I made my trip to Jiuzhaigou in the spring month of March in 2006 and the stunning beauty of the fairyland were photographed to leave fond memories here. Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟) is a valley, a nature reserve and is 330 km north of the provincial capital of Chengdu, Sichuan province of China . It is part…
The horrendous roads to Jiuzhaigou
The main hurdle to visiting the fairyland is the dreadful roads that lead to the Jiuzhaigou valley from Chengdu. We often hear stories about big rocks flying onto the road and hit tour buses. The roads are narrow, with only two lanes for either directions. So where ever the road bends, the drivers will horn…
The peaceful scenery with a sad past
We stopped over at the lake side to answer nature’s call. The toilets have no doors but with very low raised walls to divide into a few cubicles; no flush, dark, and so basically you do your business over a drainage while holding your breathe. Well, I had to temporarily shut off my brain processor…
A lovely Memorial Park in Sichuan
This is a memorial park for the Red Army (am I right?) in Sichuan. Everywhere was snow in this park. Our guide told us that highland natives have the distinctive red rosy cheeks and they are partly due to over exposure under the sun in the coldness, so not realizing that they got sun burnt….
The 5* Jiuzhai Paradise Resort in glass bubble
The actual name of this five stars resort that we stayed in Jiuzhaigou is “InterContinental Resort Jiuzhai Paradise”. It’s a nice resort. We stayed in a big room for three persons, overlooking a stunning view of the surrounding. The views outside our room. The ground floor of the resort is big too, like a mini…
The Jiuzhaigou Therapy I
The Jiuzhaigou Valley, with rich forest resources, has more than 10,000 negative oxygen ions per cubic metre of air and can be as high as 80,000. In Beijing, on the other hand, has only 1,000 negative oxygen ions per cubic metre of air on a good quality air day. We were told that it’s the…
The Jiuzhaigou Therapy III
You will often see colourful rectangular clothes strung along mountain ridges by the Tibetans. These are prayer flags and the Tibetans believe that when the wind blows the flags, it will spread the good will and bring benefit to all. This centre in Jiuzhaigou has rows of stalls selling nice and very cheap gem stones,…
The Min River / 岷江
This is the start point of the Min River (岷江). It’s a tributary of the upper Yangtze river (长江). There were a number of natives here (Tibetans or Qiang?), collecting money from tourists who want to stand next to the Min River milestone for a picture. We didn’t want to pay for that and stood…
The Tibetan Folk Arts Performance
The Tibetans presented us all with the traditional Tibetan welcome of a white scarf to put around our neck, as we entered the Tibetan concert & performance show. Just before it started, we went through a welcome ceremony with the Tibetans by drinking the bowl of wine in front of us at our seats. A…
A town in Sichuan
Try one of these. The bean curds are good! Peanuts, spring onions, sauce and other ingredients are added to the hot bean curds. They are not the normal sweet bean curds that we have in Singapore. These are salty bean curds. A mystical atmosphere created by the moving mist on the mountain. A visitor town…
