Oct. 23, 2014九寨沟 Day 1
We all made it down to the lobby by 7:45 and easily partitioned ourselves in the bus. My seat mate would be Raphi for this journey. We left, surprisingly, on time, which is always a good sign in China. Driving out of Chengdu, I was glad to be leaving, the pollution was particularly bad for that day, it was hanging low in the surrounding farm land. The beginning part of the trip was passed mostly by listening to the audiobooks I had on my ipod. Decidedly the best way to travel ever. Then after I got bored with that it was general socialization for the rest of the journey. Jesse and Seth sat in front of me, Brennan and Cassidy were right there. Our only wild cards were Austin and Conrad, two people I do not know very well. They were alright but conversation with them was fairly stilted. The area outside of Chengdu is lakes, stark colorful mountains and tunnels. The ride was gorgeous. We stopped in the middle of no where on a mountain side for food. This was the first time in China, there was a meal I left hungry. The food was poor quality, even the rice was a disappointment. We were however, warned that this might occur, so I had my own bag of snacks prepared. So lunch was really some bread and fruit.
After leaving the mountain we drove for another few hours, and then arrived in a little touristy town that had a wall built during the Ming dynasty. This area we were now in is completely Tibetan, so even finding someone who spoke reasonable Mandarin was rather difficult. I got to hang out with Jesse and Alex for little bit, exploring the area. People pointed at me and my hair. One little girl let out surprised gasp when she turned around and saw me. Eventually we made it back onto the bus. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous, I can’t get over how beautiful it is. I spent a good portion of the ride just hanging out the side of the bus (not recommended for the faint of heart) taking pictures and just looking. The air is clean and the hills are painted with autumn.
Now what is is interesting about this area by the freeway is most of it is new. In 2008 Sichuan province experienced a massive earthquake that devastated most of the countryside. The areas where tourists go and by the freeway were rapidly rebuilt. But I wonder what would happen if we were to wander deeper in the countryside away from the proper tourist spots. I bet it would be a different story. Many of the villages destroyed were never rebuilt displacing thousands if not a million people, instead many of them were shipped into Chengdu or other major cities as apart of the urbanization process. In this area many local officials took the government money and never helped the people. I don’t know everything that happened, but if you are interested please look into it, it is a very interesting topic.
We passed over several mountain passes all the way up to see yak herding, hand farming (yak and yoke), and permanent snow. We were truly in the Tibetan plateau. Not to many pictures simply because we were riding the bus. We finally arrived in Jiuzhaigo, after 9 hairpin turns. The city was fairly touristy, but that is to be expected. We were taken throughout the town and to a small hotel area far outside the town. We arrived around 6:30pm. Dinner was as unspectacular as lunch, but oh well, I was honestly too tired to care. Wake up call is 6 am so I am going to go bed early and get some sleep. The air here is crisp, thin, and cold, reminds me of home.
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| Our large and very cold hotel room!! |
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