Here's some recent info on Wolong from a China beginner.
A friend and I visited Wolong July 9-13. We hired a minivan and driver thru Sim's Cozy Cottage in Chengdu (600 RMB/day), and were well satisfied, as our driver was always ready right on time, even for 4Am starts to try and see the damn Snipe on Balangshan.
The last section of the road from Chengdu to Wolong was really rough, but there was no long delay and only one dicey section where the river had partially overflowed onto the road, creating a stretch of maybe 40cm deep water. At first our driver seemed reluctant to chance it, but after watching another minivan make it, he gave it a go and we were fine. On the way back, this section had been filled in (or the river was lower) but we passed through a freshly plowed section of landslide complete with a partially flattened sedan. So even though the trip out was 4 hours and 3 1/2 back, its easy to imagine a much longer trip at this time of year.
We stayed at the new place at the end of Wolong mentioned by Jim. Its a couple new concrete buildings on the left, with a "Hostelling International" sign on the ground. We paid 120 RMB a night which included a room for driver, and the food was good. There was a kilometer marking there, saying, I believe, 45KM 700m. The owner/proprietor spoke some English, and we told him we needed to find the trail to Wuyepeng, and he knew a university student speaking some English who would guide us there for 100 RMB, so we took that offer.
We went up Balangshan the first and third days, with Wuyipeng the middle day. The road to Balangshan wasn't bad although plenty of rocks and boulders to drive around. We would have REALLY struggled without our own vehicle, as our choice of birding locations was completely dictated by where the fog and rain was lightest, and it kept changing. And those tents at the top looked horrible. We did well on passerines, but were skunked on pheasants, despite a lot of time scanning open areas. On the second day up Balangshan the weather was somewhat better, but the snipe site at KM 94 was pretty foggy and we only heard them. Again no pheasants but a number of snow partridges and one distant Snowcock. A brilliant White tailed Rubythroat a few KM down the far side.
For the Wuyipeng area we didn't start at the power station but on a very steep muddy trail between two houses well before the power station, which joined the real trail after a few hundred meters. This trail was easy to follow except where it crossed a quite recent landslide. At the first crossing, the tail switch back to the right more or less in the middle of the slide. At the second crossing, we had to scramble up about fifteen feet of mud and broken saplings, then cross to the other side and hunt out the resume point of the trail. I think this would have been impossible pre-dawn. From there on it was fine. There was no one at the "lodge" and we birded the trail beyond the lodge. Birding was slow (another hot sunny afternoon in Wolong) but we had one female Tragopan with chicks, and a brilliant Barred Laughingthrush.
We tried trails in Sawan behind the big hotel and had one partial view of a female Golden Pheasant, but overall a very disappointing trip for pheasants - vegetation too high or lack of technique or bad luck.
Bob