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Our second of the two flights that would take us to Jiuzhaigou was delayed due to weather conditions at the receiving airport. However, after several hours we were descending between mountains on our approach to Jiuzhai airport, some 3500m above sea level; it was snowing!
We were in the northern Sichuan Province, and with no visas being issued at present, it would be the closest we would get to Tibet. We jumped in the taxi already shivering uncontrollably. With the short snow flurry over, the road conditions were fine, but for some reason unknown to us, our driver was not happy to have been selected to do the 80km drive to our hostel. He made his mood quite apparent by huffing and puffing with such conviction that we decided to count how many deep sighs he could force out over the duration of our journey. He'd have been even more pissed off if the yak that ran alongside the car for 30 yards had careered into us rather than skidding to a halt on the tarmac.
As the low cloud began to clear, the scenery it revealed was fantastic with snow capped mountains all around.
31 deep sighs later we
arrived at our hostel. This whole place can be completely cut off in the winter and spring, and being currently out of season, it was almost empty. We paid a fraction of the peak rate for the best hostel room we've stayed in so far and had a very friendly welcome from Yonsn and the rest of the staff at YouU.
We retired fairly early as the temperature dropped to freezing, and prepared for the next day. The weather report suggested better conditions for the coming days in the park.
The next morning we made the short journey to the park by taxi. It was just above freezing, with frost remaining on higher ground, and we were both wearing almost the entire (clothing) contents of our rucksacks.
Jiuzhaigou is a World Heritage Site and a picture perfect home to China's most iconic creature; The Giant Panda.
The chance of seeing one, of course, is extremely slim, but you would never leave this place feeling disappointed, it's a pure marvel!
The entrance fees are fairly high for Chinese standards and on top of this is a further charge for a days bus pass. Without being able to stay in the
park overnight you simply can't get around the entire place without the shuttle bus.
On entering, we jumped on and headed straight to the top right corner of the park. The road splits approximately 15km after the start, into a right and left side as it climbs steadily upwards. Once at the top, we then proceeded to walk back down on the many decked walkways that snake for miles past the clearest and bluest of lakes, snow capped mountains, pine forest, rivers and waterfalls. Our change of plans had most certainly paid off and our Dutch travel agents had been spot on......this place shouldn't be missed. The experience of course is weather dependent, and we had two fantastic days, of which the second day in the afternoon we'd made it down to shorts and T-shirts. It's hard to believe that this place gets better, but this being off-peak would suggest that it does. In truth, you could come here at four different times of the year and see strikingly different vistas every time, each as stunning as the other. The luxury we had at this time of year was not having to battle with the crowds.
We met a lovely
Australian lady towards the end of the first day, who has been coming to teach in China for a few weeks over the past nine years. Fran was the only other Westerner we saw all day, and much like us preferred to sightsee on foot rather than from the seat of a bus. This meant that apart from the bus stops, where the majority of the Chinese would jump off to take their photographs before waiting for the next one to pick them up, we had the boardwalks to ourselves. It turned out that Fran was staying at the same hostel as us, so we shared a taxi back at the end of the day. We met up again later and we chatted at the bar along with Torsen, a German guy that Fran had introduced us to. Torsen had travelled to some great locations and had previously shared our experiences of cage diving with the Great Whites in South Africa and had also dived the SS Yongala in Australia. Interested in our Storm Chasing tour in May, he took our travelblog address; hopefully we'll be able to report on some exciting stuff.
On the second day we gave
the bus ticket a miss, having done the majority of the top of both right and left sides during the first day. However, after five and a half hours walking from the entrance to the road fork, we knew we didn't have the time, or perhaps the energy, to walk back, so we bunked on the bus like two delinquent school kids. The bus carried us the distance required to get out of the park on time but this meant almost running the last 6km, which brought our hike on the second day to well over 20km.
The detour had been thoroughly worth it, and with a little better planning we could have spent Sam's birthday there, but with time moving on, so were we - to Xi'an.
