[Travel Notes] Is the expensive and remote Jiuzhaigou Valley worth it?

1.

Last week I wrote about my trip to Chongqing, and this week I will continue sharing my guide to Sichuan~

This time in Sichuan, I mainly went to two places, one was the center of Chengdu, and the other was a chartered bus from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou.

Let’s talk about Chengdu first. This is my third time in Chengdu. The first time was when I went to college with my classmates and climbed Mount Emei for three days and two nights. The second time was when I chartered a car from Tibet and drove all the way back to Chengdu. I spent a few days in the center of Chengdu.

This time I came here mainly to bring my parents to play.

After visiting People’s Park, Kuanzhai Alley, Jinli, and Chunxi Road Pedestrian Street, I like the People’s Park in Chengdu the most. It is probably the most lively People’s Park in the country~

Make an appointment with a few friends, have a cup of tea, chat or play cards for a long time:

Although the area is not large, it is well planned. There is also a market with stalls selling various gadgets, a gardening flower show, a blind date corner, etc.

I stayed in a very Zen B&B in an old residential building near Taikoo Li. I booked it on AIRBNB and the price for a set of two rooms was only 300 yuan:

The decoration is very unique, but the disadvantage is that it is a bit noisy. Chengdu people are all night owls, and I found that no matter where I live, as long as it is a low-floor hotel, I can always hear people laughing and talking in the middle of the night...

I thought I could see handsome guys and beauties walking in Taikoo Li for street photography, but there was nothing there. I heard from a local friend that it was banned, which was a pity...

I also went to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in Chengdu. Before I went there, I thought that pandas are found in many zoos, so why go to a zoo that only has giant pandas?

After going there, I felt that the living environment of pandas here is incomparable to other zoos. You can see pandas of all ages fighting, eating, climbing trees, sleeping, walking, and acting cute. It is really healing and worth it. Got it!

The bamboo forest trails in the park are also very impressive~

For those who can't tolerate spicy food, fans recommended me to this Tao Lin restaurant, which tastes pretty good. There are many non-spicy dishes to choose from, and the food tastes very cost-effective.

I like their special pot side buns the most. I don’t think I’ve had this anywhere else:

It is worth mentioning that when I met the service staff in Chengdu, I felt that their happiness index was very high.

For example, restaurant waiters, regardless of age, many of them are happy to serve you from the heart. Not only do they have a good service attitude, they will also be happy to chat or joke with you even if the store is busy.

Several online ride-hailing drivers also told me that they only work five days a week, about eight hours a day, and earn seven or eight thousand a month. Life is not just for making money, but for enjoyment.

Combined with the impression of People's Park, the whole atmosphere in Chengdu is very comfortable ~ great!

2.

Next, we will focus on Jiuzhaigou Valley.

Before going to Jiuzhaigou, I was wondering how many days to go when I was making a guide.

Generally speaking, if you carpool or join a group, the itinerary is divided into 3 to 5 days.

If it is 3 days, it will take one day (about 8 hours) to drive from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou and one day to come back. Only the whole day of the second day will be spent in Jiuzhaigou.

I felt that this kind of trip was not worth it. I took the bus for two days out of three days, but actually only had one day of fun, so I finally chose a four-day chartered trip.

The main attractions recommended by the travel agency for the 4-day itinerary are as follows:

Day 1: Bi Penggou

Day 2: Dagu Glacier:

Day 3: Jiuzhaigou

Day 4: Huanglong:

But I very much regretted choosing this route. In the end, we didn’t go to the Huanglong and Dagu Glacier attractions, so I found the two online pictures for everyone .

I thought that a 4-day trip would shorten the time spent on the road. I wouldn’t have to sit in a car for 7 to 8 hours every day, and I would be able to visit scenic spots on the road. In fact, that’s not the case!

Because the two scenic spots, Bipenggou and Dagu Glacier, are not scenic spots that go straight to Jiuzhaigou, but have to make a big detour, as shown in the red route in the picture below:

In this way, in addition to having a full day to play in Jiuzhaigou Valley, you still have to take an 8-hour car ride every day for the rest of the time, passing through scenic spots such as Bipeng Valley, Dagu Glacier, and Huanglong. Although a single ticket costs about 200, the actual There are only two or three hours left for you to play.

Therefore, I would like to give a suggestion to friends who have not ever wanted to go to Jiuzhaigou:

If you can rent a car, drive directly to and from Jiuzhaigou and spend two or three days in Jiuzhaigou County, because in addition to the most famous scenic spots, Jiuzhaigou County also has many attractions nearby, so it doesn’t have to be so hard to get there by car. .

We went to Bipenggou on the first day. To be honest, the scenery was really nice~

But what makes the experience very unpleasant is that after buying the ticket, you have to buy a bus ticket in the scenic spot to go up the mountain. As a result, you only go up halfway up the mountain, and then you have to spend tens or hundreds of dollars to take a battery car to continue going up. Entrance to the attractions costs 200 yuan per person.

We saw snow when we reached an altitude of 3,600 meters. However, because the shuttle bus in the scenic area was very stuffy and you had to wear a mask, and the turns were sharp and fast, my mother started to have altitude sickness after arriving here, making her dizzy and uncomfortable. , and then I kept vomiting on the way down the mountain and back to the hotel...

