Huanglong is way up in the mountains, at an altitude of over 3000 meters. I didn't feel too well this day, so I allowed myself to cut some corners visiting this WHS. I took the cable car up (another WHS with a cable car!), and walked straight down from there. This takes about two hours and on the way, you pass most of the pools and waterfalls. Every 500 meters there's a toilet (comforting in my condition of the day) and about every kilometer or so there is a hut where oxygen is supplied for free. Many of the Chinese visitors were carrying their own oxygen cans also, but the altitude didn't bother me (after already having visited Tibet).

This site feels more crowded than Jiuzhaigou because everybody has to walk the same trail and there are no buses to skip parts. The total area also is much smaller. Although less similar sites have been put together into one WHS, I can see these two having been put forward as different sites. Jiuzhaigou is a large park with many features like the US national parks, while Huanglong is specialized in the geological phenomenon of travertine pools. I did enjoy its particular scenery (indeed much better than Pamukkale, as the IUCN report says) and feel that it is certainly worth a day trip for anybody.

Like Jiuzhaigou, the entrance area of Huanglong has a visitor center, some restaurants and shops. Bring warm clothes as it gets cold up here. Getting there and away as an individual visitor is tricky. One bus a day is reportedly driving between Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, but at neither site, I did see any sign of this. So I went by taxi, a very scenic drive of 2 hours. I asked around at Huanglong for "the bus to Jiuzhaigou" - which seems quite a stupid question as about 200 buses were parked there and most of them going to Jiuzhaigou. But they all belonged to tour groups. At parking lot #4 I found some taxis waiting, and one of them wanted to drive me back. You'll have to change taxis about halfway through as the various taxi firms seem to stick to their own area. The drivers organize this among themselves.