The highlight of my travel this time was of course none other than 九寨沟.
It took a 24-hour train ride from Beijing to a small city called 绵阳 (Mianyang). We stayed one night there to rest a bit before continuing a 10-hour bus ride up to Jiuzhaigou itself. Then we stayed one night at the foot of the park itself before spending the whole of next day inside. Even then, we did not manage to see all the main spots inside the park. It is so BIG inside that I think to fully explore it you need at least two whole days especially if you love to take pictures.
The water is so pure and clear that you can see the all the things on the bottom of it. It feels like you want to take a dip inside but of course it is prohibited. And those caught doing so would be severely fine. Well, this measure is needed to prevent the lakes become like Ciliwung (you know what I mean :p)
A bit of crash course knowledge:
It is named Jiuzhaigou because in olden days there were nine (jiu) ethnic minorities living in this park. But then I guess the goverment felt that this place is too beautiful to be missed out as a tourism spot. So they moved the original habitant here to somewhere elses and conserve the whole park as a tourist destination. There are still small number of original habitants living inside the park but we did not see them. It was so BIG, remember?
I felt that China government did a pretty good job in conserving the original natural state of Jiuzhaigou. Only the park buses can go inside and all are environmental friendly ones or so they claimed. It is well organised as in there are neat walking paths around all the tourist spots (lakes and waterfalls). There are proper clean toilets all around - the most important thing :) and it is easy to get around from one spot to another as there are park buses available in all the bus stops.
Another highlight was the 乐山大佛 (Leshan Da Fo).
It was built in Tang Dynasty era for over 90 years. It is one of the UNESCO world heritage site. The 70m high, 20s m wide seated Buddha statue was carved inside the mountain. It is very grand indeed. The statue is situated on the mountain facing the meeting point of three rivers that are flowing into the sea. It was said that in olden days, this meeting point were often flooded such that the fishermen boats often had accidents here. After the statue was erected, there were no accidents anymore. Thats why the people there feel that the Buddha statue has somehow protected them from harm and it is very sacred to them.
Since it is located inside the mountain and facing the sea, the only way down is by one-way-down steep steps and come up by the opposite ladder. This is because the steps are very small and narrow that at some point only one people can pass through. The ladder is U-shaped around the statue. From below the feet of the Buddha statue, I couldnt take the whole picture of the statue as it is too big for my camera. The one I put here was taken from the steps when I was going down. As you can see it also not a complete whole statue but this is the best that I could take with my camera :)
There is other way if you dont feel like climbing up and down the steep ladders which is by boat. But you can't come down from the boat, you can only see from afar. That's why when the school asked us whether we wanted to climb the mountain or take the boat, we all chose to climb. This was in spite of, we were all so tired from also climbing 清城山 (Qingchengshan) mountain the previous day. But hey, since we are still young might as well climb it now, right?
Okay then, leave you all to enjoy the pics now :)
It took a 24-hour train ride from Beijing to a small city called 绵阳 (Mianyang). We stayed one night there to rest a bit before continuing a 10-hour bus ride up to Jiuzhaigou itself. Then we stayed one night at the foot of the park itself before spending the whole of next day inside. Even then, we did not manage to see all the main spots inside the park. It is so BIG inside that I think to fully explore it you need at least two whole days especially if you love to take pictures.
The water is so pure and clear that you can see the all the things on the bottom of it. It feels like you want to take a dip inside but of course it is prohibited. And those caught doing so would be severely fine. Well, this measure is needed to prevent the lakes become like Ciliwung (you know what I mean :p)
A bit of crash course knowledge:
It is named Jiuzhaigou because in olden days there were nine (jiu) ethnic minorities living in this park. But then I guess the goverment felt that this place is too beautiful to be missed out as a tourism spot. So they moved the original habitant here to somewhere elses and conserve the whole park as a tourist destination. There are still small number of original habitants living inside the park but we did not see them. It was so BIG, remember?
I felt that China government did a pretty good job in conserving the original natural state of Jiuzhaigou. Only the park buses can go inside and all are environmental friendly ones or so they claimed. It is well organised as in there are neat walking paths around all the tourist spots (lakes and waterfalls). There are proper clean toilets all around - the most important thing :) and it is easy to get around from one spot to another as there are park buses available in all the bus stops.
Another highlight was the 乐山大佛 (Leshan Da Fo).
It was built in Tang Dynasty era for over 90 years. It is one of the UNESCO world heritage site. The 70m high, 20s m wide seated Buddha statue was carved inside the mountain. It is very grand indeed. The statue is situated on the mountain facing the meeting point of three rivers that are flowing into the sea. It was said that in olden days, this meeting point were often flooded such that the fishermen boats often had accidents here. After the statue was erected, there were no accidents anymore. Thats why the people there feel that the Buddha statue has somehow protected them from harm and it is very sacred to them.
Since it is located inside the mountain and facing the sea, the only way down is by one-way-down steep steps and come up by the opposite ladder. This is because the steps are very small and narrow that at some point only one people can pass through. The ladder is U-shaped around the statue. From below the feet of the Buddha statue, I couldnt take the whole picture of the statue as it is too big for my camera. The one I put here was taken from the steps when I was going down. As you can see it also not a complete whole statue but this is the best that I could take with my camera :)
There is other way if you dont feel like climbing up and down the steep ladders which is by boat. But you can't come down from the boat, you can only see from afar. That's why when the school asked us whether we wanted to climb the mountain or take the boat, we all chose to climb. This was in spite of, we were all so tired from also climbing 清城山 (Qingchengshan) mountain the previous day. But hey, since we are still young might as well climb it now, right?
Okay then, leave you all to enjoy the pics now :)
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