Traveling to parts of China that the average American wouldn't think to visit.
When planning a trip to China, keep in mind that the country is HUGE and even though things seem "close enough" that travel takes much longer than you would expect. I can NOT stress this enough. Do not expect things to go quickly.
On this trip, my friend and I decided to adventure to parts of China that we'd never seen before. Despite a recent ACL surgery, I excitedly planned our visit to Jiuzhagou. Not knowing much other about it than the pictures we'd seen, we set out from Chengdu with only a vague idea of what to expect. We hopped on the bus to Jiuzhaigou having no clue how long it would take to get there. Some people said 4 hrs, some said 9 hrs. I think all in all it took us 12 hrs thanks to traffic.
When we arrived, it was well past our expected arrival time. All we really wanted to do was sleep and prepare for venturing out the next day. We eventually found a place to stay and tried to settle in - but after many hours of sitting we decided to take a walk around and check out our surroundings. The area where all the hotels and food is was relaxing yet entertaining. We spotted many restaurants that we bookmarked to come back to try out.
The next morning, in the freezing cold we made our way up the hill to see Jiuzhaigou. Our first impression was "there are way too many people here!" Several buses had just dropped off huge amounts of tourists all in the same spot. Taking pictures of the views was difficult and getting around was more like being carried by a wave rather than actually walking. In all of this chaos, somehow I slipped on a patch of ice and fell flat on my butt. Thankfully, I had the reflexes to protect (1) my knee that had just had surgery and (2) my DSLR - both objects were immediately raised to the sky while in the act of falling.
After this initial impression of Jiuzhaigou, we determined a way to see all the same spots as everyone else but in a different order so that we weren't constantly surrounded by people. This is when we REALLY got to enjoy the #scenery. We ventured at a very slow pace throughout the area taking thousands of photos along the way. The colors in the water are truly awe inspiring. And although the water was so incredibly blue, it was CLEAR as day and you could see everything under the surface of the water.
The area around Jiuzhaogou scenic area is just as enjoyable. We found an underground path with lots of vendors. There were street side vendors along the way - one of which had yak's milk yogurt, which was amazing. We also found a restaurant that served the most amazing yak meat dish - I wish I knew the name of it, but we picked it out by seeing it served at another table and saying "what's that? I want that!"
There's really no bad season to visit Jiuzhaigou. They boast perfect weather year round. Although there was some snow on the ground when we arrived, the bite of cold air dissipated with all the walking that we did.
Comments