Lovely time in Jiuzhaigou


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Asia » China » Sichuan » Jiuzhaigou
August 14th 2006
Published: August 26th 2006
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Pearl shoal waterfall 1Pearl shoal waterfall 1Pearl shoal waterfall 1

This place is just amazing. I surprised myself by actually saying it out loud when I was walking around.

Sunday August 13th


My last night in Chengdu was pretty hard. At around 2AM I woke up in sweat. Electricity was out on the whole floor and I found out that sleeping in Chengdu without a fan is pretty damn hard as the heat is so oppressing. I also realized that my stomach pain had developped in a full-fledge diarhea, but thank god they had a generator going so at least they had lights in the bathroom else I'm not sure how I would've survived. I managed to find some sleep after about an hour and woke up in time to catch the public buses I needed to take to get to the bus. It was obvious I wouldn't last a day in the bus without some helped so I popped an Immodium hoping it would do the job.

I was the only westerner on the bus but pretty much everyone looked like tourists. For the first 6-7 hours or so I didn't talk with anyone and since I hadn't managed to find a decent book in Chengdu I really didn't have much to do. We got stuck at some point in the mountain for about an hour in very
Multi-colored PoolMulti-colored PoolMulti-colored Pool

Really beautiful. You better enjoy this picture I had to elbow a few chinese to get it (and get pushed around quite heavily)
dense traffic that was simply totally stopped. What was wierd when we were stopped was that there were many bees flying around so I sort of figured we were close to a nest or something When we got moving we realized that there had been an accident. It seems that one truck had been transporting bees because there were just thousands of them hovering over the half-destroyed truck. I pity the people who had to work to move the wreck around. The traffic cleared shortly after this but during this moment of intense traffic I realized that more than 75% of the vehicles on the road were tour buses. I knew Jiuzhaigou was touristy but I was starting to get an idea of the scale of it all.

Because we lost a lot of time in the traffic we arrived for lunch at around 14:30. As soon as I got off the bus a chinese guy named Tim invited me to eat with him and his friend. They were 3 guys from Hong Kong visiting Sichuan for a few weeks along with a mainland chinese guy who spoke a bit of english. We got a few plates but I
Swan Lake 4Swan Lake 4Swan Lake 4

I can't believe how clear the water is.
ate only some spicy cold noodles. Even though Immodium was working for now I didn't want to push my luck too hard. After lunch I kept talking with the guys. I was really happy to be talking with people because after my last few days in Chengdu where I was mostly a loner I now felt very social and just wanted to talk with someone. Tim was very interested in my knowledge of french because he was tired of looking unsophisticated when he ordered wine. He asked me how to prononce Bordeaux because the waiter never understood it when he tried to order it, which I guess doesn't impress the girls too much when you're on a date. I told him to drop the x at the end (it almost sounded as if he was saying Botox, which is NOT something you want to drink). It was pretty funny because they were almost as lost as me in China. They speak cantonese so for them mandarin is pretty hard to understand (although, unlike me they can get the tones and know enough to get around). At some point I asked what Hong Kong people thought about the japanese (mainlanders hate
Pearl shoal 2Pearl shoal 2Pearl shoal 2

Just before the waterfall.
them), they said that like all chinese men they love their porn which he refered as their "national sport". Uhh, interesting.

In the last 2 hours of the ride I was starting to feel really bad with cramp pains and everything so I was really eager to just get there, find a room (and a pit) and sleep. We started talking about sharing a room but I found out that we had very different standards (and budget). After we finally reached Jiuzhaigou I followed them to a hotel but I quickly figured out I couldn't follow them unless I wanted to blow my budget so I said goodbye and went to offer myself to the sharks (touts) near the bus station. I started bargaining with one of them and he offered me a bed for what I understood to be 30 (he just did 3 with his fingers and then nodded when I did 3 and 0 with mine) but that in the end was 300. The guy was retarded because when I started following him after I thought he had said 30 he erupted in joy and started screaming to his friends what could only be something like: "I just screwed a dumb laowai, he's gonna pay 300RMB for the room". I mean maybe I'm a dumb foreigner but I'm certainly not dumb enough to follow a tout that react like if he had won the lottery after he thinks I agreed to his price.

