Huanglong

Huang = Yellow. Long = Dragon.

The Huanglong valley has a number of travertine terraces, the water flowing through them has a similar unusual blue color as the lakes in Jiuzhaigou, and then algae growing in some pools adds some more colors. The calcification that forms the terraces is mostly yellow in color.

In the photo, you can see some of the pools in the lower right. The mountain at the back of the valley is 5140m tall!

The entry for Huanglong in the Lonely Planet guidebook is out-of-date, and completely wrong. It talks about the long hike up to the upper pools and temple, and the serenity and peace that you find there.

No longer! There is now a gondola that takes you up to where this photo is taken. From there, you stroll along a boardwalk with a slight downgrade to reach the upper pools. You can return via the gondola, or hike 4.5km downhill to the bottom on a boardwalk.

Now, hordes of tourist are passing through. A huge traffic jam occurs at the upper pools, as every tourist has to block up the boardwalk to have their photo taken against the pools.

The other thing the Lonely Planet book has completely wrong is the transportation out of Huanglong. I ended up paying Y200 ($25) for a taxi to Songpan (from whence I could take a Y25 bus back to Jiuzhaigou), when neither a bus from Huanglong to Jiuzhaigou, nor Huanglong to Songpan materialized.

Most of the tourists are on package tours, so they have a dedicated bus that shuttles them around to various sites. There seems to be little need for independent transportation options.