HuangLong - Yellow Dragon Valley

Hiking the trail back down the valley, the sun came out from over its mist and cloud cover, which allowed this photograph.

HuangLong - Yellow Dragon Valley

The name of the valley - HuangLong - or yellow dragon was inspired by the color of the soil that cups the pools of water. The color of the soil and, we are told, some minerals, gives this vivid blue green hue to the water. As the spring was late this year, the leaves of the tree are still young and retained a fresh light green tone against the pine tree forest in the back.

HuangLong - Yellow Dragon Valley

We then flew to Jiuzhai airport from Chengdu and went through a rough 3 hours bus ride to reach the scenic valley of HuangLong. The road is still being renovated on the whole of its length after its destruction during the 2008 earthquake.

HuangLong is a lightly forested valley through which a river flows, forming cupping pools of water in terrace due to the particular limestone / karst soil. Wooden paths stretching over 3.6km have been built on the side of the river as to reach viewpoint without affecting the site. The top of the valley is at an altitude of 3'700m. HuangLong has been a Unesco world nature heritage site since 1992.