Huanglong, Natural Landscape with Rows of Mountains & Terraced Lakes

The Huanglong area is a valley and is surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks. This area is located beneath Xuebaoding Mountain, Songpan County, northwest Sichuan Province, China.

Apart from the mountainous landscape, this area also offers limestone formations, waterfalls, hot springs, beautiful small lakes, and forests with dense trees.

This area has an area of 60,000 ha with a height of 1700 m to 5,588 m, including the easternmost glacier in China.

Contents

1 Huanglong is Called the Home of the Fairies
2 Waterfalls and Lakes in Huanglong
3 Animals that Inhabit Huanglong
4 Best Time to Visit

Huanglong is Called the Home of the Fairies

The beauty of the Huanglong area makes this place called “Fairy House”. This is because of the beauty of the lake, which is surrounded by snowy mountains.

Occasionally, this area is also referred to as “a piece of heaven on earth”. The landscape of snowy mountains, lush forests, small blue lakes, and clear waterfalls make this area worthy of being called a piece of paradise.

The name Huanglong itself means yellow dragon in Chinese. Because of this beauty, this place was named a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992.

Waterfalls and Lakes in Huanglong

Zhaga Waterfall is a beautiful waterfall in this area. This waterfall stretches for 5 km with water flowing between thickets of trees.

At the bottom of the waterfall, there are rocks that, when exposed to sunlight, will emit a jade-like color.

Many lake pools are arranged like natural stairs, so they are often called terraced lakes. These pools are formed from limestone deposited by hot springs in the mountains.

Over time, the flow of water and calcium carbonate deposits create terraced pools. Some famous pond areas include the Five Color Pond, Glass Pond, Welcoming Guests Ponds, Lotus Pond, and Zhuanhua Chi Flower Pond. These pools also have different colors, such as yellow, green, blue, and brown.

Apart from small ponds, in this lake, there is Erdao Lake, which is the largest lake in this area. Around Erdao Lake there are limestone caves.

In this area, there is also a well-known spring, namely Feicui Spring. This spring is believed to be able to cure diseases. Residents consider this water sacred and protect this spring so that it is not damaged by anyone who comes to this area.

Animals that Inhabit Huanglong

The Huanglong area is home to several animals and plants. This area was made into a national park to protect several endangered animals.

These animals include the giant panda, golden snub-nosed monkey, brown bear, Asian black bear, Pallas’ cat, Asian wild dog, Szechwan takin, and Chinese monal.

Meanwhile, several plants in this area include Chinese pine, maple, conifers, subalpine, and hemlock China. Moreover, in this area, an endemic orchid species is also found, “Cypripedium plectrochilum”.