Situated in the northern Sichuan's Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Huanglong Valley, has become a national, even global, tourist attraction for its unique beauty and sightseeing.

The Huanglong Valley, also known as Yellow Dragon Valley, wins its fame for its breathtaking geography of lime formations, made from over 3,000 multicolored ponds interlaced along the valley floor. Besides, the valley also has five waterfalls, four stalactite caves and three ancient temples, which looks like a dragon winding down from snowcapped peaks of Minshan mountain.

The valley, usually enveloped by the moisture from the melted snow from the summit of the Minshan Mountain Ridge, is also regarded as a holy region among the local Tibetan people.

Here, you can treasure the most mystic and clear colors of the earth that you could never imagine in your mind; here your impression of the pureness and peace of nature seems like a dream appearing before your eyes.

The water from the melted snow and the karst emerging from below the earth flow together in the Huanglong Valley. The concentration of the calcium carbonate in the water forms solid travertine dikes, and that makes up the groups of multi-colored ponds, which are also called "five-colorponds."

These different layers of ponds also join together, just like terraced fields. The larger ponds are about a dozen square meters, the smaller ones only a few square meters.

September and October are always the best times to visit Huanglong Valley. The beautiful season, with pleasant weather and rich colors of nature, allow visitors to see the pools in their full rainbow glory. When fall comes, the leaves turn to a wonderful yellow and red; shadows from the trees reflect various colors in the sunlight upon in the crystal clear surface of the waters.

What is interesting about these ponds is that you can find trees growing well into the water. The calcium, which surrounds the roots of the trees, have protected them from being eroded.

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