Day 4: Huanglong Park
We said goodbye to our Tibetan homestay hosts (pictured above) and drove two hours on winding roads to our next destination- Huanglong Park!
Huanglong translates to "yellow dragon", which the pools are said to resemble (confirmed). The shallow, calcified pools and mineral deposits give each section a unique color and picture op- I seriously have hundreds of pictures from this day. By the way, travertine is my new obsession... dreaming of a visit to Badab-e Surt.
Lucky for me, we started the hike with a cable car ride up most of the mountain, leaving only about 2 km of hiking up stairs, which was a good stretch for my legs but resulted in a lot of "picture breaks". We had a picnic lunch at the top and explored the temples and caves. Then, hiked down the valley to complete the 10 km. I enjoyed Huanglong a tad more than Jiuzhaigou because there were less tourists!
Look! I'm really here in China!
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| Sunny Day at the Top |
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| Temple Plank! |
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| A Bit O' Spelunking |
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| Trying out some popular poses! |
AMAZING. BEAUTIFUL. can i come? i'll take care of your yak butter...
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