Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan, China

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Pictures for Chengdu
http://picasaweb.google.com/ourgmb/ChengDu?authkey=ECRIrC3eDAM
Pictures for Jiuzhaigou
http://picasaweb.google.com/ourgmb/JiuJhaiGou?authkey=Sz6gP2SDQyI
Pictures for Huanglong
http://picasaweb.google.com/ourgmb/HuangLong?authkey=wUY8EWYf09c



Our China trip is unplanned. Anyways, we flew from Canada to Hong Kong on May 23, 2007 and arrived on May 24.

On May 25, we went from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, China.
On May 26, we flew from Shenzhen to Chengdu 成都, Sichuan, China.

For those who are interested in China domestic flights, there are two good web sites:
www.qunar.com, www.elong.com. Also,
www.hnair.com (Hainan Airline -- up to 81% off, if you book early)

We arrived in Chengdu late at night (around 11:00 pm) as our flight was delayed for 5 hours.

We checked into the "apartment-hotel" that we found on the web.
http://www.cdhsj.com. The building does not look too good, but the room itself is great.

On May 27, we went to look for the travel agent that we have been communicating so as to pay for the tours that we booked. Unfortunately, the travel agent decided not to work on Sunday and did not advise me in advance. So, we went to another travel agent and booked two tours, one to JiuZhaiGou, and another to Tibet.

On May 28, we just walked around town and found a few "computer cities", housing many stores selling computers, accessories and cellular phones. We also found a "Carrefour" supermarket and shopped for food to bring on own trip.

We bought a prepaid cellular phone (SIM) card, and found out that it would have been cheaper to buy one in Shenzhen. In Shenzhen, if we bought a Y100 card, we would have Y100 calling time. In Chengdu, a Y100 card would buy Y50 calling time, as there is a Y50 charge for the SIM card.

We like Chengdu, it is a big city in the west of China, but people are comparatively laid back. The city is quite clean, and the air is not bad. There are not as many motorbikes as in other cities, but there are many electric bikes, which is great for the enivronment.

On May 29, we were picked up by the tour operator to start our JiuZhaiGou tour. We found out that our tour mates have booked their tours at different travel agents and at different prices. Although they have booked a tour with "2-star hotels" and we have paid for a tour with "3-star hotels", we have paid comparatively more than they did.

But the prices are still better than a do-it-yourself tour. Here is the breakdown:
Admission to JiuZhaiGou Y220 x 2
JiuZhaiGou tour bus Y90 x 2
Admission to Huanglong Y200 x 2
Hotels for 4 nights (est. Y120) = Y480
Transportation Y300 x 2
Meals = (20 + 100) x 2 (tour group meals prices. On our own, it would have been higher).
Total = Y2380, we paid Y1960 for two persons.

We went on a 5-day "luxury 3-star hotel" tour. A 4-day 2-star hotel tour starts at around Y650.

On our last day, the guide told us that everyone should just join a tour that costs the lowest, as the quality of the hotels are not much different.

The first day (May 29), it is a day of travelling on the air-conditioned bus. Smoking is not allowed (but sometimes the driver smokes). There are parts of the road that are under construction, so the bus was slow. One of our tour mates suffered sea-sickness as the bus was travelling on winding road.

We arrived in 川主寺 (Chuan Ju Si) at around 6 pm. We are glad our hotel has heat (from the air conditioner) and slept well that night, as it was pretty cold. As we are on a "luxury" tour, we had dinner with three other tour mates that are also on the luxury tour. Two of the three tour mates are native Sichuan people, but they now live in ZhongShan 中山 and therefore speak Cantonese.

On May 30, we travelled another two hours on the bus and reached JiuZhaiGou 九寨沟.
Our tour guide asked us to tour the park on our own, which we are happy to do so. We have visited JiuZhaiGou in 1998 with Phyllis' sisters, and we know the parts of the park.

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon in 树正沟 (Shou Ching Gou). This is the part of the park that we have not visited before.

We found that they have built miles and miles of wooden plank walkways, on the opposite side of the road. So, there are a lot more walkways (comparing to 1998) and the park does not seem as crowded, although at scenic spots we still have to jockey for positions to take pictures.

Here are the pictures for JiuZhaiGou:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ourgmb/JiuJhaiGou?authkey=Sz6gP2SDQyI

We bought food with us, so that we do not have to spend time going to, and eating at the restaurant.

We left the park at 5 pm.

Our 5-day tour allowed a 2-day admission to JiuZhaiGou park (for the price of a one-day pass).
The next day (May 31), our tour group departed and we stayed behind to tour JiuZhaiGou on our own and we spent the time to tour the rest of the park.

We did not do it on purpose, but somehow the two hour headstart into the park allowed us to avoid all crowds for the entire day.

Later that day, we connected with the tour guide on another 4-day tour (but started on May 30) and we will join them for the rest of the tour.

On June 1, we departed JiuZhaiGou to go to HuangLong 黄龙. But before going to HuangLong, we stopped at 4 shopping places, one selling Tibet "holy stones", another selling Yak jerky, a third selling gems, a fourth selling Chinese herbs.

At 1 pm, we arrived at HuangLong and were given 3.5 hours to tour the area, which includes an 8 KM round trip. We spent 1.5 hours walking up to the "five-coloured group of lakes" 五彩瑶池. As the altitude at the top is around 3,500 meters, this walk uphill (starting from 3200 meters) is a pre-test for our Tibet trip. We did not have any problems. We found out we are still in the dry season and some parts of HuangLong only look beautiful when it is wet. We reached the top and found lots of people, all jockeying for positions to take pictures. The admission of Y200 does not really warrant this site, although the five coloured lakes are beautiful. But I guess if you have visited Yellow Stone Park before, you don't really need to come to HuangLong.

On June 2, we started our journey back to Chengdu, and we hit two more shopping places (tea house, cow-horn art/combs) before starting our journey. Again, for parts of the road, there is construction. We arrived in Chengdu at 3 pm and we took the local bus back to our apartment-hotel.

In our apartment-hotel, we have a clothes washer and did our laundry.

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