Huanglong 1

Huang Long

Huang Long  Valley undulates through the southern part of the Minshan mountain range in Songpan country of Aba Tibetan and Qiangzu Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, 369 km from Cheungdu - the capital of Sichuan.  It sits at the foot of the snow capped mountain of Minshan Mountain range at an elevation of 3120m to 3670m.  The scenic area is some 1340 sq km.  Its surrounding terrain is difficult of access.  There are more than 10 peaks 5000 metres above the sea, a majestic sight sculptured by nature.  The Huanglong Gully is well known for its colorful terraced ponds, shining clad mountains dense primeval forests and the precious rare wild panda.  It is known as a world wonder or "Fairyland on Earth" for being magnificent, precipitous, spectacular, beautiful and wild. 

In 1982, it was approved as a national key scenic area.  In 1991, it gained the title of "China's 40 best scenic areas."  On Dec 14, 1992, Huaunglong was inscribed in the "List of World Natural Heritage" by UNESCO.  On Feb 1, 1999, it was listed in the "Man and Biosphere" reserve.

Legend has it, that about 4000 years ago, a yellow dragon helped Xiayu, the king of Xia Kingdom (21st -16th century B.C.), channel the flood water into the sea, hence making the Minjiang River. Due to the calcium carbonate mineral deposit patterns and the gold hue of the water the river looks just like the tail of a Yellow Dragon. In later years a temple was built in honor of the yellow dragon and the valley was given its name. The river carves out the scenery for the limestone valley, which is over 4 miles long and as wide as 300 meters, covering an area of an impressive 270 square miles.

Huang Long wins its fame for its magic landscape of lime formations, made up of 3400 multi-colored and uniquely-sized ponds, interlace along the valley. These amazing ponds are paved with golden lime deposit and cover nearly a half a square. Not to be excluded there are also five waterfalls, four stalactite caves and three ancient temples, and all in the same valley, which looks like a dragon surging down from snowcapped peaks of Mt. Minshan.

The local people are as much of an attraction as the virgin forest and the scenery, Composed of more than 20 nationalities the main nationalities being the Tibetan and Qiang groups.


Colored Terrace-Pools (Ponds)

Dotted upward along the valley, the 2300 ponds come into 8 groups, such as the Guest Greeting Ponds, The Flowing Pools of the Waterfall, the Potted Landscape Ponds, the Fragrant Ponds, the Jade-bathing Ponds, etc. The last group, the Five-Color Ponds are the best of all, which perch atop the highest part of the valley, at the back of the rear temple. Due to varied depth of the ponds and all kinds of mineral pigments and deposits on the bottom, the water reflects a variety of charming colors.


To visit the Huang Long Valley, will take 3-4 hours to look around and about another 3 hours for a round trip along the valley. Since there is no transportation in the valley, visitors must walk all the way, it proves to be a tough trip, with its high elevation.  But sedan chairs are in service for visitors.  It costs about RMB400 for a round trip.

We were only given 5 hours for the whole trip, so really didn't have too much time to look around.  So only browsed around, and didn't time enough time for details for each scenic spot.  But the Karst in such large scale is really speculative and magnificent.  Also the phyical suffering due to high elevation really makes this trip memorable for my whole life.  I really wonder I will have such courage to venture it again in the future, since I have been there once already.

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