Panda-monium
This morning we went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It was pretty sweet to learn about and observe these lovable and utterly helpless (can I say stupid?) creatures in their unnatural habitat. One thing’s for sure … I got some fantastic photos of those living teddy’s!
This afternoon we’re going to take it easy, relaxing here in the hostel then traveling to a unique park called People’s Park. We’ll then get some local cuisine, pack up, and head to bed early to get ready for the long trek tomorrow to Jiuzhaigou.
We still haven’t decided whether we should go with a Chinese tour or travel independently. There are pluses and minuses for both options … and we already know of the vastly different experience that each route will provide. Either way, I probably won’t be able to tell you about it for the next five days or so.
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:44 pm EST
The Chinese tour it is. Sure, we’ll be carted around on someone else’s schedule, forced to take quite a few “shopping” pitstops, and subjected to unbearable annoyances like 7am bus karaoke and Lemmings Exreme … but it’s going to save us a lot of money and allow us to see another park, Huanglong. As long as we keep our sense of humor and our patience, we’ll be fine.
No, not fine. We’re gonna dominate!
June 23rd, 2007 at 1:54 am EST
who is “we”???
June 23rd, 2007 at 9:02 am EST
Hi Lance,
This is Scott… I took the Zhangjiajie photos that you posted on this blog quite a while ago. I’ve been ’stalking’ your blog ever since and just had to chime in when I saw this entry. (awesome blog btw)
I’ve been to Jiuzhaigou myself and I know you’re just as aware of the terrible tour groups as I am. Stay away from them, especially in Jiuzhaigou.
The best way to experience Jiuzhaigou is to walk the trail up to the end of the right-most gorge, take the bus back to where the two gorges split/start and then take the bus up to the left-most gorge (and back to the entrance). You won’t have time to do this with a tour group and you’ll miss out on a lot of great spots to take photos.
Huanglong is not nearly as impressive, and if you miss out… it’s not a big loss.
Minibus from airport to entrance of Jiuzhaigou cost 60RMB. Hotel (double) cost 300RMB night. Park admission (2 days) is 280RMB (I think). Taxi from Jiuzhaigou to Huanglong cost 300RMB (not really worth it, although the landscape is really nice).
This is the peak season, but you can still avoid most of the crowds if you walk the entire trail and stay away from bus rides/bus stops. Have fun!
June 25th, 2007 at 6:12 pm EST
I VOTE FOR SCOTT!! Love, MOM
June 26th, 2007 at 7:09 pm EST
Thanks for the advice, Scott. We ended up going with the tour group after all, and it was a fairly good experience. The hotel rooms and food weren’t too good and it required a bit of patience and humor with the potentially frustrating Chinese version of tourism. But we had complete freedom inside the parks (and coincidentally did a very similar itinerary to what you suggested) and actually had some fun with some other Chinese folks.
Overall, we saved a lot of money … we paid 680RMB/person for 4 days of transportation (Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou to Huanglong to Chengdu), hotel rooms, food, and admission prices … and Daisy got a 100RMB student discount too. They were counting on us to spend a lot of extra money on shopping stops, extra meals, and entertainment options, but we declined and had a fun time on our own instead … so the tour company definitely lost money on us!
June 27th, 2007 at 11:25 am EST
Good to hear! I’ve only had bad experiences with tour groups, so I guess I’m quite biased
I’m a bit surprised that you were ‘let free’ inside the park though. All the tour groups I saw inside were a bunch of yellow or red caps following the ‘flag bearer’… but then I never thought that the few people that I saw on the trails could actually be from a tour group like yours
I hope you had a great trip. Jiuzhaigou was definitely one of the big highlights of my trip to China.