I told him to go have a walk and talked with the other touts. He immediately dropped his price to 150 but it was still way too much for me. I ended up agreeing following a woman who looked trustful for a room at 80RMB. It is way above what I usually pay but I was quickly getting the hint: Jiuzhaigou is way expensive. She had by far the cheapest room and the hotel with cheap rooms in the LP was full so I had to follow her. We took a taxi to her hotel (she paid for it) and unfortunately it was pretty far from the entrance but I was too tired to care. It is a beautifully decorated tibetan house. I bargained a bit but she knew I was tired and trapped so I only managed to get it down to 70RMB. But hey I had a karaoke machine in my room so I guess I was lucky. That was a first. As soon as I was alone in the room I just wanted to sleep. However the hotel staff had other plans for me.

First the girl who had picked me up came in to give me the key and played with the lock for about 10 minutes to "find out" that it wasn't working. She used the opportunity to try to sell that "very cheap" room with private bathroom (and lock) for 200RMB. After I got rid of her, a guy tall tibetan guy dressed up in traditional costumes like in tibetan videoclips came in the room and pointed at the karaoke machine while gesturing something that I assumed asked if I wanted to have a karaoke party in my room. I explained to him that I'd prefer to have a few limbs chopped off at the moment rather than have a karaoke party or anything that didn't involve me sleeping in the next 15 minutes. He sort of got the point and left the room. He was so disapointed I thought he was about to cry. Just when I thought I could finally enjoyed the peace
Pearl shoal 1Pearl shoal 1Pearl shoal 1

Just before the waterfall.
and quietness of my room, another girl from the hotel came to give me a hot water thermos. Very nice but I was pretty rude to her I think because I just couldn't take it anymore.

I spent one of the shittiest night I've ever had. Immodium wasn't working anymore and I woke up at least half a dozen time during the night because I had "the run". And I also need to stress that this wasn't your normal diarhea. This was hardcore, all-liquid, india-like, gotta-get-to-the-bathroom-in-15-seconds-or-else-I'm-screwed kind of diarhea. The joy of travel.

Monday August 14th


Despite my sickness I really wanted to see the park so I popped another Immodium hoping it would be enough and went outside. I had to grab a taxi to the entrance since it was pretty far away but it didn't cost much. I paid the humongous entrance fee of 260RMB but I guess for once I agree with this fee. There has to be a way to limit the number of people in the park or else it will be ruined. My ticket included the bus service that goes around the park. Even though I was planning to do lots of
Multi-color LakeMulti-color LakeMulti-color Lake

I don't know why but all my pictures turn out bad in the morning. This place was pretty cool
walking I knew that the bus would be useful in some places. I got on a bus and stopped at the branch point midway through the park. The park is separated in 3 valleys: Shuzheng valley which goes to the entrance, Rize valley southwest from Shuzheng and Long Lake valley southeast of Shuzheng. I decided to walk up all the way in Rize valley to start the day but before I walked about 500m to Nuorilang waterfall, the first attraction in Shuzheng valley. It was about 7:30 and I had the whole thing to myself and about 3 other chinese tourists it was lovely. After I followed the main road toward Rize valley until Mirror Lake at whcih point I went on the plank path which had much better view and almost as important was far away from the road's noise. I walked all the way up Rize valley from maybe 8:00 to 13:20 going from Mirror Lake, to Pearl Shoal waterfall/Pearl Shoal, Multi-color Lake, Panda Lake, Arrow Bamboo Lake/Waterfall then a long, uphill and totally solitary trek of about 6-7 kms to Swan Lake and finally to Primevial Forest and the last bus stop.

