Jiuzhaigou, China, over Easter

A tour group tour with mom for six days over the Easter holidays.

Day One
An evening flight from Hong Kong to Chengdu, Sichuan Province. By the time we got to the hotel it was 11:30pm and we had to get ready for a 5am wake up call the next morning.

Day Two
We woke up at 5am and had breakfast on the bus to catch a 7am flight. The flight ended up being delayed for three hours. Apparently a two hour delay was expected due to the unpredictability of the high altitude mountain areas of the Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong Airport at 3500m. My breathing rate instantly increased as I walked off the plane up the ever slightest ramp. We drove for less than two hours and got to Huanglong which is famous for its travertine landscapes and colourful pools full of minerals at around 3100m. To our disappointment, spring hadn't arrived so there weren't green leaves and snow hadn't melted. There was not a sign of water in sight. The normally blue pools of water were completely dry and brown. Some other tourists coming down told us there was water at the top, so we had our hopes up again. Unfortunately, the group was walking too slowly. So eventually, I was the only one in the group to have reached the top and witnessed the vividly coloured water pools.

Day Three
This day we spent the whole day in Jiuzhaigou. We visited different water bodies and waterfalls. The weather was great and the walks leisurely. Again, the water level was low and the leaves weren't out yet. However, we also avoided the crowds. I can't imagine what the place would be like when tourism is in full swing in October. I already got really agitated with the pushing and screaming people at times during my visit in the low season. Peak season would be beyond my acceptance, no matter how flexible I am when travelling. We watched the highly recommended Jiuzhaigou show in the evening. I figured it wouldn't be as good as it's recommended, after having watched quite a few such shows. But what the heck. There wasn't much to do at night anyway.

Day Four
Another early day for us to take the flight back to Chengdu. We were supposed to wake up at 5am and took our luggage to the bus at 5:45am. When I woke up from mom's screams, it was 5:50am and someone came into our room to see if were alive or not. Apparently, something was wrong with the phone in the room and it never rang so we missed our morning call. Interesting thing was mom and I were ready to go in 10 minutes. I wonder how we managed that. Upon arrival in Chengdu, we went to the Panda Base and watch some pandas. I was never too keen on pandas. I've always thought that they deserved to become extinct. But seeing them relatively more energetic in the "Base" was quite enjoyable. The "toddlers" were playful and cute. I even witnessed and filmed one panda falling off the tree! In the afternoon, we took a cruise to see the Leshan Big Buddha. No surprise. It was my second time there.

Day Five
It was a two-hour drive up the Emei mountain, changed to a gondola, and another two-hour drive down the mountain. Again, it was no surprise because it was my second time there. It was just as foggy as last time. Although it felt warmer. This time we brought warm clothings for Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, whereas last time we didn't know better and it was raining at the 3000m summit of Emei.

Day Six
We visited the Jinsha Site Museum which was the actual excavation site. Lots of ivory was discovered. They were then reburied because it was too costly to preserve them all. The moisture and ultraviolet lights would destroy the ivory in no time. The JInsha Site Museum was really worth visiting. And then we took the afternoon flight back home.


Part I and Part II of the photos. There is caption for each photo, as usual. Read them and in sequence and they will tell the story.