**Before moving on we have a question for Fran, Yonsn or Torsen.
The night before we left, we were awoken by quite a commotion outside. With both men and women shouting, it sounded like things were getting a little out of control, and escalating! It was a little worrying at the time and had us both wondering for days what it could have been. Are any of you able to tell
The lengths I go, to get the shots.
My arms were well achin' holding Sam above this raging torrent! us what was going on??
On the flight out of Jiuzhaigou we found ourselves sitting amongst a small group of Chinese holidaying businessmen. Again, as the only Westerners on the plane, we found ourselves the focus of attention. The guy we sat next to on our row of seats requested that one of his friends take a picture of the three of us, before then generously presenting us with a gift. It was a book of the National Park we'd just spent the last two days in. It was a nice moment between people who could only communicate with gestures and smiles. We shook hands and both left written messages for each other to translate at some later time.
Xi'an is home to one of the world's most famous armies, although this army will never actually go to battle. It is of course Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Army. Tab, you should know all of this having swotted up on it!
The army is over 2000 years old and was first discovered by peasant farmers digging a well in 1974. Needless to say, it was one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th Century and yet
another contender to (and actually goes as far as to claim to be) the 8th Wonder of the World.
There are quite literally thousands of life-size figures, of varying rank and skill. Even more astonishing is that no two faces are the same and that detail extends from hair, expressions and armour, right down to the laces and tread on their shoes, all of which are unique to each figure. As well as the warriors, there are horses and chariots sculptured from numerous materials. Excavation is ongoing, covering an area that could be as large as 56 square kilometers.
Amazing as they are, getting thousands of these ancient Chinese clay soldiers to sing 'Happy Birthday' on this day was unfortunately impossible.................... Happy Birthday Sam!
From Xi'an we moved towards Beijing, but stopped en route in Pingyao. We managed to grab two of the few remaining bunks on the overnight train, but this meant we would be in separate compartments. I managed to settle fairly quickly, while Sam was kept in gestured conversation with three young Chinese until 2:30 am, yet again being presented with a gift. Hello to 付敏 (Fu Min) and her sister, and 泰曉凡 (Qin Xin Fan),
who disembarked at Linfen.
I can't complain - I was offered a dose of passive smoking that I not only declined, but put an active stop to; the train was supposed to be non-smoking! We arrived in Pingyao after 9 hours, unaware of the occurence of China's worst rail disaster that same morning with 72 killed, and we missed the first phone call from family trying to see if we were OK, which had them worried for a while........sorry 'bout that!
Pingyao is Ancient China personified. It's city walls, that enclose the old merchant town, date back to 1370 and the Ming Dynasty. In a bizzare twist of fate, the city that introduced the country's first banks and cheques to facilitate the movement of vast amounts of currency resulting from being on the trade route from South China to Mongolia, fell into poverty during the 20th Century, and that meant that the streets went unchanged. Those narrow cobbled streets, grey walls and warm glowing lanterns are now its draw. It has a wonderful charm about it, far removed from the heaving metropolis of Xi'an with McDonalds and neon ruining some of its historical attractions.
We had to take
a bus from Pingyao to Taiyuan, in order to get another from there to the capital. The Black Market had captured all the train tickets out of Pingyao, and travelling to our next destination by bus was a poor second option, but it really couldn't have gone any smoother. We went from hostel, to rickshaw, to bus, to taxi, to the long distance bus station in Taiyuan in two and a half hours. It was here we expected a long and hot wait to get on a bus for the 8 hour journey to Beijing. Suprisingly we were able to purchase a ticket for a coach leaving in half an hour, and cheaper than we expected. The coach station was as big as a large city train station and we began studying our ticket for clues as to where we should be. Within seconds a girl in a suit appeared and guided us straight through as if we were VIPs. We boarded our coach which looked and smelt like it had just come off the production line, and fully equipped with TV, WC, A/C and reclining seats! We were on our way to Beijing.......
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Matt
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Hi. Is Jessica86 a new Borat character? Great entry. Keep on trekkin' guys. Good to read the updates. All the best, Matt