I was really impressed
Multi-color Lake 2Multi-color Lake 2Multi-color Lake 2

The water is so clear you can see everything at the bottom, like the tree that fell in the water.
by it all, especially Pearl Shoal/Pearl Shoal waterfall. I surprised myself by actually saying out loud that this was very lovely. I was only slightly mad that it was cloudy and I knew my camera take shitty picture in those conditions. I tried hard to restrain myself from taking too many pictures but I just couldn't, there was just too many beautiful things around. As a result, twice during the day I had to delete old pictures (I had burned them on a CD in Chengdu anyway) to make place for my Jiuzhaigou pics. Also after Pearl Shoal my batteries ran out so I bought some at a stall on the way. There was surprisingly little tourists around in the morning. I had Nuorilang Waterfall, Mirror Lake and Pearl Shoal almost all to myself. Only in Panda Lake did I notice that the number of people was increasing dramatically. Also I noticed there that there were some people thatwere renting "traditional costumes" to tourist to pose for pictures. I thought it was pretty funny and took the picture of a chinese women who was doing it. Hey, they take picture of me all the time I don't know why I
Chinese tourists in actionChinese tourists in actionChinese tourists in action

They take picture of me so I'll take picture of them. At multi-colored lake you could rent "traditional costumes" and take pictures with them which is what this chinese lady was doing.
shouldn't take pics of them. I also saw a chinese girl in her wedding dress with a professional photographer.

After that walk up, I took a bus to Long Lake, at the end of the other valley. I decided not to walk this one as it has very few sights except at the very top. Long Lake was beautiful but I was definately in peak tourist time and it felt a bit like Disneyland with tons of people trying to sell you water/drink/batteries/pictures/DVD. I went down to the viewpoint to take pictures and it was no problem because all the chineses wanted their pictures taken with the sign that says "Long Lake" instead of actually taking a picture of the Lake so I didn't have to fight too hard to get a picture.

The only other sight in this valley is the Multi-colored Pool about 600m down. Before leaving I had to go to one of the wonderful portable toilet (first I've seen in China I think) because my Immodium failed me. Lovely. Everyone has to walk this part and take the bus after the pool so the path was packed full of tourists. I was really bothered
Panda LakePanda LakePanda Lake

I sort of like the reflection of the mountains
by this because when I walk I like to walk fast and I get bothered when I am blocked by slow people. I felt like being in "Taxi" (the french movie, or the bad remake made with Queen Latifa) because I was constantly looking for oppotunity to overtake people on that path but I was unfortunately generally less succesful than in the movie. Getting a picture at the Multi-colored Pool involved a lot of pushing around and being pushed around. It was so bad I thought it was funny, the place was so packed it felt like being in a punk show except that it's mature men and women who push you around. After taking a few shots of the very beautiful pool, I took off to the bus stop to fight me way into one of them. I even managed to get a seat without having to fight with somenoe in the confusion of bus boarding and to this day I'm not exactly sure how I managed to do it. Chineses can be so violent for bus seats, sometimes I think they'd kill their own mother for one and the kids are the worst.

At Nuorilang I decided
Panda Lake 2Panda Lake 2Panda Lake 2

From farther up, close to Arrow Bamboo Waterfalls
to walk down the main valley (Shuzheng) all the way to the entrance, or as far as I could make it before the park closed. I passed by the Nuorilang Waterfall which I had enjoyed alone in the morning. It was now just as packed as the Multi-colored Pool with chineses taking pictures. I smiled and just walked passed throught. Thirty seconds down the road I was alone on the path all the way to Tiger Lake. On the way I saw Rhinoceros Lake which was pretty nice and the waterfall/swamp thingie in between the two Lakes which was prety nice. I was, however, not feeling well. My Immodium wasn't working at all anymore and I had pretty bad cramps. I noticed that there were toilets at Tiger Lake and that's where I dropped the bomb. I was feeling too bad to continue so I walked up the road, braved the crowd and got into a bus (no seat this time) which drove the remaining 10 or so kilometers to the entrance.

