One of the watery parts of Jiuzhaigou.
So we were told : "We get our own coach and driver until we reach Lanzhou." It just made me think of Blake's 7 - going around in their own transport, independent, a couple of allies here and there but with everyone else out to get them! In our case it's not Servalan and Travis, it's a gang of postcard sellers! Or maybe I just think in an obscure way?!
Got up freakin' early. Again. Jane had warned us previously about the distinct lack of lie-in opportunities in this part of the holiday. This time the destination was the national park of Jiuzhaigou, one of the pristine tourist spots in this part of China, and so popular and well-renowned that the government wants to build an airport there! As it is, there's a reasonable road network linking it to the rest of the world - it's only a two hour drive from Songpan. The trouble is, it's such a big place that we needed to get there early to make the most of the opportunity!
Some of the group didn't make it - James and Alan weren't feeling too ill, and Mona and Tom decided that not only did they need a rest, but also that from living in Sweden, they could easily take trips into Norway, and what they'd seen about Jiuzhaigou let them to feel that Norway was very similar. Daniel came though, perhaps surprisingly.
The drive there was pretty uneventful. We stopped about ten minutes before the park entrance, to catch up with breakfast (we'd left too early for the cafés to open), and we had a large bowl of noodles at a roadside halt for only 4 Yuan. You can certainly fill yourself up with cheap food in China! We even got to see the chef making the noodles, a procedure that involves stretching the dough with the fingers, then occasionally banging it on the table.
Anyway. Jiuzhaigou is a pretty big place. We arrived at the front entrance, and bought tickets (total cost of around £24, which includes an all-day bus pass) and "insurance" (they think of everything do the Chinese). When we then came to start our journey round the park we were treated to a fine example of communist employment methodology. One man checked and ripped our park ticket at the start of a line of straight metal channels. At the end of the same channel, not more than five meters away, another guy checked and ripped the bus ticket! Two people doing essentially the same job in the same place!!
We hopped onto one of the many buses and rode it quite a distance. All the way we passed by pretty scenery; lakes, mountains, etc, much of it we were to walk through on our way back. There did seem to be a lot of tourists, or at least tour groups (mostly Chinese) walking along the roads, but we understood that most of them just took buses to certain of the lakes and beauty spots, stopped, took a few pictures, then got back on the buses again.
This proved indeed to be the case for the most part. Where we got off there were one or two tourists, but once we ambled onto the wooden walkways that provide an easy means to wander the park, we were pretty much on our own.
It reminded me in all somewhat of Scotland, albeit with higher mountains (!). But there were clear blue lakes, lots of trees (the whole park was forested); it was all very scenic and picturesque. We started walking by a lake called "Arrow Bamboo Lake"; all the lakes and waterfalls had pretty scenic names - Panda Lake, Five Flower Lake, Pearl Waterfall, etc.
After a couple of hours we did hit pedestrian traffic. There was one short section between two lakes where we had to brave the road, but even when we went back onto the wooden walkway we were surrounded by what felt like the entire population of China! The walk from the (unfortunately dry) waterfall by Panda Lake up back onto the road was very crowded; this was obviously the most popular section of the park. The reason for the waterfall being dry, and looking somewhat dead, was because of a lack of rain over the previous couple of months. When the rains have come, the lakes are a lot deeper, and the waterfalls faster and more impressive. That's not to say of course that we missed out on anything; what we saw was very beautiful and impressive enough!
At one part of this busy section, we had the option of dressing up in local costume and being photographed but we declined. Lots of Chinese didn't! Also Daniel managed to work his charms on some of the tourists and managed to get himself in a few of their own personal photographs. Mostly young Chinese ladies. Hmmmmm .... !!
We hopped back on the bus just beyond this point and rode down to the "Mill House", changing buses along the way. We were to have lunch in a sort of touristy village but nothing really caught our fancy; a fixed-menu restaurant wasn't convenient and surprisingly there were no cafés in the vicinity.
We walked on, on the opposite side of the road this time, past the Mill House itself (complete with prayer-water-wheels, which turned as the water flowed under them!) and alongside more, very clear blue lakes. I imagine they must have been pretty cold. The weather in general was quite mixed - when the sun was out it was pretty hot but when the sun went in it was cool and overcast. But it didn't rain.
I ended up walking alone for the first half of this section of the journey; the New Zealanders marched on well ahead and everyone else was a distance behind me. I was free to my own thoughts and experiences. It was nice to be alone.
I did however overshoot; the girls ahead went into a toilet en route and rejoined the main party who had stopped for a rest. I only discovered this when I looked back! So I went back to join them. We rested for a little while, then we set off again in dribs and drabs. Vivian and Radka left first, they intended to walk all the way to the main entrance while the rest of us were just walking a couple of miles and picking up a bus again. Everyone else gradually departed, I stayed sitting on the edge of the path until almost everyone had disappeared out of sight, then set off wondering how long it would take before I'd overtaken the lot of them! Yes I *do* walk that quickly!
Then something unexpected and simply wondrous happened. Something I could never have expected, or dreamed of, in a million years. After walking only a very short way I saw someone ahead, waiting for me.
Kathrin.
She said she was wondering where I was and wanted to walk with me. I felt honoured, really special, it felt I kind of belonged, in some strange way. We chatted the whole way to the bus stop, through the trees and past the lakes. At times I just wanted to hold her hand but never had the nerve. :(
We got the bus back to the entrance, and waited for Radka and Vivian to reappear (energetic sods!). While waiting, we had a bite to eat (a sausage on a stick - literally! Simple, but filling. I also had some local breadstuff), and then we took a very quick look around the park information centre, which was full of technical detail (eg maps of the rock formations in the park and their ages, the population dispersion in the area, things like that).
The journey back to Songpan was a bit more fraught; we seemed to be going constantly uphill for one thing, despite my memories of the journey there not being filled with downhill sections. I also seemed to be developing a cold, and made a mental note to sit by a window that could open for the long journey tomorrow.
Dinner was in the Pancake House again, and it was a traditional Sichuanese hotpot - nicely balanced in a ying/yang way, one side being spicy, the other not. A selection of meats, vegetables, and other obscure stuff was brought in and then we cooked it to taste - a bit like a fondue. All right in theory but Vivian and Radka kinda took control and were stood up virtually the whole meal, putting things into the hotpot at their own whim and with great rapidity, despite our encouragement to slow down! It was pretty filling and good anyway!
Afterwards, the lads did a bit of chopping; Daniel bought himself a snakeskin sword, of all things, this caused a bit of excitement and a desire amongst some others to get a sword for themselves. Kathrin started it all of course, having brought her Tai Chi sword on the train to Guilin! She'd actually left it on the bus to Songpan on Sunday, but she managed to retrieve it the next morning.