Huanglong Scenic Area「黄龙风景区」

Review

This trip to Huanglong, to be honest, we had a big misunderstanding about this scenic area from the start—we thought the most worthwhile thing to see in Huanglong was the Five-Color Pool.

Because of that misunderstanding, we ended up walking several extra hours on high-altitude mountain trails.

Huanglong is still quite a distance from Songpan. This time we chartered a car directly, and the fare was a little over 200 yuan. The altitude here is high, so altitude sickness is common. If you’re bringing elderly people, kids, or if your stamina is average, I really recommend planning your route in advance and saving as much energy as possible.

We took the cable car up and walked down.

After taking the cable car up, there is actually a shuttle bus that can take you close to Five-Color Pool. I think it was 20 yuan. But at the time we thought: since we’re already here, it’s only 3.5 kilometers, wouldn’t it be nice to walk through the primeval forest?

So we didn’t take the bus and started hiking at high altitude directly.

It turned out, we had oversimplified things.

Although the entire 3.5 kilometers was through primeval forest with fresh air and even little squirrels along the way, walking at high altitude consumes much more energy than on flat ground. By the time we finally reached Five-Color Pool, we were already a bit exhausted and short of oxygen.

At first glance, Five-Color Pool was indeed beautiful.

But the real thought in my mind at that moment was:

“We walked almost two hours just to see this pool?”

It’s not that Five-Color Pool isn’t beautiful, but the effort and expectations just didn’t feel proportional.

What was worse, we had planned to take the shuttle back to the cable car station after visiting Five-Color Pool, but it was too late—around 5 pm both the shuttle and cable car had stopped operating.

No choice, we had to keep walking down the mountain.

But that’s when the real surprise began.

Going all the way down from Five-Color Pool, the truly beautiful parts of Huanglong gradually revealed themselves.

The whole scenic area has several hundred meters of elevation drop. Walking down, you can see large and small travertine pools, waterfalls, and streams layered down the mountain slope.

It was only then that I suddenly understood:

What’s really worth seeing in Huanglong is not just the single Five-Color Pool, but the whole valley from Five-Color Pool all the way down.

Five-Color Pool is more like a starting point at the highest point.

Going down, the scenery keeps changing, much richer than just looking at Five-Color Pool alone. Although our legs were almost wrecked by then, seeing the later scenery made me feel that this trip to Huanglong was definitely not wasted.

So if I were to do it again, I would definitely choose:

Take the cable car up → spend 20 yuan on the shuttle bus to Five-Color Pool → after seeing Five-Color Pool, walk all the way down the mountain.

That way you can see the best scenery Huanglong has to offer and save your energy for the part that is truly worth walking.

Don’t be like us—saving 20 yuan, walking 3.5 km through high-altitude forest, and then missing the cable car, forcing us to hike all the way down.

Huanglong is beautiful, but the route really matters.

If you choose the right route, it’s sightseeing; if you choose the wrong route, it’s endurance training.

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Visit details

• Address: Dawan Village, Huanglong Township（黄龙乡大湾村）
• Rating: 4.5 / 5
• Published: September 2, 2026
• Original record: View this review on Dianping

Photos