2009 Anniversary Vacation Day 2: Jiuzhaigou

Before diving into the action, I think it is important for me to mention that the scenery in Jiuzhaigou is indescribable and our pictures, while nice, absolutely do not do it justice. It is a place of such shockingly majestic beauty that I was moved to tears during our first bus ride in. Reminiscent of Eden or Shangri-La, you feel like humans were perhaps not really intended to see this place, but for some unknown reason are now given the privilege of entering. It is awe-inspiring, humbling, and must be seen to be believed.

Let's start with a map of the area with our first day's journey highlighted in red...

It's a very big place, but there are buses regularly running on each of the main roads, so you don't have to hike everywhere if you don't want to. We reserved three days of our vacation here, one for each branch of the Y shape you see in the map, and we used every ounce of that time (spending 9-10 hours in the reserve every day, starting at about 7:30AM).

Katherine standing at the entrance (with the visitor's center behind her)

Buses like these were available to take visitors to most places in the reserve
(they also had versions of these buses which had been converted into portable bathrooms)

Heading in!

The day was overcast and cloudy, with spotty rain, but that made for some mysterious mountain photos

Our first stop: Mirror Lake

The lake living up to its moniker

The water is a surreal shade of turquoise...

...and crystal clear

On the boardwalk, which covers much of the reserve, spreading the tripod out to get a low-angle shot

Arriving at Nuorilang Falls

One section of the falls taken at a slower shutter speed to get motion-blur on the water

A short video of the falls

A rest stop, still under construction, just north of Nuorilang Falls at the center of the reserve

Inside the rest stop, there is a huge market for local crafts

...and also two buffet restaurants, one of which we decided to try for lunch

It was Sichuan-style food and the most noteworthy items for me were the steamed pumpkin, walnut bread, and potatoes (which were intriguingly Jell-O-esque!). The sweet red rice congee, rice and cornmeal, and stewed yak meat were also quite good. Overall, though, the food was a bit too salty and expensive (relatively speaking), so we decided that we didn't need to repeat the buffet again (and would instead pack picnic lunches).

Back on the trail...

In front of Long Lake

...with many visitors crowding the outlook...

...some of whom are using portable oxygen cans to combat altitude sickness

As we walked down closer to the edge of Long Lake, the sky began to sprinkle, but only for a short time

I dub thee "Hokie Tree" (or, maybe, Chinese red birch)

Descending the steps to Five Color Lake

A closer look at Five Color Lake

Bathrooms like these were peppered throughout the reserve at regular intervals

Katherine purchasing some silver jewelry from a local village resident

The front entrance to one of the reserve's villages

Tibetan script on one of the village flags

In the village, the yak's jealous rage was about to be unleashed upon the tiger

Exiting the reserve after a long day, a Chinese soldier stood firmly at attention

Before completely leaving the area, we stopped in the visitor's center gift shop...

...and found a purveyor of dried yak jerky!

They also sold this, shall we say, "private" part of the yak (eaten for virility, but not by me)

We picked up a pound of jerky for the next day's picnic lunch

Similar jerky stores could be found all over town

...a town which generally looked like this (taxi included)

For dinner, we stopped in one of the first Sichuan restaurants we saw

Our main dish was "cold container fish" (though there was nothing cold about it)

It was chock full of spices, as shown in the ladle, but mostly dominated by Sichuan "flower pepper"
(which tends to numb your mouth)

We also had a very common yak and potato dish

...as well as eggplant stir-fried with green chilies

In the middle of our meal, someone delivered a live chicken, and it was immediately weighed in front of us

The amount of food was beyond what we could finish, but we did our best

Afterwards, though, I did sneak a piece of the hotel's "apple pie" (which, sadly, was not impressive)

Next up: Our exploration of Jiuzhaigou continues!