Monday, February 06, 2006

Jiuzhaigou (九寨溝) & Arrow Bamboo Lake (箭竹海)

Jiuzhaigou (九寨溝) is a UNESCO listed Natural Heritage Site in 1992. Jiuzhaigou means “Valley of Nine Tibetan Villages”. It is well known for its scenic beauty and the fairyland appear; the beautiful emerald lakes, colourful forest, rushing streams of water and the magnificent multi level waterfalls and snow covered mountain peaks . The water in the lakes is very clear and one can see the bottom of the lakes despite the deep depths.

It is located approximately 450 Km north of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province in China. One of the hindrace for traveling to Jiuzhaigou is the dreadful long journey; but these doesn't stop tourists from visiting Jiuzhaigou. There are thousands of tourists visiting this scenic place daily. It was indeed a tiring journey to reach this fairyland. Have to travel through the winding road and the whole journey took us around 10 hours. The temperature at day time range from 2 °C to 14 °C. Night time is around -4 °C.

I will post the scenic photos by batches :) Too many photos... I will start with Arrow Bamboo Lake (箭竹海).

Arrow Bamboo Lake (箭竹海) (elevation 2,618 meters) is 6 meters deep; covers an area of 170,000 square meters. Even in cold winters, the lake still glistens. Some of the scenes for the Chinese martial art movie, Hero (英雄) were taken here - The flying fight scene between Jet Li and Tony Leung .

8 comments:

Pandabonium said...

Wonderful. More beautiful pics.

Did someone say "bamboo"?

Jellyfish said...

waaa..
what is that root deep in the water?
'yan sang' ar?

u can curi curi plug it out from water mar
kekekekekekeke........

btw, nice scenery :)

Selba said...

the lake look so calming.... :)

Chen said...

pandabonium,
u r fast :D
yeh... bamboo...
and I see panda in Chengdu as well :D

jellyfish,
what yan sang pulak :D

cannot lah.. it is an offence to smoke nor plucking the flowers or leaves or whatever things in Jiuzhaigou. Feeding the wildlife or fish is prohibited as well.

selba,
more scenic lake sceneries on the way..
The Colourful Lake & The Five Colour Pond etc etc...

Francis Ho said...

aiyoh! looks positively delectable to paddle there! with the right attire, even paddling in the midst of winter is not a problem - unless of course if the lake is frozen! Quik quik! Post more pics of lakes! I LOVE H2o!

Chen said...

fh2o,
it is cold in the early morning but warm at noon time :) I have no idea whether kayaking is allowed there or not? :P Some of the lakes are frozen & some are not..

PhotoCrazy said...

no public transport to take you around? maybe rent a bullock cart

Chen said...

photocrazy,
There are coaches to bring us around, but to appreciate the beauty of the nature, walking & looking around is still the best way :)