Days 171 – 174: Jiuzhaigou
We knew that Jiuzhaigou was going to be overcrowded from the get-go – it is, after all, China’s 2nd most visited park (we’ll be going to the #1 park next week!). Igor had read horror-stories about hours-long waits at the ticket counter, so we decided to leave the hotel at 6:30AM so that we could reach the ticket office before it opened. We had arranged for a packed breakfast the night before, and hurried out the door before giving ourselves time to consider the weather. By the time we reached the park entrance (which was a good 30min walk – NOT the 1KM that the receptionist had told us!), we realized it was a mistake to start our day without our hats and jackets, so we were forced to split up. Igor waited in line for our tickets (which ended up being pretty short, even with Chinese tourists egregiously cutting), while Lindsay caught a cab back to the hotel to grab our warm clothes. We ended up entering the park just after 7AM, which ended up being a good thing as the hordes of tour groups had already departed.
Jiuzhaigou National Park is famous for its series of green and turquoise lakes, located in 2 Y-shaped valleys. According to Igor’s research, it is possible to walk the entire length of the park, and is advisable if you want to lose the crowds. We planned to take the shuttle bus all the way to the end of one the valleys (the Rize Valley, to the West was better recommended, as it had more “attractions”) and walk back to the beginning of the park; then take the shuttle to the second valley if we had time.
There is no line for the shuttle bus, so we hop right on and speed off toward the Rize Valley. While a Chinese guide talks nonstop in her mic, Lindsay notices the TV monitor is playing a video of the park highlights with English captions – she soon realizes that the video is perfectly timed to describe the attractions as we pass them – nice!
We mistakenly jump off the bus too early and start our day at Arrow Bamboo Lake. There are already massive groups of tourists, so we decided to forgo the southernmost part of the park and instead walk as quickly as we can back towards the park exit to try and get in front of the crowds. After about 20min of side-stepping all the selfie-snappers we succeed in losing the crowd at Panda Lake
By the time we reach the Multicolored Lake, we have the path practically to ourselves! We finally allow ourselves to slow down and take in the beauty of the park
Panda Falls and the Multicolored Lake, in Jiuzhaigou National Park
We find an empty bench and stop to eat the packed breakfast our hotel provided. The sausage seriously tasted like dog food, and the apple milk was disgustingly sweet – but hey! – free food is still free food.
When the sun comes up from behind the mountain, we are amazed by the stunningly bright emerald & turquoise colors of the water! The only other place we have seen water this colorful has been in New Zealand
A couple of boots at the Pearl Shoal – a huge, bubbling cascade at the center of the park.
The famed Nuorilang Waterfall – the biggest waterfall in the park
Crystal-clear and sparklingly blue, the Rhinoceros and Tiger Lakes are fabled to have healing powers. As we pass the Shuzheng Waterfalls, our path takes us out of the heat of the sun and into the woods
Walking though Jiuzhaigou in the late morning, it seems as though we have the park to ourselves!
We are pleased to find that we can find moments of calm, even a “mass tourism” attraction like Jiuzhaigou – you just have to get there really early, and walk really far to lose the crowds
“Jiuzhaigou” translates to “Nine Village Valley” in Tibetan – in the small Shuzheng Village, nine prayer-flag strewn stupas represent the original villages of the park’s namesake
We pass a series of small, bright blue lakes as we walk north towards the park exit
A skeletal dead tree in the water looks like coral in the freshwater lake
The day is getting pretty toasty as we keep walking – the lakes look so beautiful – we desperately want to jump in and swim!
Despite the “No Touching!” sign, Lindsay can’t help but run her fingers through the crystal-clear water
A jade path of water cuts through the yellowing grass of the Reed “Lake” swampland
As we pass our final lake, we see a small herd of horses chowing down on the abundant green grass
Reed Lake is the last lake heading back towards the exit of the park – after that it is about a 5KM hike through the woods along the stream. We considered walking back, but decided to hop on the bus so we could backtrack to the Zechawa Valley instead. We still hadn’t seen the Long Lake and the Colorful Pond – which is supposed to be the most spectacular lake in the park – and we didn’t want to risk missing them while we had a sunny day.
We stayed on the bus after it dropped off its passengers at the entrance, and rode back up to Nuorilang, where we had to transfer to a separate bus. This was when our visit to Jiuzhaigou reverted back to “mass tourism” mayhem. The park officials decided, in their infinite wisdom, to put the transfer bus on the other side of the park restaurant and souvenir shops, rather than right next to the main shuttle stop – thereby forcing tourists to meander through stalls of junk and hordes of other visitors. We were pretty rattled by the time we got on the bus, but we were able to get seats, so that seemed like a plus.
The drive up to the Long Lake was a long and twisty 18KM. Perhaps it was the stuffy heat of the bus, or the fact that the sun had finally disappeared behind the gathering clouds, but when we arrived at the Long Lake Lindsay was feeling ill, and neither she nor Igor had much patience for the hundreds of loud, pushy tourists that surrounded us. We quickly walked away from Long Lake without even stopping to take a picture, in our attempt to escape the claustrophobia-inducing crowds. We nearly passed on the Colorful Pond as well, but decided to wait it out, as the clouds seemed to be moving. We got our shot of the lake – no doubt it was stunning, but we are still on the fence as to whether the aggravation of Chinese mass tourism is worth the “pretty picture.”
