Jiuzhaigou has been so well publicized that its beauty and majesty have been compared to shangri-la or heaven on earth. With the capacity crowd of 40,000 thronging this scenic spot everyday during its peak season in August/September, its lure to an outsider often heightens imagination and fantasy in the mind.
It was drizzling when we reached the entrance of Jiuzhaigou on 14 September 2016. From weather forecast, we were aware that we might have to tour Giuzhaigou in rainy weather condition. Still the mild rain didn't seem to dampen the spirit of all visitors queuing up to enter. In actual fact, with an average of 13 raining days in month September from historical statistics, it is good weather that may come as a surprise.
When I saw the huge number of locals selling "raincoat shoes" at RMB10 a pair at the entrance area, I could imagine that God must be having a hard time. Every morning, tourists would pray for good weather so that they would have the best view and under the most pleasant weather condition; the "raincoat shoes" peddlers would pray that it would rain so that their sales would be good to enable them to feed their families!
Much to our relief, the crowd that morning was small and we hardly needed to queue long to enter. Still, my guess of 8,000 visitors that day was still large when compared with crowds in tourist attractions in Malaysia.
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We were fortunate not among such ungodly number of tourists!
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| "Raincoat Shoes" |
Jiuzhaigou or the Valley of Nine Villages falls within Tibetan territory. The area was almost destroyed by massive logging to extract timbers in the forests. It was said that some scientists who went there to do research were spellbound by the beauty of the valleys that they decided to petition against the logging activity. Logging was finally banned in 1979 followed by it being declared as a National Park in 1982. In 1992, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site and a World Biosphere Reserve in 1997.
Jiuzhaigou basically is a Y-shaped configuration of rivers that meander through valleys of this mountainous terrain. Along the flow paths, you find terraces where ponds or lakes are formed. Some are simply huge expanse of wetlands and in some areas, water drops over cliffs to form waterfalls. The varieties are simply spectacular!
I would say that a minimum two days are required to fully gaze and appreciate the bulk of the natural wonders of this rivers system. We spent a mere six hours in one day and managed to see just five of them! Still, it was sufficient to make a lasting impression.
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| Our first stop is Long Lake in full raincoat |
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Long Lake at the western upper reach
of the river system |
Drizzle did not last long and we were able to remove raincoat and took more photos in proper attire.
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| Multi-Colour Lake |
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| Multi-Colour Lake |
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| Gran Lake at the eastern upper reach of the river system |
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| Group photo at the Gran Lake |
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| Timber logs are still visible in Gran Lake |
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| Five Flowers Lake |
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| Timber logs are still visible in Five Flowers Lake |
Jiuzhaigou has been used for a number of movie scenes and backdrops. The Flower Lake was chosen for the shoot of the epic fight of Jet Li and Tony Leung in the movie "Hero" above this lake.
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| Overland flow upstream of Pearl Shore Waterfall |
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| Pearl Shore Waterfall |
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| Pearl Shore Waterfall |
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| Pearl Shore Waterfall |
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| Pearl Shore Waterfall |
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