Recap for photos from previous Post

The third ancient city on our china route - Chengdu. We arrived after a two hour flight delay from JZG due to inclement weather & our ride was quite turbulent until things settled down just before our approach to Chengdu, capital of Song Dynasty.

Without delay, our tour guide Lisa provided us with some necessary provisions (wipes map & water) & accompanied us to our hotel. We hired a private tour for the three day stay in Chengdu so as to give us flexibility to meet up with Tom's paternal relatives for a couple of dinner get togethers.

Our sightseeing excursions took us to Leshan - giant Buddha sculpted from stone and wood that reside along the riverbank at the conjunction of three tributaries ( Ming river, Dadu river & Qingyi river). A story is told thru the ages of the monk that commissioned the construction of the Buddha to protect villagers from constant floods. He was said to have gauged out his own eye rather than pay stipends to corrupt official that reigned over the valley.

Unfortunately, the day was misty and cloudy but as in Xi'an, it was hard to tell which was more predominant, the smog or the clouds. Next we took a car ride to E-Mie Shan, and rode a lengthy bus ride followed by a short cable lift to the golden peak where the gold-gilded ten faced Buddha overlooked the entire mountain.

We toured the tomb & shrine for Emperor Liu- Bei & Zhou-ghu-liuang and had a short recap of the tales of the three kingdoms (RedCliff movie)

Leshan/ Emeishan/ Chengdu Pandas

DEULING MONKEYS STARE DOWN!!!










baby pandas born in august gets plenty of pampering in nursery including regular massages, where are the Tonka toys...lol


Rare Red Panda - is this a case where mamma panda went wandering to the fox den ..lol

Double Recap Post! Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong

To try and catch the autumn colors in the ecological preserve, Jiuzhaiguo (valley of nine villages) , we stayed two days & nights near the park entrance. Like everything else in China, JZG was much larger and grounds more extensive than we anticipated. Even with the transport of scenic buses in the park confines, we felt two whole days were well worth it if you did not wish to completely exhaust yourself & take in the hikes along scenic lakes & valleys at somewhat leisurely pace. Dubbed "Fairyland on Earth" JZG is famous for its greenish blue and turquoise clear lakes. The lakes hold lots of solidified calcium deposits resulting from glacial, hydrological and tectonic forces.

On the third day, we travelled via taxi to the opposite direction of JZG airport for a hike along the "yellow dragon" valley that snaked around the foot of the jade peaks of Xuebaoding. Spanning the Mingshan mountain range, HuangLong scenic area stretches 7.5 km in depth and 2.5 km in width with avg. altitude of 3600m. To get to the entrance area we had to take a cable car and rode up a height of about 4000 meters. The valley have dense distribution of thousands of travertine color ponds, travertine stream flows and stalactite caves, featuring world's largest , most intact and unique karst landscape.

Again, even though HL park area was well laid out with broad plank steps to ascend and descend the scenic pool terraces gradually, we were fairly tired after the completion of the walk, which took about 4.5 hrs as the yellow dragon just seemed to trail on and on .... What was incredulous too us and other tourists was the passages of numerous labourers during our hike down (see pic) as they were carrying long lengths of wooden plankes on their backs up the valley for the continuing construction & extensions the parkland. We were so surprise at this feat and asked how much they were paid - only 40 yuan! We then started tipping some of them as it just seemed too inequitable that this type of work was still being contracted to peasant population for such a meager pittance.

Pictures of Huanglong

Even though the we arrived in Huanglonggou in late fall, the area is still quite beautiful in its diverse forestry and snow-capped peaks, accentuated with the winding colorful travertine shallow ponds

What was incredulous too us and other tourists was the passages of numerous labourers during our hike down (see pic) as they were carrying long lengths of wooden plankes on their backs up the valley for the continuing construction & extensions the parkland. We were so surprise at this feat and asked how much they were paid - only 40 yuan! We then started tipping some of them as it just seemed too inequitable that this type of work was still being contracted to peasant population for such a meager pittance.






These naturally terraced pools are formed by calcite deposits, rimming the delicately flowing colorful pools in various hues of pale yellow, lime green and soft blues...a wonderfully serene landscape.

Hiking in Jiuzhaigou

Mom and Dad are too busy enjoying themselves in Chengdu, that they did not have time to write a blurb to go along with the photos. So they have asked me to write some commentaries in the meantime since I was also recently at Jiuzhaigou. Enjoy!

Jiuzhaigou is a large national park in China filled with beautiful greenery and lots of lakes and waterfalls. Some of the landscaping is very similar to what can be found in Canada, and just like the Summer Palace in Beijing, the experience is different for each of the four seasons that you visit. From the pictures, it looks like the forest is still lush with healthy trees and turqoise water.







Jiuzhaigou is a relatively large park, so there are two options in which you can tour the park; bus or hiking. Of course you cannot hike the whole park in one day, but from the looks of the picture above, Mom and Dad decided to do a little bit of hiking, since they are on this side of the lake.

They did write and mentioned that the busses were ridiculously crowded and the signs that directed you towards the stations were very difficult to follow. Apparantly they had taken the wrong path at one point, and had to double back which means a lot of walking. Stations are spaced very far a part and can take up to 20/30 min to walk between each (up and down stairs). Mom said that she is getting a foot massage later to recover her feet from all the hiking.

To give you a perspective on how crowded it was, Mom and Dad had reported that one of the line-ups to get onto a shuttle bus was at a stand-still that they had to be pushed along. Before boarding the bus, they had almost gotten crushed by old chinese ladies trying to push their way through. Can you imagine Dad being run over by a tiny chinese lady....no? well it happens; these people are rutheless.

Naturally vibrant colors of the lakes ... not photoshopped!

When you reach a large waterfall like the one above in the park, it is ridiculously crowded because everyone wants to take pictures. Mom and Dad had the same observation I did when I visited; there are so many local Chinese tourists, and not many westerners. Even as a North American Chinese, you really do stand out in the crowd. This is most likely because Jiuzhaigou is very hard to get to. You can either take a 10 hour bus ride from Chengdu, or take a flight. Thankfully Mom and Dad were able to book a flight and find a nice hotel to stay in.

Unlike many other parts of China, Jiuzhaigou is at a high altitude so the weather is cool and not humid, much like a summer morning in Ontario. It looks like Mom and Dad got some great weather the day they visited. Not hot (as they are wearing their jackets) but with lots of sun in the afternoon.