Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan, China

After returning to China from Thailand, I headed for Sichuan province. I had a brief stay in Chengdu before heading straight for Jiuzhaigou. 

Jiuzhaigou is a National Park in the north of Sichuan province, in a Tibetan Autonomous Region called Aba. The name means 9-village valley.  The town is a 10-hour bus ride from Chengdu. Bus is the only way to get there (unless you want to splurge on the local flight). It leaves at 8am every day and arrives around 5 in the evening. 

I will say the bus ride was surprisingly pleasant. We stopped about every hour or two so people could use the bathroom, buy snacks, etc. As we got closer to the park, the surroundings became more incredible. Honestly, I spent at least half the bus ride just looking out the window. It was so beautiful. 

We arrived in Jiuzhaigou, found our hotel surprisingly easily, and checked in. We got dinner and hung out in our hotel room. While I was taking a shower that evening, we experienced the first of many power outages. That was pretty much all the excitement the little village offered us that evening.

In the morning, we woke up bright and early to get to the park at 8 to buy tickets. We got to the ticket office before they started selling tickets, and there were so many people. We managed to get within just a few rows of people's distance from the doors. We waited for the office to open, and being surrounded by people all packed together kept us warm, since the sun hadn't come into the valley yet.

As soon as the doors opened, we were pushed and shoved, nearly trampled. I got my wrist caught in the doorway and narrowly missed an injury, since the crowd was so intense. We got our tickets quickly and distanced ourselves from the crowds. That was the first time I'd ever experienced a crowd like that. I would very much like to never have that experience again. I really felt quite scared.

After the ordeal of buying tickets, we got the bus to the farthest point in the park and started walking. We walked and walked all day. We saw lakes and waterfalls and beautiful peaks. I won't bother describing exactly what is what. Basically, we walked the length of the valley (Jiuzhai valley), which is famous for its bright blue water. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

That evening, we were so exhausted. We walked about 13 miles or 20 km. We ate dinner and spent the evening the hotel. I think we were asleep before 10.

The next day, since we had decided we didn't want to pay to get into the park again, we decided to go hiking outside the park. We found out about this train on wikitravel. The information was vague, but we did find the trail head. I took some pictures of the beginning of the trail for reference if you go in winter:

We hiked on the trail for about 3 hours. The whole time we were hiking we did not see or hear another soul. It was amazing, especially since the park had been so crowded the day before. The only living things we saw were 3 cows.

The hill was really steep, but we took it slow. Eventually, we found this section of the path that had the most amazing, unobstructed view of the mountains. That's where we sat down and had lunch!

After lunch, we were pretty tired, so we headed back down the side of the mountain. On our way down, we decided to stop for about an hour to read. The weather and air were so nice, so we enjoyed a rest outside.

We spent the rest of our time resting in the hotel and walking around the shops and restaurants nearby.

There wasn't much to do once the sun set, so we had another early night. 

In the morning, we headed to the bus stop to catch the 10 hours bus back at 8am. 

I really enjoyed Jiuzhaigou. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I have met a lot of people who were hesitant to go because of the bus ride, but I would say it's worth it. I would also say you only need 1-2 days there (with a travel day on either side). It's a really boring place other than the park. 

The other thing is the crowds. As you can see from one of the pictures above, the crowds can be pretty crazy. I would avoid going near Spring Festival (as we did), during the height of summer, and during National Week. However, even though it was really busy, I still thought it was amazing. The park it really built to handle huge crowds and it's all preserved very well. If you're hesitating to go, don't hesitate. If you've never heard of it, add it to your bucket list!