Jiuzhai Valley

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Jiuzhai valley from north of the Sichuan province, famous by the high mountain and crystal water, that is one of the most beautiful place in China, and the main ethnic there is the Tibetan, curiously the places where the main ethnic is Tibetan, the natural beauty is always more noticeable.
On May 12th of 2008, there was a huge earthquake in Wenchuan, the city on the middle way from Chengdu to Jiuzhai valley, some part of the path was under construction and the flow of the tourists there increased substantially, somehow that was a good news for my trip there, not so many people, it really makes the difference, specially for the Jiuzhai valley, normally the tourist visitors were about 10 thousands per day, and now it was about 3 thousands. The bus from Chengdu to the Jiuzhai valley takes 12 hours, the path is surrounding the mountains, so they can not drive fast, and because of the earthquake, some part of the road was damaged.
Inside the Jiuzhai valley park, you can find 9 Tibetan village, the meaning of the Jiuzhai is nine villages in Chinese. Near to the villages you can see the Tibetan colorful flags, these flags are common in the Tibetan presence, there are mantras on the flags, and when the wind blow the flags, and for the Tibetan it is like the nature is praying, the same logic is for the water wheel and the small spinning bell of the Tibetan, because inside these instruments have also mantras. That is a lazy way to pray in my opinion, but that also shows how the Tibetan are integrated to the nature.
Near to Jiuzhai valley, just crossing the mountain, there is the Huanglong national park, the calcareous geological formation, creating the pools that under sunlight can be blue or green color, very beautiful, but without sunlight there are like dead pools.
Both Jiuzhai valley park and Huanglong park have a very expense entrance fee, about U$ 30 for each park. The Huanglong park is small, you can visit hole park in one day, but the Jiuzhai valley is much bigger, you need at least two days, I recommend to stay in the Tibetan valley inside the park, you can enjoy better the park, there really worth to hike.

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