Jiuzhaigou valley

The hotel was pretty good but the mattress was not to Western specification and the breakfast was not to Western tastes. And altitude was getting to some of us.
Nevertheless, we bussed off on a beautiful day and traversed some beautiful countryside. We got up to about 4,000 metres before descending fairly sharply. We are now in Sichuan province as the spiciness of lunch noodles confirmed.
The land is pretty open with yaks and tents dotted around. Towns pop up seemingly randomly and there seems to be a development push by the Chinese. Fast rail construction is at a pace. See a mountain here and they just bore a tunnel through it. No mucking around.
So we've checked into the Howard Johnson Resort Hotel (which is about the same as it sounds). It's on the fringe of the Jiuzhaigou National Park, which we will explore tomorrow.Read more