Daocheng is a 2-street Tibetan town surrounded by wild country, where the hills and mountains all have a religious connection in the eyes of the local Tibetan residents. The county is dotted with high mountain lakes and lunar-like rock formations. Long isolated from the outside world, the locals here ( 96% Tibetan ) are still adapting to the exotic sight of foreign faces who are part of a small trickle of visitors passing through Daocheng on their way to Yading National Park and its 3 sacred mountains. Daocheng has a long history of culture - attested by its 14 monasteries. The most important monastery in the county is Yangteng Gompa ( Xiongden Lamasery ), built in the Ming Dynasty which houses tens of thousands of Buddhist scriptures, as well as many Buddha figures, including a sandalwood statue of Sakyamuni. Gonggaling Lamasery, in a village on the way to Yading, contains an exquisite bronze statue of Maitreya ( the Future Buddha ) presented by Dalai Lama V. Rubachaka Hot Spring village, which was built up around natural hot springs, and now boasts private bathhouses at which visitors can soak. Mount Haizi ( Mountain of Lakes ), paralleling the Daocheng River on the way into town, also known as 'old ice cap of Daocheng', is a beautiful high plateau dotted with 1145 mountain lakes and freak geological formations caused by glacial erosion.