JiuZhaiGou
I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking here, but what should be immediately apparent is that this place is amazing. Best described as most of the wonder of a high rocky mountain valley with many of the quirks of China, JiuZhaiGou took my breath away (and not just because it was 8,000 feet higher than Chengdu). A mountain stream full of Travertine disperses rather than channelizes, forming a wide, shallow stream that occasionally rockets over waterfalls and makes turquoise blue pools.
The non-scenic excitement of the trip was largely negative for me—I ate something bad the day before and was a little sick on the ride there. This was exacerbated by a night of frequent trips to the bathroom, a supposed 5:30 am start time (further exacerbated by a phone call in the local dialect at 4:45 am telling me [I think] that our start time had been changed to 5:00 am), a 12 hour bus ride, and a tour guide who not only loved to hear himself talk. Matt and I were shortly in trouble with the tour guide because we didn’t want to pay an extra US$ 30 to go to a bonfire party. However, he taught me that it is important never to sleep above 3,000 meters, or else you might stop breathing. Unless it is night time, then it is ok.
Two other non-scenic parts of the tour were notable: the first was that when some of the others noticed that I was not eating much at dinner, they ended up toting me off to a pharmacy where they argued over whether to get me traditional medicine or western medicine for whatever I had, and then gave me a slew of advice including that I should take a 30 minute hot shower with the water pointed at my neck to make me feel better. In a hotel with no heating, done and done.
The other was that we got a great deal on our trip because the tour we joined included stops at five (5!) shopping centers on the way back where they first give you a lecture about the importance of their product (crystals, medicine, yak meat, jewelry, or bamboo products) and then send you into a maze of a shopping area to buy overpriced but very very important goods (they will improve your energy, cure any ailments, give you strength and taste great, make you look professional, or dry quickly). I bought a wash cloth made of bamboo fibers for less than a dollar, which I needed to wash my face.
