Sunrise on the Edge of the Tibetan Plateau: Scouting for Wonder Woman

One of the hidden joys of location scouting — even if it doesn’t always feel that way when your alarm jolts you awake before dawn — is the chance to witness the world’s quiet, magical early mornings. Watching a new landscape bathed in the first light of day is a special experience. For me, one unforgettable place where this happened was on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

I was scouting VFX plates for the first Wonder Woman film across China. After flying into Chengdu Airport in Sichuan, I set off on a long 360-kilometer drive along the Tibetan Plateau’s edge, heading for the UNESCO World Heritage site of Huanglong National Park. It’s truly one of the most remarkable places on earth.

The park’s landscape is a stunning mix of snow-capped peaks, glaciers, and mountainous terrain. But it’s the rich, diverse forests, dramatic limestone formations, sparkling waterfalls, and steaming hot springs that make it truly unique. Huanglong is also home to endangered wildlife like the giant panda and the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey.

The morning I arrived, I left the hotel well before sunrise. By the time I reached the park entrance, nearly 5,000 meters above sea level, I scrambled over some rocks and found myself level with the clouds. The sun was just breaking over the distant Himalayan Mountains — a breathtaking, humbling moment I won’t forget.

Huanglong’s relatively untouched forests, combined with its extraordinary karst features — travertine pools, limestone shoals, and cascading waterfalls — create a landscape like nowhere else in Asia. Its travertine terraces and lakes are world-famous and rank among the three most spectacular examples globally.

It’s moments like these — when nature’s beauty unfolds in silence and light — that remind me why I love location scouting, despite the early mornings and long drives.