Huanglong

Huanglong, the "Yellow Dragon", lies in the southern sector of the Minshan range, in the north-west of Sichuan province, some 370 kilometres north-north-west of Chengdu. It owes its name and its fame to a system of stepped travertine pools that occupy the Huanglonggou valley: thousands of round-rimmed basins, formed by the precipitation of calcite from carbonate-laden water, which reflect turquoise, golden and orange tones and which, seen from above, recall the scales of a dragon climbing the valley.

That travertine system is one of the best developed in the world, but the property protects a good deal more than that. It includes snow-covered peaks above 5,000 metres, some of the easternmost glaciers in China, waterfalls, hot springs, gorges and a complete succession of montane forest ecosystems, from the mixed forest of the valley floors to alpine meadow.

That diversity of environments supports a fauna of high value: Huanglong is habitat for the giant panda and the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey, both threatened, alongside the takin, the musk deer and a mountain birdlife that includes rare pheasants. The property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992, in the same batch as Jiuzhaigou and Wulingyuan, and its management combines conservation with very high visitor numbers, concentrated on the boardwalks that run through the valley of the pools.