Just inside Sichuan’s northern border, world heritage listed Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve is considered by many to be China’s premier natural attraction.The Reserve is within a heavily wooded 40 km long alpine valley sparkling with waterfalls and colourful lakes, all set against a backdrop of snowy mountains, and is home to golden monkeys, takins and panda bears. Off the beaten track and a very long way from the East coast, this Reserve was until relatively recently not a major part of the China tourist scene. But this is fast changing with the opening of a nearby airport and enough hotels now at the Park entrance to accommodate more than 20,000 people! A new highway north from Chengdu also made the area much more accessible, but sadly this was destroyed in the recent earthquake and is now closed indefinitely for rebuilding.
Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve reopened to tourists on 8 July following the reopening of an alternative road access route from the south that was itself badly damaged in the quake and has only just been repaired to a sufficient degree to allow traffic back on it. This route follows an arc around the eastern side of the earthquake zone, passing through the towns of Deyang, Mianyang, Riveryou, Pingwu and Nanping. We pulled out of Chengdu’s city centre Xinnamen Bus Station at 8.30am on Tuesday and arrived at the Jiuzhaigou Park entrance 11 hours later after a fascinating trip that took us through lush cultivated countryside and then mountains further to the north. The journey itself was an adventure we weren’t expecting. About 100 km north of Chengdu the road cut through quake-damaged towns and villages, and it was sobering to see the challenges being confronted by the residents in the streets. Many buildings were severely cracked or collapsed, and many standing buildings were vacant. Along the sides of the road for many kilometres were rows of blue tents and elsewhere were seas of blue-roofed wall-to-wall relocatable huts, now the temporary residences of a small percentage of the 3 million people made homeless by the earthquake. One village looked like it had been bombed, with isolated buildings standing between leveled areas covered with stones. The Chinese army was out in force helping the people with essential services and to clean up the debris. We saw large convoys of military trucks loaded with building and other supplies and large army encampments near the roadside. We and a very young French couple were the only westerners on the bus – the Chinese passengers were justifiably impressed and proud of the scale and helpfulness of the work of their soldiers that was plainly visible from the bus windows as we drove along.
The road we travelled on had suffered considerable damage too and we had to make several detours along temporary unsealed tracks and around damaged, closed bridges. At one place we crossed the river on a temporary bridge constructed of steel sections supported by pylons of rubble. Nearby was a former highway bridge now reduced to just a few twisted columns of concrete and steel mesh hanging in the breeze. Elsewhere, whole sections of road pavement and roadside guard rail had been uprooted by earthquake-induced landslides and swept into the river. Pavement sections could be seen poking out of the water and crumpled lengths of guard rail dangled over the riverbanks. Despite all this damage, the authorities have obviously done a great job to get the road back into passable condition so soon after the earthquake. We thought about whether we should make this trip given the overriding priorities of the people in the area. But the road has been officially re-opened to public buses, and people who rely on tourism for their livelihood are very keen for visitors to start coming again. So we decided on balance that it was appropriate to go.
In Jiuzhaigou village we checked into a hotel near the Park entrance. The hotel was nearly empty, many others were still closed, and the village itself was very quiet. On Wednesday we spent the day touring in the Park and walking along its beautiful trails. There were plenty of fellow visitors but only a tiny fraction of the huge number that normally throng through the Park at this time of the year. As we returned to our hotel a big tour bus stopped out front and a crowd of excited Chinese tourists checked in. A good sight to see and no doubt a very welcome one for the hotel owners and staff.
For us, Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve lived up to all the hype we had read and heard about it. It is astonishing that so much natural beauty and so many different features could be packed into one compact valley – it is almost as if this place has been chosen to showcase nature’s repertoire. The waters here are very rich in carbonates with the result that several of the lakes display other-wordly colours, their reflected light casting varying hues of aquamarine pastel. The water is pure and it is possible to see right to the bottom with submerged tree trunks and branches clearly visible. We took some nice pictures but Jiuzhaigou is one of those places where photographs cannot do it justice – you need to be here to fully appreciate its grandeur. A must-see if you ever visit this part of China.
The region’s inhabitants are principally Tibetan and this is strongly reflected in the local architecture. Even new buildings under construction incorporate Tibetan architectural shapes and themes and have avoided the minimalist concrete box look. Combined with the attractive natural scenery, the result is a very pleasant physical environment that would be hard to beat anywhere.
On Thursday we hired a taxi to take us to Jiabo ancient town located in a stunning mountain valley about 30 km west of Jiuzhaigou. Originally settled in the 8th century by Tibetan people, there are some very old buildings in the area that display a unique variation on the Tibetan style. A tasteful tourist village that incorporates this has been constructed nearby and we spent a short while walking around the buildings. But like Jiuzhaigou, it is still very quiet with few guests around. We returned to Jiuzhaigou at around 2pm and had lunch at a streetside café overlooking the fast-flowing stream that winds through the village. We had pork with ginger and stir-fried canola stems, all heavily spiced with Sichuan pepper and dried red chillis. The food and views from the cafe were both great.
