Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou Are Fairylands — A Ten-Thousand-Mile Journey on the Western Loop (4)

Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou Are Fairylands — A Ten-Thousand-Mile Journey on the Western Loop (4)

July 14, visited Huanglong.

Huanglong is located 37 kilometers northeast of Songpan, comprising three parts: Huanglong Gully, Xuebaoding, and Danyun Gorge. It is renowned as the "Earthly Jade Pool," a 5A scenic area. This time, we only visited Huanglong Gully.

Huanglong Gully is a gorge beneath the main peak of the Minshan Mountains, Xuebaoding, stretching 3.6 kilometers. The entrance at the lower end is at an altitude of 3,300 meters, while the upper end reaches 3,900 meters. A boardwalk runs along the valley floor, allowing a 600-meter ascent on foot to the head of the gully and back, taking about 4 hours. Hiking on the plateau is naturally not our choice; taking the cable car up and walking down along the boardwalk is more suitable.

The highlights of Huanglong Gully are travertine shoals, colorful pools, and waterfalls.

The unique geological environment of Huanglong causes the snowmelt from Xuebaoding to be rich in calcium carbonate. The flat valley floor is almost entirely covered by solidified calcium carbonate, forming milky-yellow travertine shoals.

These travertine shoals stretch continuously for over 3,600 meters, with the longest section at 1,300 meters and the widest at 170 meters. Viewed from above, they resemble a giant dragon swooping down from the snowy peaks of the Minshan Mountains, winding through dense forests and verdant valleys. The name "Huanglong Gully" originates from this.

It is said that there are over 2,000 travertine colorful pools in Huanglong Gully, known geologically as travertine terraced pools, also called tufa fields.

This karst landform is not rare, but the sheer number, scale, and vivid colors found in Huanglong are truly exceptional.

Upon entering the Huanglong scenic area, groups of travertine pools astonish visitors.

The pools vary in size and shape, with pools within pools, pools outside pools, interconnected by banks, cascading in layers. The water is colorful and crystal clear, set against a background of lush mountain forests, creating an exquisite natural bonsai.

The descending travertine flow suddenly collapses at the second terrace of Huanglong Gully, forming a collapse wall 10 meters high and 40 meters wide, reportedly the longest travertine collapse wall in the world.

The surging water cascades over the embankments, forming a magnificent golden travertine waterfall on the collapse wall, spectacularly named "Flying Waterfall and Flowing Glow." The "Bathing Cave" is located at the base of this travertine waterfall.

Huanglong Temple is situated in front of the Five-Color Pond at the uppermost end of Huanglong Gully. Built during the Ming Dynasty, legend says that Huanglong helped Yu the Great control floods, and later people built this temple to worship him.

Originally, there were three Huanglong temples in the gully—front, middle, and back—only the middle one remains.

Jiuzhaigou

In the afternoon, we arrived at Jiuzhaigou and checked into Pengfeng Hotel. The area outside the scenic area has changed significantly compared to my visit over 20 years ago.

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July 15, visited Jiuzhaigou.

Jiuzhaigou is located within Jiuzhaigou County, named after the nine Tibetan villages in the valley. It is a tributary valley at the source of the Jialing River.

Jiuzhaigou lies in the transition zone from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Sichuan Basin at the southern section of the Minshan Mountains. The northern valley entrance is only 2,000 meters above sea level, while the southern peaks reach over 4,500 meters with year-round snow. Geologically, carbonate rocks are widely distributed in Jiuzhaigou, forming large-scale travertine deposition lakes, waterfall clusters, and shoals, with water as the main landscape protagonist.

Most of Jiuzhaigou is covered by forest, which was once a logging area in the last century. A group of lumberjacks who accidentally stumbled upon this fairyland spared the trees with their axes, leaving the forest intact, and it later became a national scenic area.

It was closed in July 2018 due to an earthquake and reopened in September 2019.

