Bus Tour to Scenic Jiu Zhai Gou

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3-9 Blog

David, Michelle and I were picked up by a people carrier to go to Jiu Zhai Gou. It is prounced very similar to “George I Go”, and offers spectacular pristine alpine scenery. Unfortunatly it is massively touristed, so we would not enjoy the views alone. We decided to get an all inclusive tour, being the cheapest and most convienient option, although it did take some of the adventure away from the trip. The roads and the driving put the adventure back in. Steep drops, hairpin bends combined with the usual driving style encountered in the city (less of mirror, signal, maneuver and more of honking and hoping) made it a little unnerving. We got to our accommodation, a 3 star hotel, at least 2000m above sea level, and had dinner before going straight to bed.

4-9 Blog

We reach Jiu Zhai Gou and it is raining. It is 98km2 in size and is home to 9 villages in a Y shaped gulley. Each village and view point is connected with a well surfaced road and regular buses, included in the park entrance fee, to haul tourists on mass to each interesting sight. There was probably around 6 thousand tourists there that day, and you could tell it. At the top we were cold, and found one of the many photo opportunities. This was where Michelle had her photo taken 3 years earlier. Having seen the photo, it is easily noticeable that it was much nicer weather then. Moving down the left side of the Y, we see spectacular waterfalls and colourful lakes. We lunch at the junction of the Y, before moving to the right side. It is only spitting now, and I feel much warmer and happier. It seems that the water here is not confined by little paths and streams. It is everywhere, almost giving the shallow slopes of the valleys a blanket of blues and white. It brushes past trees and bushes calmly but quickly. Because of the many tourists and the convienient bus service, we had to remind ourselves that we were still effectively in the middle of nowhere. Yet hundreds of eyes and cameras gazing with us made the scenery lose its intimacy. We made it down to the bottom of the Y and the tour bus takes us to the next accommodation. Meal, shower and bed.

5-9 Blog

Another early morning, breakfasting at 6.20, and get on to the road. Todays destination is Huang Long, a scenic valley in the mountains to the south of Jiu Zhai Gou. But before that we make stops to three of the many tacky tourist souvenir shops that line the roads here. I wonder why in a hectic schedule how we have time for such low importance places that have only minimal interest. The reason is that these shops pay money to the tours if they stop there. They can then easily recoup the debit with tourists thinking “what an interesting novelty, We’ll have to show this to the neighbours” or “An authentic, genuine insert name of tacky merchandise here local from the region; this may be our only chance to get one”. Today the stops included a place selling herbal medicine, a place specializing in the meat of the hairy cow that lives there (usually in the dried form, the meat is strong and has flavour but a little chewy) and a place selling crystals and jewellery, probably not from the local region. After lunch, we headed up a mountain pass on the bus, and descended in the valley and stopped for a walk in the valley. Although crowded with tourists, we managed to avoid big crowds on our way up the steps. There were two routes, one a gentle, scenic stroll favoured by ascenders, and a slightly more steep, less scenic route, favoured by descenders.. we decided to save the great view for our return, David’s idea. It paid big dividence and we enjoyed a relatively quiet walk. Because the ascent was less scenic, Michelle ordered a quick pace to have enough time to enjoy the top and the descent. We made it up out of breath, noticing the thin air, but enjoying the views of the bright blue and turqoise pools scattered stepwise around the valley, coated with limestone. I was reminded by my mum that this is the same compound present in water as found in knaersborough, Yorkshire, where water dripping from caves made soft toys hung from a string exposed to the water “turn to stone”*. Alas, there was no such dripping features that I saw when I was about 7, but they still looked amazing. Having spent a while gazing, it was now time to descend. We started slowly but after a while we realized we must have miscalculated our descent time. Our planned leisurely time descended turned into a dash.. We needed to cover about 2km in 30 minutes if I remember rightly, and David dashed ahead while Michelle insisted on taking some more quick snaps. “Stop, 1, 2, 3, click GO! We made it to the bottom heavily out of breath. Well Michelle didn’t seem to be at all. But David was. Well, a little. Having got to the bus with a few minutes to spare, we set off back towards home. We would get about half way this evening, and return back to Chengdu tomorrow afternoon. I thought I could sleep on the bus but that proved unsuccessful, despite my tiredness. As evening set in, passangers were getting a little hungry and restless so the tour guide wielded his microphone and started of a game. Great. I wanted to get some piece and quiet but I had a feeling this was going to get rowdy. Well as roudy as a tour bus can be on its punultimate day at least. I was impressed with the ever enthusiastic tourguide who began a great game and hosted with charm. I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying but you could tell it. Michelle told me the game was to identify, each person at a time the edible parts of the cow. We would go around the bus several times until all mentionable (and some unmentionable) parts of the cow were suggested. You were okay if what you said was not edible, but if you repeated anything, then your forfeit was to entertain the group with a song our joke or something. The group was knowledgable, immediately enthusiastic, and by the time it got to me, the only thing I could think of was teeth. When it got round to Michelle the second time, she repeated a suggestion. She was not happy. At the end, 9 people had to do some little performance for the group, including Michelle and David. They ranged form jokes, songs, and one peculiar dance that looked more like a monkey jigging on hot coals. Now it was Michelle’s turn. “ Go on, it will be fine, the audience are easy to please.” I offered, as Michelle was clearly not budging. “Maybe I can do something for you” I joked. She took it seriously. She consulted the tour guide and he nodded in approval. Great. Here I was, unnerved by the roads, in the dark, wanting so desperately to be in the safety of a cosy bed and I was being ushered up to do some whimsical tidbit for the temporary amusement of a group of tourists. What should I do? David offered I recite a short Chinese puzzle that I had learnt a few days before. It was childishly easy, but it was a bit of audience participation, so I agreed and was sure that it would go down well. I walked nervously to the front where I stood and was given the microphone. I looked at my audience. They smiled back. I looked at the ceiling of the bus raking my brains, making sure that I remembered it all. I began, slowly, trying to pronounce clearly. I got through it okay. I had to repeat it, but I didn’t mind. I was not nervous of the roads. I had more important duties to fill. I had an audience to please. The answer came quickly and I was happy that I was understood and I duly offered the microphone back to the tour guide. He gestured that he wanted me to do more, and Michelle said he wanted me to do an English song. I sang the chorus to “Right here waiting for you” and went back to my seat satisfied with my round of applause. It was David’s turn next and he told a joke which seemed to go down okay. Later he told me that he laughed all the way through my song. I didn’t laugh when he translated his joke so we called it even. We made it to the accommodation, where we had lunch on our outward journey, and slept soundly.

