Winters feature mild days and cool nights, while summers are very warm and humid.

Unlike much of the province, which lies in the Sichuan Basin, humidity levels in winter are rather low, but like the rest of the province, rainfall is concentrated in the months of June through September, and the prefecture is virtually rainless in winter.

They are called cliff villages as they tend to be isolated and lie at vertical heights of about 800 m (2,600 ft).

In 2016, the state run The Beijing News reported one such village called Atulie'er where children climbed up a rope ladder for two hours to reach their home from school, often leading to falls and deaths.

[5] In light of this, the local government constructed a special steel ladder (dubbed "Stairway to heaven") in November 2016 for people to climb up and down in a safer manner.