Mini trip out west: Huanglong & Jiuzhaigou

huanglong and jiuzhaigou are very difficult to get to. first, you have to fly to chengdu to get transportation to the area. then it's either an 11 hour bus ride or a 40 minute plane ride (the difference can be blamed on the mountain range the entire way). you land on the 3rd highest airport in the world at ~3500 meters, you take a 1-hour bus ride to huanglong, and then you gotta hike up 3.5 km.

all along the way your head is dizzy from the high altitude, the bus is winding in and out of the mountains, and your heart starts beating like crazy everytime you take a few steps. at least, that's what happened to my mom and i. but the result was this view, almost worth it. this was some peak made famous by mao zedong climbing over/around it during the Long March.

and THIS. this is the view we came to huanglong to see. the famous pools formed by calcite deposits (thank you, wiki).

i felt like jumping in and taking a dip, but then i'd have to pay a several thousand yuan fine.

the area was also very well preserved. there was a 500 yuan fine for smoking, and along the trail (since chinese men are so addicted to tobacco that they can't give it up for 3 hours) there are specially designated "smoking rooms". i was very impressed with the government =)

here's another pretty little waterfall thingy below. not all the pools were bright blue like the one above, most were this ugly yellow mud color. i think that's where the name huanglong - "yellow dragon" - comes from.

after huanglong it's another long-ass bus ride to jiuzhaigou, this time 3 hours. we arrived at night and i was in a daze from sleeping on the bus, so in the morning i was surprised to see our hotel surrounded by mountains.

the people in the area are tibetan, this is some sort of tibetan religous thing (sorry i can't be more descriptive).

my mom & my grandfather had a lot of fun renting these "traditional" tibetan costumes.

this is "five-colored lake". pretty!!

and some waterfall. my grandfather really liked it.

"peacock lake". the blue portion of the lake looks like a peacock shape from above.

"pearl waterfall", so-called because the little ridges make the water look like a million little pearls.

in the evening we were taken to a traditional tibetan home, which is their excuse for serving really bad unflavored food and making us eat on small wooden benches. i guess we got to do cool stuff like jumping over this entrance flame and singing and dancing with them.