I walked to the bus station and got my ticket for Songpan for the next morning while stopping to buy water and Sprite (gotta keep oneself hydrated)
Arrow Bamboo waterfallsArrow Bamboo waterfallsArrow Bamboo waterfalls

Pretty cool. By that time it was getting more tricky to find a good spot to take picture as tourists were coming out.
then took a cab to the hotel. I was feeling pretty bad by then and just wanted to be left alone while lying in bed in between each "runs". The overly-cheerful people at the hotel had other ideas, of course. First the lady that grabbed me at the bus station came to give me hot water. A few minutes later another woman came to ask if I wanted a meal. Then the guy dressed up in Tibetan costume who seemed to love karaoke came to take the karaoke machine. I told him he could take everything and that I wish he would never bring it back. He invited me to come sing with him which I answered with "fuck-off". He didn't speak a word of english but he got the general point. It didn't take long before I started hearing him sing annoying chinese and tibetan pop songs on the upper floor. At some point it stopped and he came back in my room to take a goddamn DVD which he had forgotten. He tried to only bring one but I forced him to carry every single one remaining DVD that I had in the room just to make sure he would never be back. I was less than nice by the end but I just needed to be alone. Being sick in a foreign country is not nice, but being sick in a foreign country with people who bother you every 5 minutes is hell. Especially if it involves karaoke.

I did manage to get about two hours alone after all this. I think they had gotten the point that I was really pissed. I spent most of these 2 hours running to the bathroom. I hadn't eaten anything in the last 2 days save for a few cold noodles yesterday for lunch so I was extremely hungry and I feared I was getting salt-depleted as I lost a lot of "liquid". I decided to go to the local cornerstore and get instant noodles and much needed toilet paper. The guy at the cornerstore tried to offer me his daughter in marriage after I told him my home country. "I'll go eat those noodles, then explode a few more time in the pit and then I'll think about it" was my answer. Diarhea and marriage just don't mix well.

The noodles felt like a feast after 2
Swan Lake 2Swan Lake 2Swan Lake 2

The lake become more and more of a swamp as you go up but the water is still perfectly clear and you got spots of nice colors
days of fasting. I never thought I'd be so happy about eating instant noodles. I fell asleep not too long after.


Additional photos below
Photos: 26, Displayed: 26


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Swan Lake 3Swan Lake 3
Swan Lake 3

Nice colors
Primevial ForestPrimevial Forest
Primevial Forest

The end of that gully.
Long LakeLong Lake
Long Lake

Must be even better in fall when the mountains are snow-capped.
Multi-colored Pool 2Multi-colored Pool 2
Multi-colored Pool 2

Look at the masses on the left. Getting to the front to take a picture was harder than in a punk show.
On the way to Mirror LakeOn the way to Mirror Lake
On the way to Mirror Lake

Pretty cool. But goddamnit I would've paid to get rid of those damn clouds.
Tiger LakeTiger Lake
Tiger Lake

After Rhinoceros.
Nuorilang waterfall 1Nuorilang waterfall 1
Nuorilang waterfall 1

First thing I saw in the park at 7:30. I was almost alone there. When I came back at around 3PM the place was so crowded you could barely walk around.
Masses of people at the exitMasses of people at the exit
Masses of people at the exit

I simply couldn't believe how many people went in that park.


27th August 2006

What's new?
Hey Vic! Seems like you've been pretty busy lately! I don't think you ever spent more than 2 weeks not updating your blog which I find really "complete" by the way ;) . I hope you're enjoying yourself a lot and that you'll write again soon! Your friend Raphael
28th August 2006

hey victor! i've been following your journey off and on since you sent your blog and i'm glad to see it's going well (apart from you being sick a couple of weeks ago :/) all the best! -Christine

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