Day 25: Jiuzhaigou (九寨溝)

Jiuzhaigou
This is an image heavy post, because we spent the entire day at a national park. This is at the top of a mountain about ~3000m and all the lakes are filled with calcium which causes a very blue color to the lake and any trees and branches that fall into remain intact and are basically fossilized looking like they just fell in even though they have been there for decades. Most of the trees that are in the lake were cut down during the cultural revolution when most of the past of China was destroyed and they required lots of trees to build new things, but then left the extras and they fell into the lakes creating an amazing scene.

The other interesting thing about this park is there is a bus that brings you to the top of the mountains and you can get off at any scenic overlook. At each of the spots there were a couple hundred Chinese tourists fighting for pictures; however if you took hiking trails (not really trails, they are all wood plank sidewalks) you could get away from the mass groups. We found a rule early on that was true all day: if the sign said the trail was less than 300 meters to the next sight, it was filled with Chinese tourists; however if it was over 300 meters to the next site EVERYONE took the bus.  Well I shouldn't say everyone.  During the 4+ hours we spent on these trails, we ran into about 4 other foreigners, and 2 Chinese tourists, although the fact that they were on the trail meant they probably weren't actually from China.

 These are really the actually colors!  I only captioned a couple, the rest are either calcified lakes or waterfalls!

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

A tree growing out of another tree!

From 77 Days in China

No one around, must be a long hike

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

AH! Another foreigner!

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

The walk towards the end

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

A lake full of reeds.

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

This was really scary, right outside the park, from the left is protected water, to the right is normal Chinese water.