Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, China April 2016

April 19-20 2016

my first stop in my final tour around china.  i have been wanting to go here for some time, however i never found the time to go to avoid high season and chinese holidays.  so i fit this in before going to yunnan.

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Day 1 April 19 2016

Jiuzhaigou National Park (九寨沟风景名胜区)

i did the whole park in one day, it is possible but it is a very long day.  the park is split into two routes. it is recommended to take the route on the right first, up to the primitive forest then work your way down.  they have shuttle buses that stop at each lake and scenic spot, however you can also walk from lake to lake, which is quite nice as its less crowded and noisy.  but would still recommend taking the buses to certain lakes as the walk will be very long.  this first route took me a couple of hours but the time will depend on how much and how little you want to see.

Waterfalls of Panda Lake (熊猫海瀑布)

Arrow Bamboo Lake (箭竹海)

once you arrive at nuorilang you can then take the shuttle bus to the left side towards Long Lake.   then you can walk down to the colorful pond, which at this time of the year was low in water.  after that you can either walk or take the shuttle bus to see the other lakes on that side, but i decided to skip them and head back to nuorilang.  from there i did walk down the main route to see some more lakes and waterfalls.

Long Lake (长海)

Colorful Pond (五彩池)

Shuzheng Waterfalls (树正瀑布)

Shuzheng Village (树正寨)

Reed Lake (芦苇海)

I would definitely recommend visiting this park, obviously during the spring or fall is the best time to come as the lakes will be filled with water and the surrounding scenery filled with many beautiful colors. but during the winter although very cold, you can EXPERIENCE another type of landscape as everything will be white and far less people around.

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Day 2 April 20 2016

huanglong national park (黄龙风景名胜区)

up at the highest point on the way to huanglong and it had snowed the night before. everything snowy white.

best advice- pay a bit extra to take the cable car up then walk down.  not the other way around unless you want a really good work out going up thousands of steps.

Multi-Colored Ponds (五彩池）

Huanglong Temple (黄龙后寺)

this park is much smaller in comparison to jiuzhaigou so it can be done in half a day (2-3 hours).  the park is about 1-1.5 hours away from the aiport in the opposite direction of jiuzhaigou. so i would recommend that if you take a morning flight upon arrival go straight to huanglong in the afternoon then drive up to jiuzhaigou, stay the night then go to the park in the morning.  or do what i did, which was to drive to huanglong from jiuzhaigou in the morning (2.5-3 hours) then spend a few hours exploring huanglong then take a late afternoon or evening flight.  you can hire a driver to take around, the cost will be around 450-500 RMB.  they do have public buses but you will need to transfer buses and the bus times are not so frequent, so you will spend quite a lot of time waiting and figuring out where to go.

it is a very nice park but later i learned that i went during dry season, which is from january to may.  so many of the ponds were either completely dried out or had little water in them, and did not see any waterfalls.  the best time to see the park is from june to october.  but it was still a nice place to see.