On day 3 of our Chan Brothers 9D8N Jiu Zhai Gou / Huang Long / Cheng Du travels, it was finally time to visit the main attraction of this trip – Jiu Zhai Gou (aka Jiu Zhai Valley National Park)! The breakfast buffet at Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou starts at 6:30am. As we were slightly earlier, we decided to find out what else are there in the hotel. Having checked-in at Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou a little late last night, it was opportune to check out the other facilities in the hotel…
Most of the facilities we found were located at the ground floor – same level as the lobby. There was a gym which was small but had weights which can help you to stay toned during your travels. The laundry room was relatively nice-smelling due to the detergent. There’s even a sofa with TV for you to rest while your laundry is being done. There’s also an unmanned snack store where you can pick your snacks and pay via the digital apps. Lastly, there’s also a kids area to keep them entertained as well.
Breakfast Buffet at Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou
Right before the opening hours of the Garden Grille (In-house restaurant of Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou for Breakfast Buffet), there was already a queue forming. This is because there would be many tour groups leaving for Jiuzhaigou National Park. Ours was to leave at 8am. Hence, getting breakfast earlier was our preferred option.
During this trip, we must say that the breakfast buffet at Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou has got to be our favourite. This is because as an international hotel, there are western options such as sausages, breads, salads and fruits. Of course, our favourite is the local selection which includes noodles! Although many people opted for the soup version, we told the staff to make the dry version so that we can add the minced meat sauce which we really enjoyed. We also had the egg and tomato gravy on the side which was rather delicious as well. We also had a surprising find – the banana mochi! Tom had several after breakfast as dessert each morning. The soyabean milk would top off breakfasts at Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou. During breakfast, we also met an Aunty from Calgary Canada where we shared that we had been there before. There seemed to be some kind of familiarity and she started to speak to us in Cantonese 😅
After breakfast, we took a short walk around the shopping area of Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou. There Conrad Jiuzhaigou and Hilton Resort Jiuzhaigou are also co-located in this precinct. Also in this shopping area, you’ll find restaurants, cafes and even a cinema. Hard Rock Cafe Jiuzhaigou is also found here. Best of all, the entire area is surrounded by mountains. On a clear day, the mountain peaks would have been very beautiful as well. Soon, it was time to finally visit the Jiuzhai Valley National Park!
Visiting Jiuzhaigou Valley National Park
Eventhough we left Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou for Jiuzhai Valley National Park at 8am sharp, we realised that we were actually quite late to the party! There was already no available parking lots for the buses and we had to park a distance away. After alighting, our guide had to get us into taxis (20RMB per taxi) to bring us to the entrance, instead of walking 20 minutes. To save cost, we did see many groups making this 20 minutes walk.
At the entrance of Jiuzhaigou National Park, IT WAS CHAOTIC!
@2bearbeartravel Behind every beautiful scenery at #JiuZhaiGou (see previous video), there’s always a #crowd where you’ll have to navigate – even during off peak seasons. Thanks to #Chanbrothers and the exceptional planning by our guides XiaoZhu and Julian, we had an #amazing day out at Jiu Zhai Gou! @chanbrothers.sg For more details, visit 2bearbear.com today! #china #sichuan #szechuan #crowded #behindthescenes #crowds #peak #peakseason #travel #travelblog #travelblogger #travelvlog #2bearbear #traveltiktok #travellife #nature #naturevibes #naturelover ♬ Don’t Give up Your Fight – Allison Aldrich
Everyone was rushing towards the entrance of the park as though the park was giving away some freebie! After reaching the actual entrance, it was another queue for us to scan our tickets. As our guide had our tickets tagged to our passport, we just had to enter our passport number at the gate. The tickets was 90RMB for adults and we saw on the screen of one of our travel mates that entry was free for those above 70 years old. During our wait, it started to drizzle rather heavily. Hence, it is also important to always prepare your umbrellas or rain coats for entry to Jiuzhaigou National Park!
After entering Jiuzhaigou National Park, there was a need to queue again! For those who didn’t charter buses, you’ll have to take these green internal shuttle buses that run inside the park, stopping at designated bus stops. Thankfully, we were able to get our own charter bus for the trip, allowing us to have better control over the time. Xiao Zhu told us that as Singaporeans, we would not have been able to “compete” with the locals for buses inside Jiuzhaigou. We witnessed alot of pushing, shoving and queue-cutting which would have taken a toll, especially on the elderly in the group, had we not have the chartered bus. For guests who couldn’t charter, they would have to join the bus queue. Enroute to our first stop, Julian entertained us with “Top of the World” and “Country Road”.
Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布)
Before long, we arrived at Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布), probably one of the most picturesque sights in Jiuzhaigou, in our opinion. When we were young, we would see paintings of a wide curtain of waterfall that looked like veils over rocks. This was it. When we finally saw Nuorilang Waterfall, it was beautiful and majestic. Thank the Lord for His marvelous creations! Check out these amazing views of Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布)…
Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布) actually derived its meaning from the Tibetan word which means “majestic” or “sublime”. Nuorilang Waterfall is located at about 2500m and is the widest travertine waterfall in China, spanning 300m. As mentioned earlier, the waterfall reveals a curtain or veil over the rocks. Absolutely stunning! So much so that Kate caught the photo above where Tom was just enjoying the beauty of the falls.
We also found out from Xiao Zhu that the water that feeds to Nuorilang Waterfall is the Xi Niu Hai (犀牛海) or Rhinoceros Lake. It is the 2nd largest lake, also known as 海子 (or child of the sea) in Jiuzhaigou. The name “child of the sea” came about because the people who lived here, though were not able to see oceans, think that the lakes would have been formerly from the sea. Hence, the name. Of course, today we know that the lakes in Jiuzhaigou are all freshwater lakes that are fed from the glaciers from the mountains.
Five-Flower Lake (五花海)
Five-Flower Lake (五花海) is our second destination at Jiu Zhai Gou Valley National Park. It is also one of the top 5 scenic areas in Jiu Zhai Gou. We were given about 40 minutes from 1030am to 1110am to explore this area. In fact, if you’re fast enough, you can do an entire round around the Five-Flower Lake (五花海). However, we decided to take it slow, take some really nice shots with reflections and autumn leaves while taking a break at the pretty clean toilet nearby. Love the deep emerald green colour of the Five-Flower Lake and the water is SO clear! This reminded us of our visit to Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe as well. The view to the mountains too reminded us of Tunnel View at Yosemite National Park.
Ri Ze Gou (日则沟) / Arrow Bamboo Lake Waterfall (箭竹海瀑布)
Arrow Bamboo Lake (aka 箭竹海) is named after the bamboos in the vicinity. We took about 20 minutes from 1120 to 1140 to check out the area. At Arrow Bamboo Lake, the waterfall is much smaller and there are only a couple of areas where you can get a good view of the falls – otherwise many of the views are blocked by the trees nearby. Hence, we had to queue a little but the queue wasn’t that bad when we visited. Soon, it was time for lunch!
There are a couple of food options at Jiuzhaigou National Park. Our lunch this time was a buffet lunch at the main visitor area within the park. Our guide Xiao Zhu, did give us a heads up to say that it isn’t the most delicious but it does keep us full and the restaurant has been doing what they had been doing for years now. Low expectations would be great.
As for the prices, we saw that our buffet lunch area (Area A), was 60RMB (~$12 SGD) and there were also options to just grab a box of food for 25 or 35RMB. Upon entry into our buffet lunch area, we were guided by the staff to either one of the 2 buffet rows in the area. Both buffet rows had the same food so just choose the shorter one. After you get your food, it is pretty much free seating within the dining area. In terms of food variety, it was actually quite good. You can find meats (both chicken and pork), vegetables, tofu, black fungus and soup. However, in terms of taste, it was just ok. Nonetheless, we did enjoy the melon/pork soup, which was quite sweet and kept us warm for the cool outdoors. Lunch started at 12pm.
Mirror Lake (镜海) / Pearl Shoal Waterfall (珍珠海瀑布)
After lunch, we reached Pearl Shoal Waterfall (珍珠海瀑布). Older folks may also remember that this is the iconic venue where the 1986 version of Journey to the West was filmed. This is also why sometimes you may find characters from the show dressed up for tourists to take photo with over at this location. This particular falls is unique because it starts off on a “beach” or relatively flat area, before the cascading falls. The whole board walk is one-directional. This is also why Xiao Zhu kept reminding us that this is a non-returning path aka 不走回头路. Some people did try to walk backwards “against the human tide” but had a pretty difficult time. The best views are actually at the bottom of the falls where you can get close up shots. So follow the one-directional path to the bottom and enjoy the views and instagrammable shots there. We reached at 13:10 and left at 14:00.
