
- Julnorth-west14 min before the sea-level sunset18%
- Augwest12 min before the sea-level sunset22%
- Sepwest10 min before the sea-level sunset13%
- Octwest8 min before the sea-level sunset13%
- Novwest8 min before the sea-level sunset19%
- Decsouth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
West Pearl Tower.
Communications, Broadcasting, Observation, Restaurant, and Commercial in Sichuan Province, China
West Pearl Tower is an observation tower in China, 497 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 245 km away, looking south-west.
5 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Jiuding Shan (4,969 m), 100 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 99% of the circle.
The skies are clearest in August and in December.
Get there and stay
- Going upCheck the opening hours before you go: towers and decks close in bad weather.
- 交子VC露营基地campsite · 9.2 km · 4 within 10 km
- 北苑富兴公寓place to stay · 1.7 km · 350 within 10 km
- Chengdunearest town · 2.5 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in ChengduBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 18 km in a straight line
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 4other viewpoints within 5 km三洞古桥, 木牛流马, 庆龄码头观景台 and 1 more
- 1named peaks within 5 km支矶山
- 20shelters and huts within 5 km八角亭, 怡神亭 and 18 more
- 69car parks within 3 km
- 544restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 4campsites within 10 km交子VC露营基地, 三圣花乡天际线房车露营基地, 花间谷 and 1 more
- 350places to stay within 10 km北苑富兴公寓, 正熙国际酒店, 城隍公寓 and 347 more
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
- marked trails within 3 km
- visitor centres within 5 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
West Pearl Tower
China
- 67Viewyas Score
- 245 kmFarthest ridge
- 5Peaks in view
- 497 mAltitude
Mount Qingcheng
China · 60 km
- 64Viewyas Score
- 228 kmFarthest ridge
- 1Peaks in view
- 1,132 mAltitude
Mount Emei
China · 147 km
- 63Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 2Peaks in view
- 3,043 mAltitude
Mount Gongga
China · 244 km
- 71Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 1Peaks in view
- 7,433 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q2118734) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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