It was back road buses into Sichuan province and down towards Juizhaigou National Park. We ended up stranded in a little town for the night on the way but I can’t remember what it was called so I’ve skipped that entry. Not a lot happened there anyway - we hunted for a hotel, Helen broke down in a restaurant because we couldn’t read the menu and we were served nasty mutton noodles again. A normal day on the road.

 

Juizhaigou however, wasn’t so normal. Huge hotel complexes started to appear next to the road and eventually became so closely spaced they merged into an entire town of foyers and tour bus parking lots leading up to the entrance of the national park. We were pleased that we had arrived in the off season but not so pleased to find that our cheap hotel (one of the few that was open) had had its heating off for months. The ‘hot’ water that came on for two hours each evening wasn’t hot enough for us to shed the layers of jackets, hats

and gloves we had to wear inside the room to stay warm.

 

Luckily, it seemed to be warmer outside of the hotel so we rolled back the frosty duvet and set off early for a day exploring the park. A long line of a dozen or so ticket booths ran across end of the massive entrance gate car park. It felt like the entrance to a football stadium. Goodness knows how many people visit the park in the summer. The guide book said it was 1.5 million per year but that was before they built the nearby airport. There was a queue of North Fake clad Chinese tourists but thankfully only a small one.

 

We waited all of ten seconds before a flashy little bus picked us up and whisked us up into the alpine valleys. Sparkling blue lakes and waterfalls whizzed by on all sides. When the bus finally stopped at a high lake 15km into the park we were glad to finally be released into the crisp mountain air. Sadly the freedom didn’t last for long. The deserted wooden walk way on the far side of the lake was closed off - the sign said ‘forest fire season’, but I think was ‘the off season’ would have been more accurate. Determined to explore more than just the lake side bus stop we wandered further up the road. We started to spot security cameras hidden the trees. One of them must have been pointing at us. We had only made it a mile or so up the road towards the end of the lake when a van full of park wardens pulled up beside us shouting in Chinese. Apparently the only place tourists could be was either on a bus or on one of the wooden walkways (one of the ones not closed for ‘the season’ that is).

 

At this point you’re probably imagining the worst national park on earth. In fact, the place was so beautiful it was hard to be pissed off for very long at all. There weren’t really that many other tourists and the immaculate wooden walk ways, hovered neatly over the marshy ground and wound there way from one stunning view point to another. Just one of the crystal clear lakes or wide waterfalls would have justified the park ticket price but there were dozens. I’ve never seen as much natural beauty in such a small area anywhere else. There were so many prefect spots round the park the speedy little buses turned out to be ideal. They zipped you from one spot 5km down the valley to the next and ensured maximum possible waterfall watching time. Waterfall watching and viewing of chinese tourists time that is, both were equally as entertaining.

 

JL