Spring Break: Day Four

I often heard people refer to Jiuzhaigou as a fairyland.  A place that didn't seem to belong here in the real world.  As the consummate skeptic I awoke on Tuesday morning expecting to be underwhelmed.  I was happily disappointed.   I was, however, underwhelmed by breakfast.  I am used to the fact that China's concept of breakfast differs from what I am used to.  That's all well and good, but no matter where you're from, this stuff was far from tasty.  The short bus trip that followed brought us to the entrance of the park, which is essential shaped like Y, with two branches spreading to the northeast and northwest.  Our first bus ride took us to the northeast branch, and I got my first look at the fairyland from the window as we climbed.

This garnered the same reaction from everyone in our group, "There is no way that's real."  As someone in our party pointed out, "It looks like Listerine."  It only got better from there. 

Our time on the bus was rewarded with the view you see above.  Definitely worth the wait.

A short walk brought us to the Primeval Forest.  As is my habit, I wanted nothing more than to wander among the trees for a few hours.

Primeval Forest, obviously.

When in China, do as the Chinese do.

Being a foreigner in a popular tourist spot like Jiuzhaigou is akin to being a celebrity, everybody wants a picture with you.

Told you.

My hero, Lu Zheng, the Chinese roommate that pretty much planned this whole trip.

As we made our way down, the views only got better.  We soon reached Panda Lake, so named for the black spots on the bottom.

You could pay to wear traditional minority clothing and take pictures.  This was common practice in almost all the places we visited. 

Another fan!

We walked past the lake to find ourselves in one of the strangest places I've ever seen.  We were surrounded by the slow trickle of water coming off a thousand little waterfalls as the water seeped towards the lake below.  They only grew more impressive as we continued.

That's a camera in my pocket in my sweatshirt pocket, I'm not getting that fat, I swear.

Just in case you still didn't believe I was actually there.

These lovely ladies thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of us while we weren't looking.  Sadly for them, I was looking, so I walked about three feet from them and took this picture.  I've never seen anyone actually die of embarrassment, but they were close.

The Pearl Shoals, so named for the peculiar way in which the water falls, not in streams, but in millions of individual droplets.

From Pearl Shoals we boarded another bus to reach the northwest fork of the park.  The ride ended at more than 10,000 feet in altitude.  While beautiful, it did cause some altitude sickness among our group.  Thankfully I was not counted among the casualties.

Long Lake, the highest and largest lake in the park.  It is twice as impressive in person, trust me.

Five Color Pond, or a giant pool of Gatorade, it's hard to tell.

When development outpaces common sense, you get this.

The day ended with us exhausted, so exhausted that I didn't even care that I hadn't bathed in three days.  I used to think I would never see a place to rival Yellowstone.  I still think that it is the greatest place I've ever been, but Jiuzhaigou is just as beautiful in its own way.  I really the hype would leave me disappointed, but I am so happy to say that it was everything I wanted it to be.  Now the ride back to Chengdu the next day was another thing entirely...