Long Lake (长海) – Biggest Lake in Jiuzhaigou National Park
Our next stop was Chang Hai (长海) aka Long Lake, the biggest lake in Jiuzhaigou National Park. There wasn’t much difference in views if you try to head down the boardwalk. Since we were just given 20 minutes, we hung around at the touristy area where the food and merchandise stalls were. This time, we bought a Jiuzhaigou-themed ice cream for 25RMB. During the trip, we found that different attractions had their own themed ice cream where iconic areas would be recreated on the ice cream, which makes you really think twice (take alot of photos with it) before biting into it. There are also several flavours to choose from as well. We chose the strawberry flavour which was really quite refreshing.
Wu Cai Chi (五彩池) Five-Color Pool
Our next stop at Jiuzhaigou National Park was Wu Cai Chi (五彩池), also known as Five-Color Pool or the Colourful pool. As it wasn’t a bright sunny day, the colours were not as bright as the prismatic or morning glory pools we saw at Yellowstone National Park in the USA. Still there were different shades of blue which made it pretty grand and there were loads of people on the boardwalk admiring the scenery as well. 2 of our travel mates got lost and we waited about 15 minutes for them.
After lunch, one of our travel mates was actually not feeling so well. So Julian, our Singaporean guide took her back to the hotel before joining us back again. Unfortunately, he had to wait for us for 2 hours at Rhinoceros Lake and by the time we picked him up, he was visibly cold with nose and ears reddish in colour. During our transit to the final stop, he shared with us that for the first hour, he was doing the touristy stuff, like taking photos and all but as time went on, it became too cold and he started to hide among crowds and behind pillars to block himself from the winds. Sacrifices that you’d have to make as our tour guide…😅
Double Dragon Lake Waterfall (双龙海瀑布)
Our last stop for the day was the Double Dragon Lake Waterfall (双龙海瀑布). As shared by Xiao Zhu, there is such a thing as 审美观疲劳 – which is sort of like a fatigue from seeing too many scenic areas. Or in Kate’s word, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. By now, we were indeed getting a little bit tired. Nonetheless, we still found the Double Dragon Lake Waterfall (双龙海瀑布) to be one of our top few favourite spots in Jiuzhaigou. The reason why this fall is named “Double Dragon” is because from the aerial view, the falls intersect and they look like 2 dragons coming together. This also creates an unique “V-shaped” waterfall which you probably won’t see anywhere else in Jiuzhaigou. This is also why Tom wanted to have his personal “Praise The Lord” signature shot here 😃
Jiuzhaigou Dance Show
Leaving Jiuzhaigou National Park, we took a short walk to where the bus was parked. Our guide bought some apples and tour mates bought some pears that actually looked more like grapes from the street vendors. Due to the traffic conditions, we were a little late for the Jiuzhaigou show – which depicted a lady who did the walk, kneel, pray as well as the sights, sounds and people she met along the way…
Our favourite part of the show was probably the Yak Dance. The nomad would call upon the Yaks (dressed by fellow dancers) and they would have a life of their own – breaking into their own dancers and having a mind of their own, which was quite hilarious to watch. The Yaks sang, danced and spoke which was quite funny.
We returned to our hotel – Hilton Garden Inn Jiuzhaigou at about 8pm. We immediately went out to check out the shopping mall located next to the hotel and we saw people dancing and circling around a fire. There was someone on the microphone, inviting passers-by to join in the traditional dance if they wished. By this time, many shops were already closed. A few shops like Adidas, Nike, KFC and Hard Rock Cafe were still opened. However, when we reached Hard Rock Cafe, it looked rather sad because live music was about to start at 9pm and there were nobody inside! Some of the staff were looking at us, hoping that we’d enter. The Asahi beer was 38RMB ($8 SGD) which was priced as what Hard Rock prices should be.
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@2bearbeartravel #Beautiful day out at #JiuZhaiGou enjoying God’s #creation and #nature! For more details, visit 2bearbear.com today! #2bearbear #travel #china #szechuan #sichuan #waterfall #nature #naturevibes #naturelover #curtainfalls #beauty #lake #travel #traveltiktok #travellife #traveltok #traveler #traveling #travelblog #travelvlog #travelblogger #travelgram #traveltheworld ♬ Life is Beautiful – Deep Music
It was a beautiful start to our travels in Jiuzhaigou! Our favourite scenic spots were Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布) and Double Dragon Lake Waterfall (双龙海瀑布) in Jiuzhaigou National Park. The nice cool weather in mid-October also made this visit very relaxing as well. Stay tuned as we visit Huang Long, another major attraction during our 9D8N travels to Jiuzhaigou, Huang Long and Chengdu!
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