Cultural scenes

I couldn't resist posting another scenery picture though.



As far as I could figure out from the explanation, this woman is wearing not a scabbard, but a hook for holding a milk pail when a yak is milked.



Old mill.



Outside one of the temples.



Tib*tan sky burial area (where the dead are left for the birds).

It Really is That Beautiful

The name 'Jiuzhaigou' is often pronounced with a sense of wonder; it's said to have some of the beautiful lakes in the world. I had researched going there before but the more details I learned, the more I hesitated - 300 rmb entrance fee, an additional mandatory bus fare to ride between scenic sites once you get in, ten thousand visitors per day ... didn't sound like a good time. When a friend invited me on the tour I accepted because I wanted to see Huanglong and had lower expectations for our day in Jiuzhaigou. (Our trip was mid week and not during a regular holiday, so even though there were lots of people there it didn't feel too crowded.)

We arrived as the morning fog was burning off:



The squirrels here are adorable, with stripes and little tufted ears.



Water, snow, rocks, and autumn colours blend into some of the loveliest natural scenes:






This lake has fish, and is so clear you can see the light shining through their fins.



These are the tour buses that you ride between scenic areas. It is possible to walk, but it takes much longer to get through.



Waterfalls:




The shot every Jiuzhaigou visitor has to get:



Back in Canada I had heard Chinese people say that the Canadian Rockies are OK but mountains in China are way more beautiful. I'd always dismissed this as homesickness, but now am beginning to understand.

The tour package, Chinese style

Near Huanglong:



We spent 1800 rmb each for our tour which included flights, entry tickets, hotel and all meals except for one lunch for two days. The same level of tour but designed for foreigners I have seen for one to two thousand American dollars. It was well worth the cost but a tour designed for Chinese travellers has some unique features. For instance, along the bus route are mandatory shopping stops. The first was at a Chinese medicine store. They were selling the usual collection of unidentifiable things, and there was a guy with a tray of bloody, freshly hacked off antlers that could be bought by weight. They had several concoctions that could be steeped in alcohol. We tried this mixture which was supposed to be good for the brain:



Many places that sell Chinese medicine have the highly un-ecologically correct feature of a stuffed baby deer. (Just a guess, but I think it is related to the healing power of deer antlers.)



During the bus ride our guide who was local and spoke thickly accented Mandarin told stories, introduced features of the area, and taught us a few words in Tibetan. Before our first meal stop, he took some pains to explain that the food available was not going to be very good (short growing season for vegetables, and the earthquake had closed roads so tough to get things shipped to the area.) But that is no excuse for bad cooking.



Pelts of these long, sharp faced animals that I can't identify were in many stores, both winter and summer coloured.



Our first bus stop in Jiuzhaigou featured many local people with costumes for us to try on - they literally line up and surround you as you get off the bus. To try on a costume is 10 rmb, if you get them to take your picture it is much more expensive. I was basically dressed in a costume (my hat pulled off and replaced with a tib*tan coloured and fringed cap; my arms pulled into sleeves of the dress) before I could protest.



The hotels at Jiuzhaigou (our guide claims all hotels are like this) have hot water at certain times of the day; in the evening between 8 and 11:30 and in the morning from 6 to 10 or so. The morning of our departure, we got a 5:30 wake up call and had to be on the bus before six. Yes, before the hot water was turned on. My problem with this, is that the trip back to the airport included two more mandatory shopping stops (you are required to get off the bus) that took up more than an hour.

7 am shopping stop at a jewellery store. When was the last time you shopped for jewellery at 7 am?



The next shopping stop was at a yak meat store. There were many interesting preparations of yak meat and other parts of the yak. I was kind of disinclined to buy anything after having been woken up so early though.

The Yellow Dragon

The northwest, mountainous part of the province is mostly inhabited by Tib*tan and Qiang people. I spent a couple of days sightseeing in the area with a tour group and will do a few posts about the trip.

Huanglong (yellow dragon) is so named because from the air it looks like a yellow dragon stretched out in the valley. This usually booming tourist area has been very quiet this year since the earthquake closed the roads, but visitors can still fly in.

The limestone terrace ponds filled with blue-green glacial water are the main draw here.

It's a good hike with beautiful scenes all around you. I think waterfalls are at their best when frozen.


My visit comes slightly after what is considered the best time of year to go there, but the weather is perfect (about ten degrees C) and there is still plenty of autumn colour on the trees.


At these heights, some people have trouble with altitude sickness. There are a couple of these oxygen stations on the way up. I did quite quickly feel a higher heart rate/shortness of breath even though it was a pretty gentle climb of only 3 km. But those who often climb with me (you know who you are) probably think that is de rigeur anyway.



The sand waterfalls.



Five flower pool at the top of the climb:

Barbecue at the Park

You pay for pits, trays, and charcoal and then cook up anything you've brought either on grill trays or on a rack over the flames. There are lots of people selling grill-ready, skewered and seasoned food at the gate too. There is only one park in town with a barbecue area; I think we need a couple more!

Nouvelle Cuisine

This is the tableside preparation of a shaken salad at a place that serves 'new style' Sichuan cuisine. The server came with a tray and a baggie full of chopped cabbage and fruit, then emptied the produce into a tall jar. He then added the other ingredients, introducing each one - salad dressing, strawberry jam, apple jelly, white pepper, other seasonings. He then put the lid on and shook everything together in the jar, and added some croutons at the end. It ended up tasting like a sweetish coleslaw made with Thousand Island. We did eat every morsel of it.



Mashed potatoes (土豆泥 or potato 'mud') should be ordered whenever it appears on a menu; the Chinese versions are fantastic.



We were pretty puzzled on receiving our fish and had to ask the server how to eat it. She explained that the cooked fish was already in the bowl, but we could also nibble on the breaded and fried skeleton. It was one of the best fish dishes I've had here but very numbing/spicy from hot pepper and Sichuan peppercorns.

Injury

I sprained my ankle last weekend playing soccer and was reminded of how something that is a small problem in your home country can be a much bigger problem when you are abroad. For one thing, you can't just go out and buy ice - corner stores don't stock it and I was not about to make a trip to the big foreign-run supermarket in my condition. Because I had just moved in the only thing in my freezer was a box of mooncake, so I ended up holding frozen mooncakes against my ankle to keep the swelling down. Friends graciously contributed medicine and a pressure bandage, which helped a lot. Every Chinese person I met told me I needed something called yunnan bai yao to get the circulation going and so I ended up applying some dark, strong smelling Chinese medicine that made my foot tingle.

The bus has a regular announcement, roughly translated: "Caring for elderly and weaker ones is a traditional virtue of Chinese people. If there are old, weak, lame, pregnant, or child-carrying passengers please let them sit." So by the time I hobble onto the bus usually someone has cleared their seat for me. When I went to my regular Chinese TCM place for a massage yesterday, they strongly suggested I 'bao yao'. I had no idea what that meant so I agreed just to find out and it was a poultice. They mixed some brown powder (also very smelly) with water and bound the stuff in a cloth against my ankle, then told me to leave it on until the following day. The swelling and pain are nearly gone and I am back to my normal routine though might not be able to play for a couple of weeks.