* Adopt Yorkshire accent.

6-9 Blog

Another early morning, and I thought that we would make it back to Chengdu quickly. We did so, getting back about 4ish, but in the morning we stopped at three more tacky shops. The first was a bit of tea tasting, and was quite pleasant as the emphasis was on the traditions of drinking the tea and not the purchasing of the teas. We learnt how to hold a tea cup, how many sips you can take of each cup (3, there were really tiny cups) and how to preheat the teapots before making the tea. The second stop was at a jewelers, which started of in the now standard way of being ushered into a room to snuggly fit a tour bus full of souvenir hunting tourists, before giving the 5-10 minute spiel before being allowed to wander around to peruse the merchandise. The tour guide had pre-warned us not to buy anything from here (but don’t tell him that he told us that we should not tell anyone he said so). The lady who gave the introduction enquired as to where we were all from. 14 of the group were from Hunan province, in the center of China. So was the boss of this company! What a coincidence! The boss came in and introduced himself, and shook our hands. And so began the trick. As he was from the same province, he wanted to show everyone his “secret”. He told us that his target was foreigners. His prices did not show the currency, so he said that he would say that the currency is dollars to any foreigner. They would assume the price would assure the quality, but due to the difference in value of the dollar and the Chinese yuan, one would have to fork out earnings from years with such prices. But sadly, and almost ashamedly, they believed. Even worse was the fact that the manager divulged this information in front of two foreigners (myself and a Japanese guy). He said he was so happy today because this morning some guy brought something for $300000, and as that the group were also from Hunan, he would offer a free gift to one of the group as a gesture of good will. He went on to offer some more discounts, but the reality remained that the goods were still overpriced. Michelle and David, not fooling for the cunning trick, left the room, probably in disgust, and took me out with them. When all re-assembled on the bus, we found ten people had brought something. Tourists are a gullible lot it seemed. I’m sure that the couple who sat in front of us on the bus brought something from every place. The final one was a place selling merchandise all fashioned from the horns of the local cows. Combs, pipes and backscratchers, things like that. After that we raced back to Chengdu, only stopping for lunch. After freshening up, we went down town to Dine on numerous little bites to eat. This is a very populare way of eating in Chengdu. Stop at one place, order several dishes, and share them around. Go to another place, and do the same. We stopped at four different places in total, enjoying digesting walks through the bustling streets in between.

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