Between the 8th and 10th July Liv and I travelled around Jiuzhaigou and it’s absolutely stunning park. The park itself was absolutely stunning. The waters are completely translucent but have a rich blue colour. Again with the other posts about Shanghai, Jiuzhaigou was completely packed out with tourists but I would definitely go there again.
We travelled from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou by bus after my wife’s father’s cousin, who lives in Chengdu, helped us book a tour holiday to Jiuzhaigou. The journey was simply horrendous! We spent 10 hours on a bus going there where we had to listen to karaoke (which I’m not a fan of anyway but in Chinese it’s really really bad). When we finally got there we got to a hotel that was filthy. The walls were crumbling, it was infected with mosquitos and the rooms were filthy. By the time we got there I was really tired and nearly ready to cry but the last straw was the evening show.
We went to a Chinese theatre in driving rain with our group and the usher at the venue was so rude. He would speak in a condescending “hello!” voice. I’m sorry but if you talk to me like that in the UK I will very likely punch you but of course in China I wouldn’t dare. Anyway, we left the theatre without watching the show, went back to the hotel, packed our bags and jumped in a taxi to Jiuzhaigou, which took around 1.5 hours even though there was a car crash not involving us, and ended up in a hotel close to the resort. This hotel was clean, staff polite and overall it was what we should have done in the first place.
When we returned to Chengdu we took a flight back, which incidentally wasn’t much more expensive than the bus and took just an hour.
One of the things that really made me laugh was completely famous lack of people queing up. It was pretty hot so Liv and I fancied grabbing some food so we went to this hot food stand, where they do things like burgers, fried chicken, etc but also ice cream. There were literally dozens of people shouting “me!” “me!”. Have you seen the film Finding Nemo? If you remember the scene with the seagulls all shouting “me!” that’s what it was like.
Anyway, here are a few of my favourite shots from Jiuzhaigou. I’ll eventually make a book about China so keep an eye on the blog here for updates or even go to: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com
One of my favourite shots from China. China was literally my first holiday in around 8 years so I didn’t really take that many portfolio type shots, just lots of fun shots. In quite a few places in China one can dress in the local outfits and I think Liv looks adorable in the outfit above.
Five colours lake. Depending on the angle at which you look at this small lake it changes colour, hence being called Five Colours Lake
The market above was about two to three hours before Jiuzhaigou but is typical of the many markets we saw on the way. One can stop, grab some really tasty food and a drink then carry on with their journey. Think of it as like a UK motorway service station.
We saw a couple yaks in Juizhaigou (and I’m a little ashamed to say we ate yak in one restaurant, which was really tasty) but just outside of Jiuzhaigou you can pay about 10p and sit on one and have your photo taken. I chose not to but I took a shot of Liv on one (wasn’t very good quality so didn’t post on here)
Jiuzhaigou valley. View of Jiuzhaigou valley as you drive into it
Long Lake Jiuzhaigou. The above lake is the longest in Jiuzhaigou Valley and one of the most spectacular. This is a real touristy shot but one day I’ll go back again (hopefully in the autumn) and take some proper photos.
One of my favourite moments in China was sitting by this lake. Mirror Lake is spectacularly beautiful but Jiuzhaigou was a really nice relief as it’s a lot cooler than the cities. To give you an idea Shanghai at this time was approaching 50C and at one point in our journey was over 50C. Jiuzhaigou, which is in central China is about 3000 metres up so is a lot cooler at around 25C. I love temperatures up to around 35C so this was perfect. But anyway, this part of Jiuzhaigou was for whatever reason fairly quiet so we had a sit down, had a drink and ate some food surrounded by stunning scenery but with relatively few people around.
I have no idea what this says but I like the inscriptions. I may get Liv to translate it for me but I’m worried a might be disappointed about what it translates to
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