The park forces us to walk though their restaurant and souvenir stalls in order to catch the transfer shuttle to the Zechawa Valley
WHERE’S WALDO? The Colorful Pond is breathtaking…but is it because of the natural beauty? Or the dozens of Chinese tourists, squeezing my ribcage?
A line of buses wait to return us to the park exit, which is now overrun with *thousands* of tourists
We looked at the forcast for the next three days – all projected rain. We decided to skip the weekend – we were just too exhausted to put ourselves through the gauntlet again, especially since the weather and resulting photos would be worse.
Saturday morning ended up being partly sunny, so we felt too guilty to stay in the hotel all day. Igor had read that there was a free hike outside the park, so we headed out in search of the trail. We followed the online instructions (from Wikitravel) and found a path that matched the description. However, it was a very poorly maintained trail, and after 20min of stepping over piles of horse poop, and getting scratched by overgrown bushes, we decided to abandon the hike – it wasn’t a particularly scenic area and we didn’t even know where the trail would lead. We returned to the hotel and spent a lazy afternoon writing hotel reviews online (Igor), reading trashy novels on the Kindle (Lindsay), and trying out new hairdos (Igor, again).
An optimistic start for our hike outside the park soons sours as the trail is steep and overgrown
Thumbs down for “free nature” in Jiuzhaigou – especially since there is trash everywhere, including the biggest pile of beer bottles we have ever seen
MAN BUN! Igor’s hair is getting sooo long, he can fit most of it in a ponytail! He’s threatening to keep it long for his first job interview when we get back…
Sunday is a complete wash, as it rains the entire day. We stay indoors, trying to be productive on our computers. We finally get cabin fever around dinner time, and brave the weather with the hotel’s umbrella in search of food. After walking back and forth along the river for half an hour, we finally find the White Star Café, a highly rated restaurant that has an English-language menu. Not the most spectacular dinner on our trip, but it was the highlight of our day just to get out of the hotel.
Dinner at the White Star Café
We had piss-poor weather on our final day in Jiuzhaigou, but we put on our ponchos and tramped out into the rain anyways. We got through the park gates just after opening, and rushed up to the “Primeval Forest” – the section of the park we had missed the first day. We soon discovered that our strategy of, “be the first ones in and walk down to the exit” didn’t really work as the park had closed the trail connecting the Primeval Forest to the Arrow Bamboo Lake! We weren’t sure if it was only closed today or if it had been closed our first day as well. In any case, we were forced to get back on the shuttle bus and resume our hike at the same spot where we had started on Friday. At this point, we had lost the edge the early morning would have given us, plus the crowds of tourists were even slower and more difficult to pass today due to the copious amounts of umbrellas. Even when the rain had stopped, the Chinese kept their umbrellas open creating a “great wall” of multicolored cloth and wire that we couldn’t penetrate!
We would have dearly loved to push past everyone, but we know that shoving on the narrow wooden platforms was not only rude, but dangerous, so we grudgingly trudged along with the group. However, Igor *lost his shit* when a Chinese guy behind us gleefully started physically parting a way for himself by sticking his arms between the two people ahead of him and forcing his way quickly though. Igor turned around and grabbed the guy by the shirt and starting yelling, “No! No! NO!” The guy’s immediately started cowering in fear and held up his open hands as if to say, “sorry!” Needless to say, there was no more pushing.
It took us hours to finally lose the crowds, by which time Lindsay had had it with the poor weather and rude tourists. She returned to the hotel while Igor finished his 20KM hike solo. We concluded that four days was WAY too long to spend in Jiuzhaigou – we can’t wait to move on to our next destination.
We had high hopes that the park would be less crowded at 6AM on a rainy Monday morning – our hopes were soon smashed to pieces as we tried to defend our eyeballs from the dozens of umbrella points sticking into our faces on the overpopulated trail
We make sure to take to shuttle *all the way* to the southern end of the park this time, so that we can visit the Primeval Forest – the only section of the Rize Valley we missed the first day
Misty rain clouds create a beautiful foggy effect on the forest mountains in Jiuzhaigou
Foggy clouds hide the mountains and misty dew covers the “old man’s beard”
We have less luck dodging the crowds this time, especially since the park has closed several trails (perhaps due to the poor weather?) and we are forced to take the shuttle bus instead of walking
The Chinese tourists go nuts snapping pictures when they see a pair of ducks – we find this so silly
We find a quiet spot near the closed section of the trail to have our packed breakfast
A cloudy, rainy day in Jiuzhaigou National Park
We have to walk with the crowds for a good 2hrs today before we finally find some solitude. When we reach the lakes north of Shuzheng Village, we slow our pace to admire the waters – still bright blue even with the cloudy weather. Nonetheless, Lindsay is so exhausted by the time we reach the Reed Lake, she desperately wants to back to the hotel, so she and Igor split up so he can finish his goal of walking to the park entrance.
The lake-less path between Reed Lake and the park exit is definitely the road less travelled – Igor passed only 1 person during his 2hr hike
Tibetan prayer flags and prayer wheels at the Zharu Temple
The Zharu Temple – a Tibetan temple just inside the entrance to the park. The shuttle bus doesn’t stop here – the only way to visit is by walking
Walking back to the hotel along the river, Igor sees the gorgeous blue water from the park converge with the dirty brown run-off from the village. So goes any sense of serenity as he too is washed up in a flow of tourists, squeezing through the stuffy, smelly souvenir stalls that surround the exit. Seriously – not sure what animal all the jerky was from, but it smelled awful.