Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Our final stop for the trip as well as our plane departing point, capital of Sichuan province, Chengdu.

29 Oct

After a long bus journey of 11 hours, we finally reached Xin Nan Men Bus Station (新南门车站） in Chengdu at around 6pm. We took cab from there to our hostel, Nova Traveller's Lodge. The taxi are all metered, however, it's a challege to get a taxi in Chengdu. It cost RMB14 from the bus station to the hostel.

The hostel is very good, it's new and clean. The staff are friendly. We stayed at 4-people dorm with shared toilet, however the toilet is clean and well-maintained. It cost RMB50/night for a person in 4-people-dorm. A large eating place is walking-distance away from the hostel.

The weather in Chengdu is much warmer than Jiuzhaigou, Langmusi and Xia He. It is the autumn temperature that we like so much.

30 Oct

We were so exhausted at this point of time already, hence we woke up very late today and had to forgo our plan to visit the Panda Breeding Centre. The pandas will be sleeping in the afternoon, hence there is no point of going there.

After a short discussion, we decided to go to Huang Long Xi Ancient Town (黄龙溪古镇). It's a one hour bus ride from Xin Nan Men Bus Station (新南门车站）, for RMB10/person. Please remember to buy the bus ticket back once you reach Huang Long Xi.

Welcome to Huang Long Xi!

The ancient town is very commercial now, anywhere people are selling souvenir and stuff, hence the feeling of ancient town is not there much anymore. I bought their food specialty, the black sesame cake (黑芝麻糕). It tastes quite nice.

Inside the Ancient Town

We took the last bus back to Chengdu at 6.30pm.

31 Oct

Visiting Chengdu is not complete without visiting Leshan Giant Buddha (乐山大佛）. We booked a car from the hostel for RMB600 to go to Leshan Giant Buddha (乐山大佛）. The trip took around 2 hours to reach there.

The soil and statue are red

The Buddha Statue there is really huge, it's 71m in height. We needed to queue very long to go down the stairs and see the statue from below. Alternatively, people can take the boat to go to the front part of it. The soil used to build the statue is red in colour. Apart from the statue there is nothing much else to see there. We had lunch in the restaurant nearby.

View from the top

After climbing down this stairs....

... and this is the real size!

On the way back, we alighted at Carrefour in Ba Bao Road (八宝街) to visit Ten Fu Teashop (天福茗茶） to buy some tea leaves home. I bought some of Iron Goddess tea (铁观音）, jasmine tea (茉莉茶) and green tea (竹叶青).

Today is also my birthday, Sachini, Gaya and Vij bought me a birthday cake, the hostel also gave me small cake to celebrate my birthday. A sweet small celebration to mark 25 years of my life.

1 Nov

After checking out early in the morning and store our luggage, we proceed to the Chengdu Panda Research Base and Breeding Centre (成都大熊猫繁育研究基地）. We took cab from our hostel for RMB40. It's slightly more expensive than bus, however it saved us lots of time and trouble.

The Centre houses 87 pandas, while now there are only around 2000 pandas left on earth. The pandas are very active in the morning, they are eating and playing. Apart from the giant panda, they also have the red pandas inside.

Cute butt

Lazy Bum!

The red pandas, don't look like panda at all!

After visiting the centre, we spent the rest of the day walk around the city of Chengdu and had our yuan yang hotpot (鸳鸯火锅) as our dinner before we left for airport to fly back.

Jiuzhaigou, China

Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟） is one of the most beautiful place I ever been in my life, a collection of lakes, waterfalls and mountains combined with autumn colours. It is located at Sichuan province (四川省）, 400km away from Chengdu. The altitude varies in the range of 2000 - 3000m above sea level.

26 Oct
We reached Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟）around 2pm, and after shopping in some of the hotels/guesthouses, we decided to stay at Jiu Yang Quick Hotel (九阳捷酒店）. The price of the room is RMB180/night for 4 people room. It is located around 1km away from the entrance to the park, taxi to the entrance of the park cost RMB10. Despite the peak season in the month of October and November, rooms are widely available near the park.

There is nothing much that can be done near the entrance to the park, there are some stalls selling local specialties for shopping only.

27 Oct
Following the suggestion on the travel forum, we tried our best to be the first in the ticket counter queue, we reached there at 6.30am. They started selling tickets at 7am. The entrance ticket to Jiuzhaigou National Park is pretty expensive, RMB220, on top of that, we need to buy the bus ticket for RMB90.

We decided to go all the way up to the highest point at Promival Forest (原始森林). From there we took the bus down again to Arrow Bamboo Lake (箭竹海) and walk towards the entrance from there.

原始森林

Arrow Bamboo Lake (箭竹海)

The view of the park is simply amazing, one of the best view I ever seen in my life. The autumn colours are beautiful. The weather is very good as well, make the blue sky blended well with the rest of the scenery.

