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The Long Lake is one of the largest lakes in Jiuzhaigou. This is looking from the south end of the lake. The water runs smoothly between the mountains and goes as north as touching the distance snowy mountain at the far end (as seen in the middle picture of this pananomic set). Click the pictures for the enlarged view.
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Jiuzhaigou, crowned with names like "Heaven on Earth" and "World of Fairy Tales", is a secluded little high mountain valley (~4,000 meters above sea level) in Sichuan, China. It has a vast area of over 60,000 hectares, a scenic area 80km long, over 100 lakes, and coupled together with its unique habitants of the Tibetans and Qiang tribes of midwest China.
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The Lakes
The water is the main attraction of Jiuzhaigou. Its beauty is more than words can describe. Color changes as the season changes. It's probably the only place on earth where green, yellow and red vegetation & plants, multi-colored lakes, snowy mountains, blue skies, and magnificent waterfalls can all be seen all together in the same place, even in the same picture!
The millions of crystals formed on the bottom of the lakes can actually reflect sunlight and produce all kinds of colors.
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The water in the Multi-Colored Pool is so clear that you can actually see its crystaline lake bed. As you walk along the pool, you see its color changes! Different seasons and different water temperature produce different looks.
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The Waterfalls
UNESCO recognizes Jiuzhaigou as a World Heritage site. In part, this is probably due to its waterfalls. Jiuzhaigou has four spectacular waterfalls.
The Pearl Shoal Fall, for instance, is the loudest one because you are walking so close to the water that you can touch it! The massive volume of water hitting the rocky wall creating a huge amount of watermist which when lighted by sunlight will look like millions of golden pearls falling from the sky.
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The loud thundering sound of Pearl Shoal Falls is sensational. You will get wet by the "Pearls".
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The Magnificent Huang Long
When we tour Jiuzhaigou, we will not miss Huang Long. The Valley was added to the Natural World Legacy List in 1991. Undulating along the southern part of the Minshan mountain range in Sichuan, this "Yellow Dragon" has been featured in numerous folklore legends and historic moments, some dated all the way back to 4,000 years ago.
To most people, Huang Long is known for its magical yet natural landscape of lime formation. Over 3,400 multi-colored, uniquely shaped ponds are naturally formed and interlaced along the valley. The local people claim that the lime formation would take about 100 years to grow an inch in thickness. Some of the ponds have walls of 3 to 4 foot high!
Hiking up the mountain is required to see the spectacular views. It proves to be a tough trip due to the high elevation and lean air. But if you don't mind spending a few hundred dollars (RMB), you can hire some of the local transporters who would love to "hand carry" you up there.
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Hiking up the mountain of Huang Long, you will see colorful ponds with layers of clear water in front and snowy mountains in the distance.
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To see the magnificent Huang Long Five Color Ponds and the Snow Treasure Peak temple, one must hike for 4 hours uphill! For the needed, oxygen supply is for sales there.
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One cannot possibly capture all the beautiful scenic views of Jiuzhaigou. The links below will give you some more great photos and documentaries about Jiuzhaigou by some great website owners. Please drop by their sites and continue to enjoy this great piece of heritage jewel on earth.
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My friend, David, visited Jiuzhaigou on Oct, 2002. He had taken some great pictures of the lakes and waterfalls there. He also had produced a slide show which you can download and view at his website by clicking his photo on the left or here.
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Another great photo site is hosted by Adam Minu, who visited Jiuzhaigou around mid Oct, 2002. The scenes captured by Adam were quite different than David's. This shows how the color of Jiuzhaigou changes along with the seasons. Please visit Adam's website by clicking his photo on the left or here.
Adam also visited other interesting places in the world, including New Zealand, Cambodia, Korea, etc. Please go take a look.
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Andy Lam had visited Jiuzhaigou two times already. He's a great photographer and in my opinion his photos are some of the best in memorizing the true vivid colors of Jiuzhaigou. Please visit Andy's photo gallery by clicking his photo on the left or here.
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There is something about Kam Leung's Jiuzhaigou website that impresses me. Kam also went to Jiuzhaigou two times. The first trip was on Sept 17-21, 2001, and the second trip was on Oct 15-20, 2002. Kam kept a great log of these trips. The amount of details he documented and the way he captioned his pictures are simply outstanding. Stories were packed behind the photos. Kam has documented a few other trips on his homepage too.
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