We arrived back in Chengdu last night after a return bus trip along the same route and once again checked into the excellent Kaibin Hotel in the city centre. But unfortunately our time in Sichuan province is now almost over - later today we have an East-bound bus to catch.
Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve reopened to tourists on 8 July following the reopening of an alternative road access route from the south that was itself badly damaged in the quake and has only just been repaired to a sufficient degree to allow traffic back on it. This route follows an arc around the eastern side of the earthquake zone, passing through the towns of Deyang, Mianyang, Riveryou, Pingwu and Nanping. We pulled out of Chengdu’s city centre Xinnamen Bus Station at 8.30am on Tuesday and arrived at the Jiuzhaigou Park entrance 11 hours later after a fascinating trip that took us through lush cultivated countryside and then mountains further to the north. The journey itself was an adventure we weren’t expecting. About 100 km north of Chengdu the road cut through quake-damaged towns and villages, and it was sobering to see the challenges being confronted by the residents in the streets. Many buildings were severely cracked or collapsed, and many standing buildings were vacant. Along the sides of the road for many kilometres were rows of blue tents and elsewhere were seas of blue-roofed wall-to-wall relocatable huts, now the temporary residences of a small percentage of the 3 million people made homeless by the earthquake. One village looked like it had been bombed, with isolated buildings standing between leveled areas covered with stones. The Chinese army was out in force helping the people with essential services and to clean up the debris. We saw large convoys of military trucks loaded with building and other supplies and large army encampments near the roadside. We and a very young French couple were the only westerners on the bus – the Chinese passengers were justifiably impressed and proud of the scale and helpfulness of the work of their soldiers that was plainly visible from the bus windows as we drove along.
The road we travelled on had suffered considerable damage too and we had to make several detours along temporary unsealed tracks and around damaged, closed bridges. At one place we crossed the river on a temporary bridge constructed of steel sections supported by pylons of rubble. Nearby was a former highway bridge now reduced to just a few twisted columns of concrete and steel mesh hanging in the breeze. Elsewhere, whole sections of road pavement and roadside guard rail had been uprooted by earthquake-induced landslides and swept into the river. Pavement sections could be seen poking out of the water and crumpled lengths of guard rail dangled over the riverbanks. Despite all this damage, the authorities have obviously done a great job to get the road back into passable condition so soon after the earthquake. We thought about whether we should make this trip given the overriding priorities of the people in the area. But the road has been officially re-opened to public buses, and people who rely on tourism for their livelihood are very keen for visitors to start coming again. So we decided on balance that it was appropriate to go.
In Jiuzhaigou village we checked into a hotel near the Park entrance. The hotel was nearly empty, many others were still closed, and the village itself was very quiet. On Wednesday we spent the day touring in the Park and walking along its beautiful trails. There were plenty of fellow visitors but only a tiny fraction of the huge number that normally throng through the Park at this time of the year. As we returned to our hotel a big tour bus stopped out front and a crowd of excited Chinese tourists checked in. A good sight to see and no doubt a very welcome one for the hotel owners and staff.
For us, Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve lived up to all the hype we had read and heard about it. It is astonishing that so much natural beauty and so many different features could be packed into one compact valley – it is almost as if this place has been chosen to showcase nature’s repertoire. The waters here are very rich in carbonates with the result that several of the lakes display other-wordly colours, their reflected light casting varying hues of aquamarine pastel. The water is pure and it is possible to see right to the bottom with submerged tree trunks and branches clearly visible. We took some nice pictures but Jiuzhaigou is one of those places where photographs cannot do it justice – you need to be here to fully appreciate its grandeur. A must-see if you ever visit this part of China.
The region’s inhabitants are principally Tibetan and this is strongly reflected in the local architecture. Even new buildings under construction incorporate Tibetan architectural shapes and themes and have avoided the minimalist concrete box look. Combined with the attractive natural scenery, the result is a very pleasant physical environment that would be hard to beat anywhere.
On Thursday we hired a taxi to take us to Jiabo ancient town located in a stunning mountain valley about 30 km west of Jiuzhaigou. Originally settled in the 8th century by Tibetan people, there are some very old buildings in the area that display a unique variation on the Tibetan style. A tasteful tourist village that incorporates this has been constructed nearby and we spent a short while walking around the buildings. But like Jiuzhaigou, it is still very quiet with few guests around. We returned to Jiuzhaigou at around 2pm and had lunch at a streetside café overlooking the fast-flowing stream that winds through the village. We had pork with ginger and stir-fried canola stems, all heavily spiced with Sichuan pepper and dried red chillis. The food and views from the cafe were both great.
We arrived back in Chengdu last night after a return bus trip along the same route and once again checked into the excellent Kaibin Hotel in the city centre. But unfortunately our time in Sichuan province is now almost over - later today we have an East-bound bus to catch.