Panda Lake (熊猫海)

Panda Waterfall (熊猫瀑布）

Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布）

28 Oct
The weather was not as good as the previous day, however, we still haven't finished walking all the trails inside Jiuzhaigou National Park. So we went in again (and paid again the expensive entrance ticket because there is no multiple day pass due to peak season).

Long Lake （长海）

Colourful Lake (五彩池）

Waterfall, Lake, and Leaves

The path in the park

Reed Lake

29 Oct
We took direct bus back to Chengdu (成都), departed at 7am. There are 3-4 buses in the morning connecting the park and Chengdu. If you miss the bus, you will need to go to Jiuzhaigou Town (九寨溝縣城), around 40km away from the park. There are more buses from there to Chengdu. The bus drive took around 10 hours, the view near the park is beautiful on the road. 

Langmusi, China

Langmusi (郎木寺) is another small town at the border of Gansu Province (甘肃省) and Sichuan Province (四川省). It has altitude of around 3500m above sea level with majority of Tibetan Chinese people and Hui Moslem people.

24 Oct
We reached Langmusi (郎木寺） around lunchtime, we didn't shop around a lot for hotels, we stayed at Sana Hotel (萨娜宾馆 +86 941 6671062）. The hotel is clean and run by a Moslem Hui family. There is no heater available and although they said hot water is available from 7am to 12 midnight, we had quite some problems to get the hot water working.

After having lunch, we went to Da Cang Lang Mu Monastery (大仓郎木寺）, the so-called Gansu-side temple. The design looks quite similar to Labrang Monastery (拉卜楞寺） in Xia He, but in smaller scale. They also have similar Prayer Wheel. We had to end the day early since the weather is getting cold.

Langmusi Town

Gansu - side Temple

25 Oct
Our morning was welcomed by snow all over the town, it was snowing for the whole night and it is still snowing in the morning. Hence, we just walked in to a restaurant and had some hot food while enjoying the snow.

The snow stopped in the afternoon, so we went up the hill to see the Sky Burial Stage (天葬台）. There is nothing much to see on the Sky Burial as there is no ceremony at that moment, however the view from up there is simply amazing. The yellowish grassland, mountain and river, combination we never see here in tropical country. It is pretty tiring to climb up the hill in high altitude place, we ran out of breath very soon.

Beautiful View

Sky Burial Stage (天葬台)

After visiting the Sky Burial Stage (天葬台）, I went to the other monastery in the town, the so-called Sichuan-side temple. Design is again similar to the Gansu-side temple.

Sichuan - side Temple

26 Oct
We set off as early as 8 am in the morning to our next destination of the trip, Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟）in Sichuan province. We rented a car for RMB800, the driver is a Tibetan Chinese. The view along the road is very beautiful. White snow on yellow grassland combined with blue sky. We reached the highest point on the road at the altitude of 3840m above sea level.

Flower Lake (花湖)

On the road to Jiuzhaigou

3840m!

Xia He, China

Xia He (夏河）is located in Gansu Province (甘肃省）, a small town with majority of people are Tibetan Chinese. Labrang Monastery (拉卜楞寺）is the main attraction of Xia He. It is located at around 2700m above sea level. The weater is pretty cold and in October/November it could drop to around 0 degree at night. Xia He is often called as Little Tibet (小西藏）.

23 Oct

We reached Lanzhou (兰州）around 6am in the morning and had to directly take bus to Xia He (夏河）. The bus leaves at 7.30, 8.30 and 9.30 from Lanzhou South Station (兰州南站）for RMB45/person. The taxi from Lanzhou train station to Lanzhou South Station cost us RMB20.

The bus ride is not pleasant at all, the driver was quite reckless, however the view along the road is nice. We reached Xia He around lunch time. Although Xia He Town is not big, it is better to stay near Labrang Monastery (拉卜楞寺）. There are quite some guesthouses and hotels nearby the monastery and since October is low season, most of them have available rooms. The price is cheap, but heater is not available, hot water is only available at certain time in the morning and at night. Thermal blankets are good enough for the sleep though. After asking around to some hotels, we decided to stay at Overseas Tibetan Hotel (华侨饭店） for RMB100/night for 2 people.

There is only one main street in Xia He Town which ends in Labrang Monastery (拉卜楞寺）. The monastery itself accounts for around half of the town. There is free English tour at 3.15pm everyday. A Tibetan monk explained us about Tibetan Buddhism, the monastery and the people there. The weather is much colder in Xia He.

Labrang Monastery (拉卜楞寺）

The Prayer Wheel

24 Oct

After discussion, we decided to rent a car to our next destination, Langmusi (郎木寺）, instead of taking the 7.40am bus from Xia He. The car cost us RMB350 from Xia He (夏河）to Ga Hai Lake (尕海湖) then Langmusi (郎木寺）. The driver is nice, he's a Tibetan Chinese called Sangjike (桑吉科). His phone number is +8613893956224. He could speak very good Mandarin, but not English. Along the way, he told us a lot about Tibetan culture.

