Huanglong colorful pool

Wucaichi is located in the highest part of Huanglong scenic area. It is composed of numerous pools of different sizes, like a palette full of multicolored pigments.

Huanglong colorful pool

Wucaichi is located at the top of Huanglong. There are 693 calcium pools, 4166 meters away from the entrance. Here, green mountains and the 5588 meter high Xuebaoding, the main peak of Minshan Mountain, stand majestically in front of us. Walking by the pool, countless colorful pools of different sizes and shapes are like watercolor boards filled with colorful pigments, such as blue-green, sea blue, light blue, etc.

altitude

Wucaichi, 3900 meters above sea level, is the highest point of Huanglong scenic spot. It takes a certain amount of physical strength to walk here. Many people give up this most beautiful attraction when they go down the mountain because of lack of physical strength or altitude reaction. So when they go up the mountain, they must not walk too fast, save their physical strength and prevent altitude reaction.

geographical position

Huanglong is located in the southern foot of Minshan mountains in Songpan County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, 450 km away from Chengdu and 120 km away from Jiuzhaigou. After thousands of years, the travertine meanders through the snow mountain gorge, just like a yellow "dragon", so it is named Huanglong. Huanglong is more than 3000 meters above sea level, with more than 3000 colorful pools, just like colorful pearls inlaid in the primeval forest, known as the "human yaochi".

history

Ten thousand years ago

For tens of thousands of years, the melting water of ice and snow and the surface water of the mountains around huanglonggou have been continuously flowing down, infiltrating into the moraine, forming a shallow subsurface flow in the lower part of the loose limestone, and dissolving a large amount of limestone calcium carbonate in the process of flow. Then, the diving water full of calcium carbonate exposed to the surface, forming numerous streams and flowing down.

At this time, due to the decrease of water temperature and pressure, carbon dioxide gas escaped, so that calcium carbonate dissolved in water crystallized and precipitated, deposited on the plant stems, fallen wood or dead branches, accumulated over time, forming a strong calcium carbonate dike with a thickness of tens of centimeters and a height of more than 10 cm to 2 m.

Ten thousand years later

With the rise and fall of the terrain and the ups and downs of the terrain, the travertine formed is superimposed in a ladder shape. All over the mountains and fields, the gray dike is surrounded by all kinds of wonderful pools. The big one is more than mu, and the small one is only 12 square meters. Unfolded on the three-dimensional cellar, the terraced travertine pool is now seen by tourists.

Because the water is rich in calcium ions, the water flow is slow, so after years of deposition, the water gradually generates different shapes of deposition.

The color of lake water is mainly caused by the scattering, reflection and absorption of sunlight. Sunlight or natural light is a kind of polychromatic light composed of monochromatic light with different wavelengths. In the spectrum, the wavelength gradually decreases from red light to purple light. The bright blue-green color of Huanglong Lake shows that the scattering of short wavelength is much larger than that of long wavelength, which is Rayleigh scattering effect. The Rayleigh scattering effect is particularly prominent in Huanglong lake because of the high vegetation coverage, smooth water circulation and the fixation of travertine on suspended matter, which makes the suspended matter, organic matter and plankton in the water very few.

The lake water is very clean and transparent.

Ca2 +, Mg2 + and HCO3 - plasma in lake water can also enhance short wave light scattering. At the same time, due to the high transparency of the lake water, the selective absorption and reflection of the transmitted light by the grayish white travertine and yellow green algae at the bottom of the lake also increase the level and change of the lake water color. In addition, the lake in Huanglong is located in a deep canyon with undulating terrain. At the same time in different sections and at different times in the same section, the incident angle and amount of sunlight, the reflection of light on the surface of the lake and the transparency of the lake all have great changes. Therefore, the color of the lake is more changeable.

Address: in the main ditch of Huanglong scenic spot, Songpan County, Sichuan Province

Longitude: 103.933005881

Latitude: 33.045116255642

Tour time: 1-2 hours

Traffic information: take the cable car and walk about 2 kilometers along the wooden plank road to Huanglong scenic area

Ticket information: included in the ticket of Huanglong scenic area

Opening hours: the ticket selling time is 7:30-16:30, and the closing time is determined by the tourists' playing time, generally around dark