Woke up early this morning at about 5:30 as our bus would leave after our final night in the horrible hotel at around 6:45 to go to a second national park nearby, Huanglong (or the yellow dragon) (黃龍). The tour bus was going back to Chengdu (成都), but we had made arrangements to leave after the park and fly to Xi'an (西安) so we wouldn't have to deal with the tour anymore. Thinking it would be an easy day we were relaxed, but then we remembered the shopping part of the tour. This is where the bus pulls over at a specific store and the driver and tour guide get money for stopping as well as commission off anything you buy. First at 8am was an hour stop at a silver jewelery store. Getting back on the bus i was actually surprised that a lot of people bought things. Next was an hour stop at a crystal jewelery store, but before we could get there our bus broke down. The driver tried to fix it but he had to call in another bus so we could get to the shop and he would meet us there. The bus breaking down meant we had to shop till 11:00, but knowing we were close to done with the shopping I started waking up, but then around 11:30 we had another stop this time at a Tibetan medicine store. Again we bought nothing and the rest of the group bought quite a bit, except for a group of guys who also didn't care for shopping. Finally the tour guide got on the microphone and said we had one more shop and no one better dare get back on the bus without buying something, because that would be very embarrassing. Luckily for us this one was a yak jerky store with free tastings, I could get behind this, so we bought some yak jerky so we wouldn't be scolded.
Trying to scam us 1 more time
Then on to lunch, two waitresses at the restaurant started fighting in the backroom. We could only hear it, but supposedly this one was actually a physical fight. By now we have heard screaming matches almost daily in stores, restaurants or just on the street, but this is the first time we have heard a fist fight going on. Again the food was horrid as the tour was paying for it. It's now nearing 1:30 and we haven't even started towards the national park. The tour guide came up to us and said that she thinks we should just stay at the town the restaurant is in and skip going to the park, or we might miss our flight because the roads were bad; we might not find a taxi back and they would be returning too late, plus its at least an hour and a half ride there. Of course she would not be refunding our $40 each for park tickets and would probably keep that for herself.
The ride up
We decided we would risk it, if we needed to we would use the tickets to get into the park and then leave immediately just so she didn't get the money. Well the bus got there, after breaking down 2 more times, at around 3:30pm. The ride up there was amazing and I got some good pictures outside the bus window at about 4100 meters in elevation.
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| From 77 Days in China |
Random yak on the side of the road
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| From 77 Days in China |
On the drive up
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| From 77 Days in China |
More pictures from the bus
Fastest national park visit ever
We took a gondola up the mountain (every mountain in China has a gondola). And then hiked down. We were basically sprinting down the mountain at this high elevation for 2 hours. Worried if we made the right decision, but we did stop for some pictures.
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| From 77 Days in China |
On the top of the mountain
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| From 77 Days in China |
Calcified lakes
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| From 77 Days in China |
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| From 77 Days in China |
And you thought your job was hard, I don't think he can get workers comp either!
We missed the best part!
We got to the base by 5:30 and found a cab after about 20 minutes of looking (he had heard from another driver a foreigner and Chinese girl were looking for a cab and came to find us). He laughed and said we were going to be so early for our flight. Oh well, better than missing it. We got some more pictures of the scenery and he also informed us that we missed the best part of the town. He said if we come back he can set us up with his brother who runs a horse trekking tour and for ~$25 a day we can take horses into the mountain, food and tents provided. We are seriously considering going back later in our trip to take him up on this offer. He also told us more history on the town then the tour guide ever told us
The following are all from our scenic ride to the airport
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| From 77 Days in China |
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| From 77 Days in China |
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| From 77 Days in China |
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| From 77 Days in China |
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