Back in Nanjing! It's gonna take a while to post all the blog entries I have written on our epic journey - I hope you'll bear with me :) 
This place is totally over-hyped. Supposedly it's so cute, so historic (all fake, the city wall is full of kitsch statues of guards and reproductions of catapults). It's a "gateway" to Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong Parks, but the roads are so bad (through mountains and under construction) it takes over two hours to get there. We only went to Huanglong, because Jiuzhaigou is supposedly even more crowded. To do both just seems like more of the same and they both charge considerable entrance fees (200yuan and more). Huanglong means Yellow Dragon and the name is due to the yellow limestone sediments that wind along a valley like a long Chinese dragon... ok, you need quite a bit of fantasy to see the dragon shape. But the limestone forms pools in all shades of yellow, orange, brown and the water in it has all shades of turquoise - it's really pretty. Whenever a log, root or some other natural barrier is covered with the lime stone sediment it forms an edge and altogether they make for this web of natural terraces. It has to be seen to be believed.
The Unesco thought the same and declared it a World Heritage Site (we're starting to realize just how full of those China is), which means your usual good infrastructure, bus loads of tourists and high prices. Sadly, you can only follow a board walk and not roam around by yourself, but given what we saw other tourists do - throw around litter, climb over fences - it seems very necessary to preserve the park. I hate to sound judgmental, but Chinese make really terrible, inconsiderate tourists. No respect for the environment. The park's high entrance fee is probably due to the hoards of garbage collectors they employ.
Songpan is also famous for offering horse treks - but B. declined :) There's a pedestrian street in the center, but it mostly has shoe stores. And on the outskirts they are building "New Songpan," it looks as if it will double the number of inhabitants once it's occupied.
All in all, absolutely not worth the torturous bus ride. But it's nice to eat some Chinese food for a change! What's the hype with all the Tibetans? Their food is miserable and everything smells like yak butter! Why always Tibet, Tibet, Tibet??? Is it so strange if a tourist in China actually wants to see Han Chinese things and eat Chinese food? The Lonely Planet seems to think so. On the other hand, their guide book for Bangkok recommends you go to Chinatown there... notice a theme?
This place is totally over-hyped. Supposedly it's so cute, so historic (all fake, the city wall is full of kitsch statues of guards and reproductions of catapults). It's a "gateway" to Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong Parks, but the roads are so bad (through mountains and under construction) it takes over two hours to get there. We only went to Huanglong, because Jiuzhaigou is supposedly even more crowded. To do both just seems like more of the same and they both charge considerable entrance fees (200yuan and more). Huanglong means Yellow Dragon and the name is due to the yellow limestone sediments that wind along a valley like a long Chinese dragon... ok, you need quite a bit of fantasy to see the dragon shape. But the limestone forms pools in all shades of yellow, orange, brown and the water in it has all shades of turquoise - it's really pretty. Whenever a log, root or some other natural barrier is covered with the lime stone sediment it forms an edge and altogether they make for this web of natural terraces. It has to be seen to be believed. 
The Unesco thought the same and declared it a World Heritage Site (we're starting to realize just how full of those China is), which means your usual good infrastructure, bus loads of tourists and high prices. Sadly, you can only follow a board walk and not roam around by yourself, but given what we saw other tourists do - throw around litter, climb over fences - it seems very necessary to preserve the park. I hate to sound judgmental, but Chinese make really terrible, inconsiderate tourists. No respect for the environment. The park's high entrance fee is probably due to the hoards of garbage collectors they employ.
Songpan is also famous for offering horse treks - but B. declined :) There's a pedestrian street in the center, but it mostly has shoe stores. And on the outskirts they are building "New Songpan," it looks as if it will double the number of inhabitants once it's occupied. 
All in all, absolutely not worth the torturous bus ride. But it's nice to eat some Chinese food for a change! What's the hype with all the Tibetans? Their food is miserable and everything smells like yak butter! Why always Tibet, Tibet, Tibet??? Is it so strange if a tourist in China actually wants to see Han Chinese things and eat Chinese food? The Lonely Planet seems to think so. On the other hand, their guide book for Bangkok recommends you go to Chinatown there... notice a theme?
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