Day 2 (9/16) – Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou/Huanglong

We got packed breakfast (boiled egg, apple & pastries) at the lobby before we headed for the airport. Unfortunately we suffered flight delay again for over four hours attributable to foggy weather condition at Jiuzhaigou. Can’t claim insurance this time though as it’s a domestic flight and less than five hours :(.

The flight was a little over 40 minutes & we arrived at the Jiuzhaigou Huanglong airport around 13:40. Due to time constraint the local guide KiKi Chou (no fault of her) made another unwanted and unwelcome change in our schedule. The original plan is taking the cable car two third way up the Mount Yucui, hike to the Multi-Coloured Ponds near the top then trek downhill to sightsee some of the 3,400 colored ponds, five waterfalls, four stalactite caves plus three ancient temples. It’d take two hours or more for the round trip. The Huanglong highway was one of the few useable expressways for emergency supply after the 2008 great Sichuan earthquake. It’s now under repair from abuse by military trucks & supply vehicles. And there’re a lot of dangerous s-curves & intimidating precipice & abyss along the route. So even if we forego our lunch it’d be too dark for a safe return coach ride. So we went for Plan B & were given 90 minutes to hike & meet again at the starting point around 17:00.

After lunch at a local restaurant, we took a two hours plus coach ride to Huanglong. As the Huanglong Valley lies at an elevation of 3,400 metres (10,170 to 11,483 feet), many of us bought Rhodiola Rosea PE (Tibetan herbal extract) and bottles of oxygen. It’s RMB120 for a box of dozen vials plus one tank of 5-minute oxygen supply. Nevertheless, we should have taken the herbal extract days before our journey. I was ok even carrying my 25+ lb (11+ kg) backpack of photo gears but was half an inch shorter after the trip. Though my wife suffered from the bumpy ride, lack of sleep and high attitude ailment and turned deadly pale and started to vomit moment prior to our arrival at Huanglong. Many thanks to Dinny who volunteered to stay behind with her at a nearby hotel lobby and allow me to take photos of some ponds and waterfalls. Just when we started the uphill trek, the sky opened, moderately (perhaps punished me for deserting my wife!). And I left behind my rain gears at the coach! Then Frank came to my rescue and shielded me with his umbrella while I busily clicking away my two cameras (Nikon D3 and F6). The Yellow Dragon (Huanglong) Valley is located in the northeast corner of Sichuan Province where a unique tiny limestone corridor lies hardly more than four miles long and less than 1,000 feet wide. It’s like an isolated secret garden with walls & floor gleaming in solid marbled limestone. It was added to the World Natural Legacy List in 1991. Most us headed back to the meeting place after reaching the Shining Fall. And I borrowed Carol’s backpack to protect my cameras against the elements. Thanks again Carol.

The return journey was almost event free except for a pit stop allowing someone who needed desperately to answer the call of nature. We got back on time for our buffet dinner at the Intercontinental Resort Jiuzhai Paradise.

Equipment Used: Nikon D3 + 70-200/f2.8 and Nikon F6 + 17-35/f2.8 with Fujifilm Reala ASA 100 film (aka Fujifim SLP800, the film scanner).
Peter: Canon Powershot SD400