On the way to Huang Long, a couple of hours away from Jiuzhaigou, we stop by a Qiang village, distinctive by its stone structures.

Huang Long is a Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture located 3500 m above sea level, by the headstream of Fujiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River.

We arrive at Huanglong National Park, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. The mountains are over 5000 m above sea level. We take a cable car up, overlooking dense virgin forests.

Tour guides usually offer oxygen tanks to tourists suffering from altitude sickness.

Luckily, we don't need any, but it's drizzling and chilly.

From the top cable car station, we walk for about an hour to reach the stairs leading to the mountain top, about 500 meters up. We get quite winded climbing the stairs due to the altitude.

A beautiful temple awaits at the top. after strolling around, we proceed to climb further to enjoy the view.

The moutnaint is made of yellow granite, hence the name "Huang" meaning yellow in Chinese. The Huang Long Scenic area features a spectacular calcified belt meandering among a virgin forest, which looks like a golden dragon radiating mysterious luster ("Lung" means dragon in Chinese). It is 3.6 km long at 35-150 m wide, with 3400 colorful calcified ponds in the whole area.

There are terraces of crystal clear ponds, each glowing like a jewel.

With its jade colored terraced pools of water, the area is hailed as a wonder of the world

The rainy weather lends an eerie feeling to the landscape.

Terraced luminous ponds sparkle over the temple, a magical sight...

One can see why the area is listed as a world natural heritage site in 1992 and has becomes a natural biosphere reserve in China.

Here, ponds have names such as Zhengyan or Beauty Competing Ponds, or Pond of Graceful Colors...

The stairs lead us back to the walkway to the cable car station.  It is too rainy for us to climb down the mountain slope.

Bird's eye view of lush woods and majestic mountains