Jiuzhaigou National Park

Sparkling beauty in a far-flung corner of remote Sichuan

07/26/2009 - 07/27/2009
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This is a fantastically beautiful park in northern Sichuan, with deep, dark forests, thundering rivers, wide waterfalls and tall mountains.

We spent two days there, hiking eco-friendly plank trails from 10'000 primeval forests, staring slack-jawed at aquarmarine lakes, waterfalls, and distant 15'000 peaks shrouded in mist, all the while scanning the forest for giant pandas and yellow monkeys.

While we didn't see any pandas, we did manage to see beautiful multi-hued birds.

Hiking is apparently not a highly-valued Chinese pursuit, as we encountered few other people on the trails. Most preferred to ride the shuttle buses to the various park highlights. They did not see beautiful birds, nor the views visible only to those of us who got off the beaten path.

Everyone was very friendly, both the Han Chinese and the Tibetan or Qiang locals, and happily there was little commercialism in this World Heritage Natural Reserve.

Fresh Meat
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In Jiuzhaiguo town near the reserve, we had dinner at our fancy hotel the first night. But the second night we ate at a covered outdoor stall, Sichuan-style, chosing our vegetables and meats from trays in front of the grill. We also selected river fish swimming in front of us in a large bucket. We did not select the very fresh meat from the slaughtered goat hanging ten feet in front of us!

Toasts of "ganbei!" ("bottoms up!") with the local beer and yellow rice wine were intermixed with savoring our skewers of meat and vegetables.

The owner was very friendly. When I "mai dan" (payed the bill), she noticed the American money in my wallet. I will always remember the almost-childlike curiousity on her face when she asked what they were, having never seen them before.

We had planned to go to HuangLong (Yellow Dragon) National Park, but instead opted to forgo similar natural sights to get a day's jump on travel to higher, more remote western Sichuan, land of yak butter, Buddhist chortens, oxygen bars, and warm clothing.