China Tour 2013

Guess the next morning wake up time? You are right: 6.30 am! Jiuzhaigou National Park opens at 7.00 am and we managed to be part of the first ticket purchasers and hopped on one of the first small busses heading up.
The park has actually 3 valleys, 2 of them starting from the main tourist center 14 km away from the main entrance. Our bus directly headed up the valley to Swan lake, about 17 km from the tourist center. We got off the bus at 8.00 am and started our walk down. Again wonderful forrest area, the trees were so green and healthy, its long time ago we had forests like this in Germany.





Our plan was to walk down the whole 17 km to the junction, but unfortunately part of the trails had been restricted due to forest fire danger. In the morning it was still pretty cold, but after the sun was climbing over the high mountains the first rayons warmed us up.
As more we descended as more tourists (mainly tourist groups) showed up, but as our intention was to hike as most as possible we could find enough places which were remote and had spectacular places to take photos.
The color of the many lakes here was even more blue and green than we experienced in Huanglong and the best was that our prayers had been heard and we got perfect sunshine to enjoy this unique place.







Betweem two lakes we also found a nice waterfall, its not the Niagra falls, but great to see.





After about 3 hours we arrived at the junction and took another bus up the 2nd valley. Honestly this part of Jiuzhaigou is not as interesting as the 1st one, only one lake at the top and another nice one about 3km more down, afterwards quite dry area.



So we did not spend too much time here, after the 2nd lake took the bus back to the junction and had a rest in front of some nice waterfalls (beer was cold!).





So far we already had walked for about 15 km today and the way to the entrance was still 14 km away, so we decided to walk as much as possible back, as the landscape according to our guidebook was much more promising than the 2nd valley before.
The book was right, walking through the forrest along a wild water river and from time to time again nice lakes with almost the same great color as on the top.
At km 10 on the way down we had to give up (badly blisters on my feet),



hopped on the bus and driving the remaining part back to the entrance. From here still 3km to walk to our hostel, luckily we find a kind of beer garden with really cold beer to reward us for this fantastic day in one of the best nature scenes I had ever seen and with 27 km our longest hike during this trip so far.
We spent another night in the hostel, missed the only bus at 07.30 am to Songpan the next morning (really couldnt get up again so early), hired a taxi and spent a relaxing day in Songpan before we will take our first flight during this trip to Chengdu.

We woke up the next morning at 6.30 am (holiday!) with the typical bai jiu after taste and the feeling we would like to change our head. After looking out of the window (rain) a short hesitation if to stay in this warm bed or to follow our original plan to go to Huanglong national park. We did the 2nd way and at 7.00 am sitting in a full bus directed to Huanglong.
The bus winded up a narrow road from 2800 m in Songpan to almost 4000 m and the rain was changing to to snow and ice, even the road was fully covered with about 10 cm snow. Luckily after the highest point the bus descended again to about 2800 m level when we had to get off the bus at the visitor center in Huanglong.
The condition of our heads had still not really improved so we decided to rest a bit with a couple of glasses of green tea before starting the hike.
Huanglong is a mountainous forrest area, covered with a lot of ponds (more than 600) which hold crystal clear water which runs down in cascades from pool to pool. The way from the start to the highest point in 3576 m is completely built on wooden planks, so comfortable to walk, even if a bit slippery during rain.
Ticket was 200 RMB per person and the lady at the ticket offices informed us that only the upper pools are filled with water, but anyhow we took the effort to come here so we bought the tickets and started our hike.
The path is going through intact forrest area, winding up like a snake, crossing and following parallel the water ponds, which in the lower area were really unfortunately empty or almost empty.



It was raining and as more we ascended the rain was changing to snow and getting really cold. The good side effect of this weather was that our heads were ventilated with fresh mountain air and by sweating on the way up we got rid of the barely liquor of the night before.



We were asking ourselves why we are doing this, until we reached the upper and finally the highest part of our trip: An amazing view to the ponds which were really full with crystal clear blue water and surrounded by snow.









In Garmisch we also have a lot of small lakes and ponds in the mountains, but the colors here are really great.
After picture session at the top we descended and were glad to arrive again at the visitor center to warm up with green tea and dry our clothes.
At 15.00 we were lucky to catch the last 2 remaining seats on the direct bus to Jiuzhaigou (3 hours driving) and were hoping the weather will be better the next day.
We arrived in Jiuzhaigou, checked in a small hostel place and just went out to get some food before going to bed early on this day.

Another early morning wake up (this is far away from being a relaxed trip as some have asked me) to catch the 7.00 am bus to Zoige (no direct bus to Songpan). Already at the bus station we met Francesco, an Italian traveller who has already finished 3/4 of his round the world trip and about one month in China. He was not sure where to go, but during the drive to Zoige he decided to further go down together with us to Songpan. Had to wait a bit more than one hour in Zoige before catching the next direct bus to Songpan, so we took the chance for a quick chinese breakfast in a nearby place (too much to call it a restaurant). Finally after about 5 hours bus driving we arrived in Songpan in Sichuan Province, a small touristy town, famous for horse riding tours, but for us just a small stop over before going to the famous sightseeing spots in Sichuan.
We had a walk through old town which looked a bit like Lijiang (but much smaller)





and afterwards ended up in Emma's kitchen, a traveller restaurant beside the main road.
So actually we were sitting here, drinking tea and beer with Francesco, a true and very funny character who even could speak German after living one year in Dresden. He knows a lot of funny stories and we had a very good time with him, hopefully we will see him again in Lijiang.
We also took the chance to taste local dried yak meat (delicious) and Tibetan liquour made from barley (not delicious, typically chinese bai jiu style).



The evening ended in the nice hotel (Old house), which had a big open area in front of the rooms, just talking about good old times (i am sure the other guests hated us...).