Tibetan people don't have surname, their name is taken from their Holy Book directly. They don't eat chicken and fish as well. The reason is that if we kill one cow, 10 people can eat full from the cow while if we kill one chicken, maybe only one person can eat full from the chicken. Hence, less sin to eat big animals like yak (牦牛）, lamb or pig. Tibetan people live in tent on the grassland in summer, around Oct/Nov, they will move to their permanent house for winter. We did saw some Tibetans move back to their winter house on the road.

The view along the journey is amazing, the yellowish grassland, river, tree and mountain. We passed Sangke grassland (桑科草原）. It was snowing on the road also.

Yaks and Lambs

Grassland, mountain and river

Ga Hai Lake (尕海湖）is beautiful, with a slight sunlight behind the cloud. We didn't go in to the lake's complex as it's low season, there will be nothing much to see. We only took photos from the side but that's good enough.

Ga Hai Lake (尕海湖）

Another view of Ga Hai Lake

Xian, China

My second China trip for the year cum farewell trip for my travel buddy Sachini. This trip is so far the most challenging one we have ever done. With Sachini, Vijani, and Gaya, we completed 3000km land journey in China.

19 Oct
My journey started on 19 Oct alone as Sachini, Gaya and Vijani are already in China since 16 Oct to travel Beijing. I took night flight to Kuala Lumpur and stay one night at LCCT Tune hotel.

20 Oct
I took AirAsia flight from KL to Tianjin which departed at 8.30am. Dan Brown's Digital Fortress became my companion along the 6 hour journey. There is direct bus at the arrival hall of Tianjin Binhai Airport to Tianjin train station for RMB10. The bullet train which connects Tianjin and Beijing ran every half an hour to Beijing South Railway Station (北京南站). I reached Beijing around 5pm then took another bus to Beijing West Station (北京西站) to meet Sachini, Gaya and Vijani to take night train to Xian.

Tianjin - Beijing High Speed Train

The bad news came, they only managed to buy hard-seat (硬座车) train ticket to Xian. I was still innocently thinking that at most we have to sit while sleeping for the whole night. When we boarded the train only we know, there are lots of standing passengers in the berth who bring lots of big and small sacks which made the whole train so packed. We hardly slept for the night. It's an experience though, I never took such train in my life before. Finally we reached Xian around 9.30am the next morning.Learning from experience, we directly bought our next train ticket to Lanzhou (兰州）there and we managed to get the hard-sleeper (硬卧车） this time.

21 Oct
We stay at Hantang Inn hostel in Xian, the hostel is nice and clean, location is very good, 10 minutes walk to the Bell and Drum tower as well as the Moslem Quarter. The staffs are friendly, they give free pickup at train station as well as welcome drink and tea.

After bath and a bit of rest, we decided to go out to find some food and explored Xian. We walked to the Moslem Quarter to eat 饱馍, a special food there. It's kind of small-cut bread dipped in soup, it tasted ok but a bit too oily. There are a stretch of big and small shops selling souvenirs. We closed the day by visiting Drum Tower and Bell Tower. There is nothing much interesting in the two towers though.

饱馍

22 Oct
We started the day early to go to Terracotta Warrior (兵马俑）. There are 3 buses running between Xian Train Station and Terracotta Warriors, which are 306, 914 and 915. However, the boarding point of those 3 buses is not the same as other buses and some cheap tour agents put their booths near the alighting point of other public buses and put number 306 on the table. Don't fall to this trap. Go directly to the gate of the train station, you will find the 306/914/915 there and you can go to Terracotta Warriors at RMB7/person.

The journey took about 2 hours, the bus will stop at 花清池, a hotspring that was said to be built for the famous Lady Yang (杨贵妃）. We didn't go there because we are too late already. We reached the Terracotta Warrior around noon.

The Terracotta Warrior museum is huge and it is not completely opened yet. Some parts of them are still buried underground and the experts are still researching on it. It is simply amazing that 2000 years ago, people are able to build such a huge structure already.

Pit 1 - the Biggest One

The Gate

There is free bus from the Terracotta Warriors museum to Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇）'s mausoleum. There is nothing much to see in the mausoleum except for the performance. We are lucky enough to have the performance start just when we reached.

Qin Shi Huang's Tomb

The performance

We reached back Xian around 5pm, had dinner and prepared to leave for train station to catch the train to Lanzhou at 10.26pm. Hard-sleeper seat is good enough, we got the middle and upper deck. There is no standing passengers around. We could really see different class of people are taking hard-sleeper train, most of them are businessmen, lecturers, and more educated people. I did chat with some of them, they are friendly and gave us some useful information for the trip.