Jiuzhaiguo: maybe the most beautiful national park in the world, definitely the most stunning one in China

It's fair to say that the apparent hassles associated with visiting Jiuzhaiguo’s park may be sufficient to sway most travelers into leaving it out altogether - this was the case for many travelers we met along the way. At best the entry costs' match, if not exceed the costs' of going to top national parks in the US, (approx. $22/30 student/adult). This does not including the extra bucks you need to dish out for the parks buses each day you are there ($12/day).
It’s also fair to say that the mission of getting there is slightly off-putting. First you need to get to Songpang from Langmusi. This requires you to either catch a bus 5.30am bus to Zoyge in time to catch a second bus to Songpan that you may or may not make during the process. Or organising your own travel preferably with fellow travelers to lower to cost via local taxi (approx. 600RMB between 4 people). If you choose this method you wll simply need to deal with the 4 hour stop in the middle of nowhere resulting from the road works. The latter - of course - was our method of transportation - therefore it was very lucky that we were traveling with a great Israeli couple and two packs of cards - (our trip was made immensely more exciting over a game or two of shithead!) We also befriended a group of Chinese travelers who kept offering us cookies and snacks as we were starving during the 4 hour stop.
Once you reach Songpan you will almost definitely have to sleep the night before catching yet another early morning bus to get to the Jiuzhaiguo area. Once you finally arrive in Jiuzhaiguo, you are spoilt for choice with rather overpriced hotels, restuarants and market shops. So by this point your probably wondering 'why even bother' right?

Well, I think it is fair to say that of all national parks/wetland/rainforests we have visited in the US/Brazil/C.America etc., Jiuzhaiguo was 100% the very best national park we have ever visited. Its beauty cannot be captured in words, and the whole experience be it in rain or shine was just superb. Every direction you look you see picture-perfect views, stunning colours and wonderful nature. After one hour of visiting this huge park you know you would have paid even double to enter here, and the masses of crowds here prove it. This park is just phenomenal.

You need about two days to truly see the entire park, and if you are feeling lazy you will need to dish out bus tickets for two days. We, in true traveler style decided to only pay for the bus the first day.
The result? - A full day of walking uphill (about 15 km) stopping only for pictures and the occasional snack break. Considering our history of bad happenings on Fridays, we decided not to try and sneaking in to the buses, and only picked up the return buses once we reached midway.
Personally for anyone really wanting to experience the park I would say this is by far the best way to do it, but be sure to know what you are getting into. Once you enter the park without the bus ticket you need to get all the way towards the top (a entire day of walking) before you can catch a bus down (or you will be charged almost double to buy a ticket on site).

When we weren’t hiking and taking pictures, we enjoyed the terrific Sichuan dishes in the park. Despite what Lonely Planet says, there are scores of restaurants all around. We happened to stumble upon a place called Jiuxiaochi* (or something like that) which offered the best street food we’ve had in China. (I’m practically salivating now thinking about it!) They had the world’s tastiest lamb dish (yangrou), complete with local onion sauce, as well as amazing-amazing-amazing vegetarian dishes like tofo, eggplants and more. It was so good that we ate there a couple of meals and kept telling the owner that his food is simply the best in China.

Summary: Stunning two days (despite the occasional rain shower), fantastic food, and worth ever penny.


* I’d feel bad not leaving you directions to that small restaurant. Well, it’s in the area of most hotels, 15 minutes walk from the park entrance, on entrance side of the road. It’s next to another baozi (dumplings) selling place, and that’s the only place in that street where you’d find baozi, so it’s quite easy to locate. Jiuxiaochi (or whatever the place is called) is the left one of the two, has no English menu but the sign on top does say Jiuxiaochi. If you happen to find the place, you won’t regret it.

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