Huanglong Scenic Area, Sichuan

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Your base for this destination is the city of Chengdu. For travel information about Chengdu, go to Chengdu Travel Guide

Huanglong Scenic Area and Historic Interest Area is located in Songpan County, in the northwest part of Sichuan Province, China. It is located in the southern part of the Minshan mountain range, 150 km north-northwest of the capital Chengdu. The name Huanglong means Yellow Dragon, and it refers to the colour of the calcite deposits that form a cascade down the gully. Within Huanglong, and especially in Huanglonggou (or Yellow Dragon Gully), are diverse forest ecosystems, snow-capped peaks, waterfalls and hot springs.

Layers of pools looking like the scales of a fish - on rather, dragon.

Like Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong is home to many endangered species including the Giant Panda and the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey. Unesco inscribed Huanglong into the World Heritage List in 1992. The core zone covers an area of 70,000 hectares. Although still very much of it is unknown outside of China, Huanglong, along with Jiuzhaigou, is a top tourist destination for local visitors, and receive throngs of domestic tourists during the peak season in October.

World Heritage Site Inscription Details

Location: N32 45 15 E103 49 20
Inscription Year: 1992
Type of Site: Natural
Inscription Criteria: VII

How to reach Huanglong

There are regular buses to Huanglong National Park from Chengdu. Park permit is ¥ 200 per person from 1 April to 15 November, and ¥ 60 from 16 November to 31 March.

Exploring Huanglong

There are wooden broadwalks that keep visitors from direct contact with the travertine pools. A trip generally takes 4 hours and perhaps even more, due to the distance involved. Often, the broadwalks are extremely crowded, especially during the peak season of October and November.

Tim's AsiaExplorers Travelogue on Huanglong

I visited Huanglong with participants from AsiaExplorers during our tour of Jiuzhaigou. I simply could not finish the climb to the top even though we were given three hours because the place was so crowded with people, there was many opportunities to take photographs, so I stopped many times, until eventually discover that it was impossible to continue to the top. That was just insufficient time. I believe if I had taken the time to climb to the top, I wouldn't be able to take all the photographs that I need.