Huanglong > FengHuang--ZhangJiaJie--ChengDu--JiuZhaiGou Day 08 - 24th August 2012 > China

We woke up early to catch flight. We supposed to depart at 04:30 but there's some group member that late and we depart on 05:00. Arrive at the airport, we have to hurry and we are the last one that enter the plane.

I got last seat.

After depart for about 45 minutes, we supposed to arrive shortly. But because the bad weather, we have to go back to Chengdu.

Then at 10:00, we take-off again and this time we succesfully landing.

Then we continued our journey using bus to Huanglong National Scenic Reserve. Our local guide called Xiao Bo. After eating lunch, we enter The scenic Reserve. We should be able to continue our journey, but our local guide afraid that we late so he called us many times to ask us to go down. And it's annoying. So we didn't finished until the rainbow pole.

Don't forget to bought Xiang Piao Piao drink because it's suitable with the weather.

Then we go to Jiuzhaigou Hotel and eat buffet dinner at Jiuzhai Paradise Interconinental Resort.

Tip: It's better if you stay in usual hotel than the luxury one because you will not enjoy the hotel much. The food is so-so, it's better to looking for street food. And spend your time to enjoy the scenic.

Chengdu Reseach Base Panda > FengHuang--ZhangJiaJie--ChengDu--JiuZhaiGou Day 07 - 23th August 2012 > China

Because we arrive late, so the local guide give us time to sleep more. We depart at 09:00.

We go to Chengdu Research Base Panda. But because the weather is still hot, the panda didn't active in the outside but they sleep in their room. There's Red Panda too.

Then we go to eat lunch.
And go shopping at Government Silk Shop. We also go to Wide and Narrow Street 宽窄巷子.

Then we go eat dinner, and shopping at Chunxi Road.
Then watch Changing Face Show which very famous in Chengdu which cost RMB 180.

And we go back to hotel to rest because tomorrow we need to take early morning flight.

Yuanjiajie Park > FengHuang--ZhangJiaJie--ChengDu--JiuZhaiGou Day 06 - 22th August 2012 > China

At 08:00 we walk to Yuanjiajie Park.

Then after eating lunch, we go to Baofeng Lake and ride boat in there.

Then we go to sand gallery picture.

After eat dinner, we go to airport to take flight to Chengdu at 23:30. But we got delayed to 01:00.

Visit E-Mei Shan then go back to Beijing # Sichuan - China

Today we will visit E-Mei Shan 峨眉山, is a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China and is traditionally regarded as the bodhimaṇḍa, or place of enlightenment, of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is known in Mandarin as Pǔxián Púsà (普賢菩薩). -- wikipedia

It's a bad weather when we come here, raining very hard and strong wind. And we didn't prepare any rain coat or umbrella so we all get wet. The cable car didn't operated on that day, so we can't see anything. It's foggie. We only walk around for a while, then decided to go to airport early.

My shoes got wet and uncomfortable, so we buy rattan sandals XD.

Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area and Face-Changing Show # Sichuan - China

The Leshan Giant Buddha 乐山大佛 le shan da fou (wikipedia) is a 71-metre (233 ft) tall stone statue, built between 713 and 803. It is carved out of a cliff face of Cretaceous red bed sandstones that lies at the confluence of the Min River and Dadu River in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan.

The stone sculpture faces Mount Emei, with the rivers flowing below its feet. It is the largest and tallest stone Buddha statue in the world and it is by far the tallest pre-modern statue in the world.

The Leshan Giant Buddha is located at the Lingyun Mountain’s Qifeng Peak. Qifeng Peak is located at the junction of the Minjiang River, Qingyi River, and Dadu River.

Other than the Leshan Giant Buddha, the Danxia Landform also contains abundant history and cultural connotations, such as cliff tombs and cliff dwelling.

After visiting The Lesan Giant Buddha, we are back to Chengdu to watch Face-Changing Show 变脸 bian lian (wikipedia).

Face-Changing Showw 变脸 is an ancient Chinese dramatic art that is part of the more general Sichuan opera. Performers wear brightly colored costumes and move to quick, dramatic music.

This show is very interesting. The performers wear vividly colored masks, typically depicting well known characters from the opera, and can change one face to another almost instantaneously with the swipe of a fan, a movement of the head or wave of the hand, without delay. That's whey they named it Face-Changing Show.

If you plan to go to Chengdu, you have to watch this show.

At night, we go to Emei, to stay in there. And because we take "Student Price Tour", our hotel happens to be an old dormitory, which has never been used already. I don't know if there's another guest, but the hotel itself is very creepy. 1 room is for 3 people, and very dim. If you talking inside your room, then another room could hear it. Fortunately, we all stay in same floor. The bathroom is very dirty too. Kind of experience XD

Arrived at Chengdu then ride bus to Jiuzhaigou # Sichuan - China

We arrived at Chengdu at midnight. Then we check-in to Hotel. We only sleep for few hours, then in the morning, wake up then eat breakfast then ride bus to Jiuzhaigou. It took approximately 11 hours journey.

We, 18 people, plus 3 Koren friends and the guide. Feels the bus is us, so we can call is our private tour.

The weater is cool at Chengdu, because it's early spring. We passed the river, mountain and cliff.

At first, we still can see river and the green tree.

As time goes by, we going uphill and it become colder. We can see snow in the peak.

It's cold but beautiful. Around the road was cliff. So the driver has to be extra careful. It's slippery too because of snow.

Finally we arrived at Jiuzhaigou. We eat dinner at one of Jiuzhaigou People's house while enjoy their singing and dancing. The famous food in here is lamb meat 羊肉 and Yak Meat (kind of cow) 牛肉 with famous spicy powder, Mala 麻辣 from Sichuan..

Mala Powder

Then they teach us to dance. We all follow the dance and wear some local costume. It's fun, especially I went there with my best friends.

After that, we back to hotel to take a rest.