9-22 Shared a taxi with 3 Malaysians for the 3 hour drive to
Huanglong NP. The drive there went over several big passes and
climbed up onto the beginnings of the Tibetan Plateau. It was a
pretty misty and cloudy drive, but at times you could see some of the
mountains as we went over the passes, several which were above
tree-line and reminded me a bit of going over trail ridge in a fog.
Most of the communities we went by were Tibetan, so there were plenty
of brightly painted houses, women adorned in bright clothes, and yaks
and goats jamming the road
This national park wasn't as big and much less crowded, which was
nice. It was also quite cold at first, which I wasn't too prepared
for b/c I didnt' know how high it was, but fine once I got hiking.
The base of the park is at 10,000ft and the highest point at the end
of the trail is 11,000ft or a bit less. There is of course a cable
car that runs to the top for quite the fee and all the chinese told me
it would be impossible to hike to the top in less than 3 hours, so I
should take the cable car, so I could be back to the bottom by 3:30
when it closed. The chinese aren't the most active or adventurous, so
I rarely listen to them on such things...it ended up taking me 1 hour.
The other funny thing about Asians, I seem to have noticed, is that
they are easily coerced into buying things that they probably don't
need (I think this is why they try so hard, usually in vein to get
western tourists to buy or hire certain things...though in china the
touts usually don't pay attention to western tourists and only the
chinese tourists bc they know they only get business from the
chinese). Anyways, back on the subject, on the way there before some
of the bigger passes there were signs to get high altitude medicine.
The malaysians of course had the taxi stop so they could get some
traditional chinese medicine (made from some sort of high altitude
rose and herb) for the altitude. At the park, you could also buy
oxygen canisters for the short 1km walk up from the cable car to the
main attraction. I found this absolutely hilarious! I somehow doubt
the need for oxygen at below 11,000 feet especially when you have
taken a cable car up, have had to spend at least one night in
Jiuzhaigou (7500 ft). How many people come to estes straight from sea
level to go over trail ridge (12,000+ft) and do the short hike up
there, or even hike to one of the alpine lakes or fly in from new york
and are on the slopes of breck or a-basin at nearly 13,000 feet within
the day. Maybe there is some altitude symptoms (headache, quesiness,
usually caused by dehydration or alcohol), but no need for oxygen.
But there was everyone carrying it up.
The park itself was very gorgeous. It was a canyon that ended up at
the top above treeline. So I liked that, I always enjoy being up in
the alpine. The reason the park is special is because limestone and
calcium deposits have formed all these little pools (that look a lot
like terracing) and waterfalls. The majority of the pools are a very
clear and cool aqua and turquoise color; however some were greenish
and yellowish and other shades of blue. At the very top was something
called multi-coloured pools guarded by a tibetan temple. These pools
had such vibrant blues, turquoise, and aquas they almost appeared to
be computer enhanced or something. Even in the cloudy and misty
weather it was like that...I can't imagine what it is like in clear
weather. But the good thing was that the pools still shimmered in
their cool colors even in the clouds. I think the only thing I really
missed out with it being cloudy (and it's easy to see what it looks
like when it is clear bc all of the photographers offereing to take
and print out pictures for the chinese (I think I mentioned that the
chinese are obsessed with having pictures of themselves in front of
everything) have examples of their best pictures) was some of the big
snowcapped 16,000 feet mountains that sit in the background. It was
also the beginning of fall colors, so there was some nice reds and
yellows around too. The hike down went by several more series of
turquoise and emerald pools and some waterfalls. There was also a
huge yellow limestone/calcium deposit "waterfall". It was like an
immovable river of yellow limestone.
Something I forgot to mention in the last post regarding the Chinese
gov't using the national parks as money makers as opposed to education
and protection involves the Panda. In the 70's and 80's when the
pandas plight looked bleak and the international community was
pressuring the chinese to save this species that has become one of the
headlining animals of wildlife protection groups, such as the world
wildlife fund, the chinese responded by making a few reserves and
setting up several breeding centers. They found at that the breeding
centers made lots of money bc it brought in loads of tourists wanting
to photograph and be photographed with the pandas. So they developed
more breeding centers and didn't set aside anymore reserves, thus
allowing a huge area of their habitat to be loogged out and built up.
In the end this has been quite terrible for the pandas bc the breeding
centers are actually hardly sucessful (the most successful one is
actually in san diego), and to this date no panda that was born in a
breeding center has actually be sucessfully released into the wild.
And of course since they failed to protect their habitat, there is not
much space to release them anyways. All this bc the reserves set
aside for pandas were not a tourist draw bc it would be as likely to
see a panda as it would be to see a mountain lion in RMNP, so tourists
didn't go. The other problem with this strategy is that pandas are
known as a "sexy" species as good ole Todd Palmer would say. It's a
species people like and thus want to save and by protecting it and
it's habitat it ends up protecting a whole load of other species
important for an ecosystem that most people could care less about.
With the panda, however, since they ended up not saving its habitat,
the other species in the pandas habitat have also become quite
endangered. And something else relating to money making by the
government, many of the touristy towns like Lijiang, the government
actually charges about 15 dollars to enter. This would be like
charging 50 bucks to enter estes or aspen or stanley. Crazy! They
were just starting to set up the barriers in both tiger leaping gorge
and in Yangshuo, so luckily I avoided that. But the chinese gov't is
really taking off with the middle and upper class tourism boom to make
money.
I also forgot to mention that I thought that Jiuzhaigou would be the
ideal and perfect national park for my mother and grandma. Mainly bc
they really love streams and rushing water and mountains, which this
park is just full of rushing water and the majority of the trails are
actually on planks over the tumbling water and waterfalls. The other
thing that is sort of ideal for them at the moment with their hip
surgeries is that there is that bus system so you can ride up to the
top and walk down and if you get tired you can simply catch a bus to
the next attraction or lake.
Tonight, I was feeling a bit bad in my stomach, but I went to the same
little restaurant-to get plain rice (mei fan)-- I have been going
everynight since I have been here since it is cheap. The tibetans
that run it, and don't speak a lick of english, just think I am the
funniest to be a westerner and coming there. They are so sweet and
nice. The men are always offering me cigarettes and the women
constantly pouring me more tea and bringing out more rice. Today they
took a shot glass and took some liquid from a jar with strange things
in it. I kept trying to say no, no, no. But they wouldn't hear it.
I smelled it and decided it was strong asian type whiskey, and said
what the heck, maybe it can kill anything bad in my stomach.
Tomorrow I was supposed to go back to Chengdu where I was looking
forward to a day with nothing to do. I haven't relaxed in a while. I
was probably going to sleep in (I haven't slept past 6am in probably
over 3 weeks now), watch some dvd's at the hostel, turn in some
laundry, and do some shopping at the big wal-mart style shopping
center nearby (they actually do have a walmart in chengdu, but I
definitely wasn't planning on going there) to get some supplies for
the upcoming himalays trip. But I decided to delay my bus by one day
in case it is sunny here tomorrow (forecast is for no rain, so maybe
that means sun), If it is sunny, I will suck up the expense and go
check out Jiuzhaigou again. If it is not, then I'll just stay at the
hostel and enjoy the cool air. They have free internet here and I
have 20,000 leagues under the sea and 1984 with me. It still gives me
the next day to go to the panda breeding center (yes I don't
necessarily agree with it, but it's the only chance to really see
pandas in China) and the next day my train isn't until pandas in China) and the next day my train isn't until late, so I have the time to finish up my errands
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