Day 8 - Taoping

This morning, we were brought to a honey farm. You can learn and sample a few types of the unique highland honey. Of course you can buy some from the shop from at the end of the tour.


Again, canola plantation are everywhere in this season


Another up close shot


桃坪羌寨 - About 163km from Chengdu. Build around 111BC. Last read there are still about 98 Qiang families staying here.












Dried corns.




Washing around the stream.






The living room in one of the Qiang house.






This is a restaurant and this is where our lunch break too.






Some Qiang children.

Day 7 - Songpan

The journey continue. There were some fallen rocks at the front on our way back, as a results traffic jammed for a few miles but was cleared in half an hour time. Dangerous? Probably but this is pretty normal for this narrow and winding road. So no risk no gain for urban people like us.


Our location is still pretty high up on the mountain, look at the road that we are going to descent to.


Hydro power station are everywhere throughout the journey


Next, the zhang sourvenior shop, you can buy all the handicrafts and precious stones especially the Tian Zu if you are interested.


The entrance.


The were some lodging around the town.


Lunch at this roadside restaurant, you can bargain for from local leather upholstery


Keep a close eye on your hunt, while there are some are genuine handmade, most of them are actually mass production synthetic fabrics from city factories.


After lunch, pass by this town call Songpan

Day 6 - Jiuzhaigou 5

Next stop is Tiger Lake (老虎海). Lying further up towards Shuzheng Waterfall, is 2,298 meters (about 7,539 feet) above the sea level. There are three sayings on the source of its name. One is that the sound of Shuzheng Waterfall is as the tigers' roaring; the second is that in late autumn, the reflections of Five-Colored Pond forests shine upon the lake which look like the stripes of tigers; the third saying is that the tigers in the mountain are used to drinking water around the lake.


Shuzheng Lake (树正群海) consists of some 40 large and small inter-connected lakes stretching as long as ten Li. The waters overflow the inter-lake banks of calcite soil over-grown with willows, pines and cypresses and become a succession of waterfalls.






Shuzheng (树正) Waterfall is the first waterfall you will encounter in the valley. It is 62 meters (about 203 feet) wide and 15 meters (about 49 feet) tall. Though it is the smallest of the four main waterfalls in Jiuzhaigou Valley, it is actually one of the most spectacular all year round due to its location in the downstream.


The nearby Shuzheng stockaded village still preserves two primitive stone mills and one wooden bridge


Back to the main entrance, still can do a last ditch shopping here if time permit, mainly for souvenir and food


This inn is located right in front of the main gate. Not too bad if you want to do just Jiuzhaigou in detail, however I am not too sure if it's open to foreigner.


The night is still young, after dinner, we went to Sheraton Hotel for a cultural show. The show is casts mainly by the local Zhang people.


Pretty girl you have here, they looks so much different from Han people.


We have guy performer too


One final shot for the pretty girl, they were showcasing the different tribes costumes and dressings.