The Jiuzhaigou scenic area is shaped like a "Y." The lower branch of the "Y" is the main entrance, called Shuzheng Gully; the left branch is Zechawa Gully; and the right branch is Rize Gully. The scenic area is vast, stretching over 30 kilometers from the entrance to the end of Zechawa Gully at Long Sea. Sightseeing buses run in a loop, allowing convenient boarding and alighting at stops. Visitors usually take the bus directly to the end, Long Sea, and then tour downward.

The weather was not good, with a drizzling rain affecting the water colors, but it had its own charm.

Zechawa Gully, the left branch of the Y-shaped terrain, is 18 kilometers long. This gully has few attractions; originally there was only Long Sea, which attracted few visitors. In recent years, attractions such as Five-Color Pond and Seasonal Sea have been developed, all concentrated at the upper end of the gully.

Long Sea, located at the top of Zechawa Gully. It is probably called a "sea" because the mountain people had never seen the ocean, so a small lake became a "sea." Long Sea is quite large, over 4 kilometers long, at an altitude of 3,060 meters. Its water comes from snowmelt on the mountaintop, making it the largest and highest lake in Jiuzhaigou.

Jiuzhaigou9 Long Sea has no outlet. It does not overflow during the rainy season and does not dry up during the dry season, so the Tibetans call it "a magic gourd that can never be filled or emptied." Jiuzhaigou10 In fact, Long Sea drains through underground rivers, which serve as the water source for other lakes downstream. Long Sea is backed by towering snowy peaks, flanked by dense forests on both sides, with mirror-like water, creating a magnificent and spectacular scene.

Five-Color Pond, located north of Long Sea, is famous for its delicate beauty, multicolored purity, and transparency. It is the smallest and most colorful lake in Jiuzhaigou.

The varying shades of green from aquatic plants, combined with the calcium-carbonate-rich lake water, display a brilliant array of colors. It looks best under sunlight, but today it was less impressive.

Rize Gully, the right branch of the Y-shaped terrain, is 9 kilometers long. It has the most and most beautiful scenic spots, the essence of the area. Numerous lakes are scattered at different elevations with vivid colors, along with the highest drop waterfall, a treasure-basin-like shoal, and ancient towering forests, making visitors feel as if they are in a fairyland. In the past, many visitors only visited Rize Gully and skipped Zechawa Gully. Unfortunately, after the earthquake four years ago, only the lowest sections, Five-Flower Lake and Pearl Shoal, were open, so more beautiful sights were not seen. Upon returning, I learned that Rize Gully has been fully reopened since the end of September.

Five-Flower Lake: The calm lake water reflects colorful forests, displaying a rich variety of colors, hence the name "Five-Flower Lake," the essence of Jiuzhaigou.

In the lake, fallen trees float half-submerged, and the exposed tips have grown shrubs and mosses, standing gracefully like bonsai in the water.

Jiuzhaigou20 Pearl Shoal, located downstream of Five-Flower Lake, is a gentle shoal where water flows over milky-yellow travertine, splashing countless droplets that look like flowing pearls, giving it its name.

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The surging water of Pearl Shoal cascades off a cliff, forming a wide crescent-shaped waterfall, Pearl Shoal Waterfall. With thunderous roars, splashing water, and rushing rapids, it is the most beautiful, most turbulent, and loudest section of water in Jiuzhaigou.

Mirror Lake, located at the junction of the three branches of the Y-shaped terrain, is as calm as a mirror, hence its name.

Mirror Lake is surrounded by forests. With the light drizzle, the water ripples gently, shimmering like a dream.

Nuorilang Waterfall, the outlet of Mirror Lake. The waterfall is 270 meters wide and 24.5 meters high, one of China's large travertine waterfalls. It cascades in multiple stages, with a broad curtain of water plunging down a hundred-meter cliff, magnificent and majestic. Many films and TV dramas have been filmed here, including the ending scene of the 1986 version of "Journey to the West." Jiuzhaigou30 Jiuzhaigou31

Shuzheng Gully, the lower branch of the Y-shaped terrain, is 14 kilometers long. It was originally just a road into the valley with little to see. It is said that many scenic spots have been developed, but presumably many are man-made. Following the majority of tourists, we returned without stopping.

Jiuzhaigou32 (To be continued)