After that, my mother complained all the time that this was money to seek suffering, and she would never travel again...

Therefore, no matter how beautiful the scenery is, if your body cannot bear it, you will not be in the mood to enjoy it. For those who go to the plateau for the first time, if they are not very confident about their physical fitness, it is best to buy some rhodiola rosea to eat in advance. However, altitude sickness can vary depending on the person. , nothing happens to me.

On the first day, my mother suffered from motion sickness and kept vomiting. On the second day, it was my father's turn to suddenly suffer from kidney stones and back pain. The original trip was to go to the Dagu Glacier, which is relatively high in altitude, so of course it was canceled and I took my father to the hospital for medical treatment instead.

After going to the hospital for a checkup, the doctor said that there was a large stone stuck in the ureter and it was impossible to pull it out on its own. He suggested ultrasonic lithotripsy. However, the hospitals I visited in several counties did not have this equipment. I had to sigh. It's so difficult for people here to see a doctor...

Fortunately, by the second night, my dad was no longer in pain. The doctor guessed that the stone might have fallen into the bladder and the bladder was large, so he was fine for the time being.

At the same time, my mother’s altitude sickness was almost gone on the second day, so we could have fun again on the Jiuzhaigou trip on the third day!

The map in Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area is Y-shaped. It is best to play from top to bottom. It will be much easier to walk:

Each scenic spot in the scenic area is mainly connected by taking the shuttle bus in the park. To put it bluntly, the scenic spots inside are various large and small Haizi (lakes).

The sea here is similar to the sea in Bipenggou. It looks like a calm lake on the surface, and you can’t feel the flow of water at all:

In fact, there is a waterfall below, and the water in the lake is flowing downward:

Theoretically, the water in the lake is melted ice and snow from high altitudes, but with the amazing water flow of the waterfall, I am also puzzled as to why the lake can be filled continuously all year round. Nature is so amazing.

The sea in Jiuzhaigou Valley is bright blue-green and crystal clear:

Every time you take a photo, it becomes a painting:

But after seeing too much, I feel a little tired of aesthetics, because although there are dozens of small attractions in the scenic area, they are all similar!

Let’s talk about the shuttle bus in the scenic area. The ticket is about 200. The bus is included by default. There are various stations in the scenic area, with some going up and down. The waiting time for the bus is uncertain, and there may not be a location.

In order to give my parents the best travel experience, I spent money to buy a VIP sightseeing car, which costs 400+ per person:

To put it bluntly, each person will pay about 200 more, and then you will be transferred to a minibus with 20 people. There will be a tour guide on the minibus who will follow your car throughout the journey and take you to check in the main attractions.

However, this so-called VIP experience is actually not as good as taking a bus!

Because this is equivalent to signing up for a small group. Not only do you often have to wait for other tourists who are not punctual, but your time at each attraction is also strictly limited. There is no freedom at all. The tour guide's introduction to the attractions is also very perfunctory. This money is really wasted...

The advantages are not without, that is, the backpack can be placed in the car, so you can relax when you get off the car. The itinerary is more reasonable, allowing you to visit all the major attractions in one day. Otherwise, it would be difficult to plan it by yourself. You will definitely miss some attractions if you go there at one time, or you may not control your time well.

Despite this, I still don’t recommend everyone to buy this VIP, it’s really not worth it.

What I also want to complain about is that I deliberately chose to go to Jiuzhaigou at the end of October. I thought I could see colorful forests all over the mountains and plains, but it turned out that the colors of the trees were not as beautiful as those on the road...

The photo below is already the most colorful photo I have taken of the colorful forest in the scenic area. It is still far from the pictures on the Internet:

I don’t know whether it was because I went at the wrong time, or because the scenery in the entire scenic spot has deteriorated after the earthquake. Instead, I can see many dead trees everywhere, and roads are still being built in some places.

After calculation, the cost of a single car charter for Jiuzhaigou for 4 days and 3 nights was about 5,000. The three of us spent a total of more than 8,000, because it also included hotels arranged by travel agencies and large tickets to Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area.

It is commendable that in many scenic spots in Sichuan, seniors over the age of 60 are free of entry fees, unlike many other places where only those aged 65 and above are exempt.

You have to ask me whether it’s worth it to go to Jiuzhaigou, which is so expensive and so remote. From an economic point of view, I don’t think it’s worth it. From a landscape point of view, I think it’s just that. I didn’t find it particularly amazing. Anyway, I don’t plan to go there again. The second time~

For photography enthusiasts or people who particularly like pristine nature, it may be worth it, but after all, life is all about experience!

On the way back on the 4th day, I also canceled the trip to Huanglong because the altitude of Huanglong is also high and I was worried that my parents would not be able to bear it. In addition, I heard that the road there is difficult to walk.

Then we temporarily asked the driver to take us to the site of the Wenchuan earthquake, and we saw with our own eyes how terrifying the destructive power of nature is...

Fortunately, God has a good eye, and it didn’t snow when we came here. On the way back, we actually saw the mountains covered with snow. The vast white field was really beautiful~

After seeing the snow, I felt that this trip was worth it.

After all, for southerners, seeing heavy snow is so rare~

Finally, a little tip: If you are taboo about the smell of cigarettes and traveling in a chartered car, you can ask the travel agency or platform in advance to send a non-smoking driver~