Yellow Dragon Scenic Area
2 min readYellow Dragon Scenic and Historic Interest Area is located at the south section of Mt Minshan range，Songpan County，Aba Tibetan and Qiang Peoples Autonomous Prefecture，northern Sichuan Province，which is a ge-ological transition from the eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau towards Sichuan Basin.
The scenic area covers about 700km2，of which the Yellow Dragon Gul-ly takes up 600km2，while the subdivision Mouni Gully occupies the other 100km2.The area has well preserved tectonic zones，glacial remains，and river source topography.It is well known for the“four wonders”of colorful ponds，snow mountains，alpine gorges，and forests.The huge travertine formation is like a golden dragon winding among the virgin forests，clifs，and icy peaks，constituting the amazing，precipitous，maiestic，and wild environmental features of Yellow Dragon scenic area.
The alfitude of the area is over 3 000m above sea level，with snow peaks like a forest，of which 7 are over 5 000m high，while the highest Snow Treasure Peak（Xuebaoding）is 5 588m above sea level，which is thesummit of Mt Minshan and capped with snow all year round.In the area are also preserved a wealth of rare plants and animals，including 1500 species of higher plants，most of which are only found in China and 11 of them are under Class I to Class ll state protection.As for the rare animals，there are giant panda，golden snub-nosed monkey，takin，cloud leopard，white-lipped deer，brown-eared pheasant，and white-eared pheasant，all under state protection as Class I to Class ll endangeredanimals.
Here are landscapes comparable to the snow-white mountains in Can-ada，Great Canyon of Wyoming，virgin forests in Colorado，and travertine colored ponds of the Yellowstone Park.This area gathers all the best land-scapes Which make it a rare scenic beauty in the world.
In October of 1982，it was listed as a key scenic area of the nation，and in December of 1992 UNESCO inscribed it on its World Heritage List as a natural heritage of the human world.
