Although not on our original itinerary, we were told by multiple people that if you are in Sichuan you must visit the Jiuzhaigou national park. With this in mind we booked a couple of inland flights and slipped it in-between Chengdu and Chongqing. Jiuzhaigou translates to the nine villages valley and is one of China's most prized natural treasures. The Tibetan culture is very strong in this area, which was an added bonus after our trip along the Sichuan-Tibetan highway was cut short.

The natural scenery in Jiuzhaigou is amazing! Being from NZ sets pretty high standards, but just check out the photos and you will see that this is something truly special. I would compare the experience to visiting Milford Sound, where you find yourself staring in awe at the unique and natural beauty.

Jiuzhaigou attracts around 17 million visitors every year (averaging almost 50,000 a day) and has dozens of buses and boardwalk style paths to get people around the 50km of roads/tracks in the park. Fuelled by our great experience at Tiger Leaping Gorge we were keen to have 2 days of hiking through the beautiful scenery of Jiuzhaigou. Unsurprisingly things didn't go quite as originally planned...

We arrived early at the park on the first day to beat the crowds and following the recommendations of a few sources we attempted to catch the bus up one leg of the park with the intention of walking down the 18km track back to the central area. After almost an hour of waiting, waving arms and asking questions we found out that the buses to that area didn't start until 9:30am - a fact unsupported by any signs or announcements. After finally getting to the top and appreciating the scenery we set off on our hike down the track. Around the first corner we came across a barrier notifying us that the path was closed due to forest fireproofing. Following the lead of some other visitors we set off down the road, only to be stopped after 200m and informed that the only way down was on the buses. So, back onto the bus we went and quickly found that our 4 hour hike had turned into a 15 minute bus ride!

Never ones to give up easily, we consoled ourselves by the fact that some of the seasonal lakes in that area were not in their prime and set our sights on another area of the park. So after another bus ride up past beautiful lakes we eagerly anticipated our walk. We set off along the boardwalk around the back of the first lake - closed. Around the front of the lake - closed. Attempted again to walk down the road - when a worker started yelling "hello! hello! wrong way!" After repeating the process a number of times I (Aidan) took out my frustration at one of the park rangers informing him that I had not spent my money travelling to Jiuzhaigou and paying to enter the park only to have them close all of the walking tracks because they were too lazy to maintain them in the low season. The poor guy had no idea what I was saying and seemed quite amused at the whole situation, while I felt slightly foolish but somewhat better from venting. We resigned to the fact that there wasn't much to be gained from fighting the system so continued the path down using the buses, and savoured the short walks along the way.

By the time we got back to halfway it was late afternoon and the park staff were encouraging people to start making their way toward the exit (on buses of course!). After our easy ride through some amazing scenic spots we were eager to stretch our legs and were ready for a streak of rebellion. We set off walking down the path towards the park entrance around 12km away. The first part of the track turned out to be almost 2km of unobstructed boardwalk paths. Upon reaching the end of this section we took to the roads and remained mostly unbothered by the passing buses. As the afternoon rolled on one of the bus drivers was very eager to convince us to get on board, trying to explain in Mandarin that we get on the bus or else "bye-bye".

Seemingly unable to understand that we actually wanted to walk they eventually let us continue, probably writing us off as crazy foreigners. At one stage we literally hid from what turned out to be the last scheduled bus and we were left in peace to continue on our walk. After a solid hour of uninterrupted walking we were stopped by a no-nonsense bus driver who was obviously tasked with the job of picking up all of the stragglers before sunset. We didn't have much choice but to get on board, only to find that the park entrance was less than 1km away around the next corner!

Although things didn't quite go as expected, overall it was a great adventure!