Article and photos: Harry Trung Nguyen
After two years of being busy with everyday life, thinking that we would forget about traveling and enjoying nature, my husband and I finally had the chance to enjoy our "honeymoon" to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary.
A wonderful trip began. Before arriving at Jiuzhaigou, Chengdu city - the capital of Sichuan province - was a better-than-expected stop. The ancient Jinli district was sparkling and beautiful like in ancient costume movies, magical lanterns led the way through the narrow streets, on both sides were a few small stalls selling traditional Chinese goods. While sitting drinking tea, eating some dumplings, looking at the hanging lanterns, listening to the music, it felt like we were in a movie and not in reality.
From Chengdu, a bus ride of about 9-10 hours will take you to Jiuzhaigou, with picturesque scenery along the way. At two rest stops, hot Tibetan barbecue and bread are a good way to warm up in the chilly weather.
We arrived in Jiuzhaigou in the late afternoon, the weather was quite cold. It was strange to find a taxi to go back to the hotel. One thing I really like is that in China in general and Jiuzhaigou in particular, taking a taxi is quite okay, the drivers are very serious, there is no phenomenon of overcharging or cheating. In Jiuzhaigou, anyone can be a taxi, and the price for going anywhere around is 10 yuan. One very surprising thing is that when we just arrived in Jiuzhaigou, we heard music right next to us along with traditional dancing and singing by Tibetan girls and boys, young, healthy and full of life. In my opinion, it was a lovely welcome.
The next morning, the couple woke up at dawn and joined the crowd of tourists visiting Jiuzhaigou. Wherever the car went, the scenery slowly opened up, majestic and magnificent. From the clouds, the snow-capped mountains, the lakes, the trees, everything created a real paradise, making people wonder if this scenery was real.
Jiuzhaigou (Jiuzhaigou, according to Chinese pronunciation) is a nature reserve located in northern Sichuan province. This is one of the most beautiful tourist areas in China, and was recognized by UNESCO as a world natural heritage in 1992. This is thanks to the colorful lakes, multi-layered waterfalls, sedimentary limestone mountains, beautiful red and yellow leaf forests that cannot be found anywhere else... along with the awareness of conservation and a professional and sustainable tourism approach, it has created a unique natural complex, rare in the world.
Jiuzhaigou is very large, you can go for 2 or 3 days and still not finish. Normally, from the entrance, people will gradually go up by bus along the route and will stop at points for tourists to visit. However, we like to experience the opposite direction, from early morning, go straight by bus to the top of Swan Lake and then walk down. I find this way much more interesting. From Swan Lake going down, all the scenery gradually appears, beautiful and surprisingly interesting, from the green and red colors of the forests, to the magical jade green color of Five-Color Lake, Little Panda Lake... You can only go from one surprise to another, enjoy and enjoy.
Where nature and people are in harmony, couples feel more in love with each other, everything is more romantic in each other's eyes. However, you should also get used to the situation of too many tourists at certain times in this scenic area, because like you, everyone wants to set foot here once in their life.
The next day, the couple decided to spend a whole day resting, relaxing, walking around the small streets, full of fallen yellow leaves, as if they were in Europe in the autumn, so quiet and beautiful. The couple held hands, snuggled in warm panda hats, walking lightly, looking at green and red leaves, eating hot grilled meat skewers with boundless delight and secretly wishing time would stop.
Early the next morning, on the way back, I kept thinking about it through the mist on the bus window. A pleasant surprise for this trip: outside it was covered in white snow, the convoys stopped, everyone rushed out and took pictures in excitement. Although she had been in Europe for many years, my wife had never seen snow. When she got off the bus, the scenery was a vast white blanket of snow.
All the emotions, surprises, and feelings of the trip made my husband and I wish one day to return to Cuu Trai Cau, a dream paradise, and it has come true.
More information:
Each season in Jiuzhaigou is beautiful in its own way, however the most beautiful time is in October, when the forest turns yellow. This time is very crowded with tourists because it coincides with Chinese holidays. Other times are always quite crowded with tourists.
Travel: From Vietnam (Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh), fly to Chengdu, from here take a bus to Jiuzhaigou (about 9-10 hours). Another way is to take a train from Hanoi to Nanning, from Nanning take a plane or train to Chengdu. The train ride from Nanning to Chengdu is quite long, about 32 hours, but the cost is relatively cheap, only about 800-900 thousand VND/seat ticket. Most people often fly to Chengdu and from Chengdu continue to Jiuzhaigou. If you have more time, you can go to Huanglong Mountain. Chengdu is also a quite interesting place to travel.
Travel and sightseeing expenses: Short taxi rides in Jiuzhaigou usually cost around 10 yuan (about 35,000 VND); entrance tickets are a bit expensive, up to nearly 1 million VND/person. Accommodation can also be booked quite easily on the website www.agoda.com, with prices ranging from about 500,000 to 800,000 VND for a fairly comfortable double room. This is what we did.
Clothing/shoesp: The weather here is quite cold, especially at night. You should bring a warm hat, ginger tea, hair dryer, gloves, warm clothes…
Eat and drink: In the Sichuan region, food is often quite spicy, hot, and greasy; if you don't know Chinese, you will have a little difficulty ordering food. It's best to go to a restaurant with pictures, look at the pictures to visualize the dish and order. If you're not used to it, you can go to a KFC-style fast food restaurant there to eat.
Buy souvenirs:Yak beef is quite typical of the region; there are many different types of beef dishes, with different levels of spiciness and toughness, and they are not too expensive. You can buy them as gifts for family and friends.
Photography equipment:Jiuzhaigou will be quite suitable for compact cameras, lenses with focal lengths from 24-70 mm are suitable, it is not necessary to bring a telephoto lens. For couples, you can choose a set of compact mirrorless gear that still has beautiful photos with quality not much inferior to DSLR. Mirrorless cameras from Sony and Fuji can satisfy you.
