Tickets:
Tickets are 220 RMB/day during peak (which doesn't end til Nov 15) and you can only buy day tickets. You are also required to buy a bus ticket for 90 RMB (unless you want to walk the entire park), so account for 310 RMB/day. I confirmed with the locals that this is the most expensive park in China (unconfirmed though). I used my student ID so you get a 50 RMB discount on the entry ticket, no discount on the bus ticket. I was only able to buy single day tickets, dunno about non-peak if you can buy two day tickets. Prices likely will be the same though.

Visitor Center/Other Facilities/Bathrooms:
All located at the entrance or at the mid-point of the park. VC is rather drab, few pictures and some info, probably could see it in 10 min max. But you can stop in here to pick up a map (have English maps too). So don't waste time when you get here, save it for the end of the day.

Snacks/restaurant at the entrance, and restaurants at the mid-point of the park ("Nouriang Travel Center"). If not in peak summer time, some restaurants may be closed or have limited food. There are no peddlers in the park though hawking food, just Tibetan clothing to rent and little trinkets.

Bathrooms at the VC and TC are relatively clean, and at many of the popular sites there are toilets. You will be able to find the sit type and TP seemed to be available, but bring hand sanitizer/TP as backup. Sinks were not working at many of the sites, but worked fine at the main buildings. There seems to be a lot of construction going on with many new buildings going up, and I know on the trails/sites they were building LOTS of new bathrooms. So by next year I anticipate new facilities to be open.

When to arrive/buses:
Due to the crowds, I HIGHLY recommend going right at opening. I read on wiki that to avoid crowds go before 9am or after 330pm, I'd adjust that to before 9am or after 4pm. Park (when I was here) opened at 730am, and I pretty much got here right then each day. I didn't have to wait to buy a ticket and was on one of the earlier buses which give you a much more pleasant experience before the Chinese tour masses arrive. Keep your tickets on you all day, as it gives you access to the shuttles and you can hop on and off as you please. Just confirm where the bus is going as it seems rather random mid-day. After the entrance though, my ticket was never checked again.

Tip: In the AM, they were only running the smaller shuttle buses vs the larger city ones. Though the right side has the 1 seat and the left side has the two seat, sit on the left side for better views going up. As well, depending on how you want to see the park I advise either getting off the bus right away to see the sights low in the park to avoid the crowds, or stay on the bus until it gets to the very end (vs getting off at the earlier stops with all the Chinese). Buses all have a driver and a "tour guide" with neat info about the park (all in Chinese though). See more info below.

Day 1:
When I was here, in the early AM buses only go to the Rize Valley (end stop Primitive Forest). To see the ZechAwa Valley (end stop Long Lake) you have to catch a bus at the Nouriang Travel Center and they don't start until 9am. Thus, day 1 I took the early bus all the way to the Primitive forest and took the hiking path (plankwalk) all the way down to Bonsai Shoals (about 32km). Bus from the entrance takes about 30-45 min, depending on how many stops you take.

The primitive forest area is rather drab, with just a forest and few views of some high peaks. Start heading down the plank trail which starts near the bathrooms on the west side of the road (road is on your right as you head down). It's 18km down to the Nouriang Travel Center. This upper part of the trail is VERY LIGHTLY TRAVELLED so you're likely to have a wonderful hiking experience. Even Grass and Swan Lake no one really stops so it is a very nice hike (except for the occasional bus roaring by).

Due to the lack of sights in between, about 99% of the tourists hop on and off the bus like sheep. But I would not miss out this part of the trail. While not as scenic as the popular sights, it is very pretty and gorgeous as you basically walk along side the water that flows down the valley. It was a wonderful experience walking in the trees looking at the fall colors, hearing the roar of the river, and seeing the beautiful colors of the water. A few times the boardwalk goes right over the water for some neat pictures. The section between Swan Lake and the next big site is a bit far, but again provides some wonderful hiking in the woods and following the stream down. Took me about 2.5 hours to hike from the Primevil forest to Panda Lake. There was part of the trail that was "closed", but I stayed on it anyway and I was convinced this didn't make a difference for the few people. Trail was still fine and nothing wrong with it.

Once you reach Bamboo Lake/Falls it only gets more and more crowded as you head down. Stay on the west plank trail to minimize crowds, but you'll want to cross over the boardwalks to the other side to get good views of the waterfalls. Since all the great waterfall sights are in this area, expect lots of people. This means the typical Chinese tourist experience (loud crowds, people sitting in the middle of the trail having lunch, snapping pictures of everything, talking loudly on cell phones, feeding wildlife, and the standard littering). Though I will have to admit, the overall cleanliness of the park was impressive. Overall, I think the Chinese don't litter as much here as it is clean - mostly because the cleaners in the park were pretty good. I still did my part to pick up trash though. The park was actually happily smoke free too, as you're not supposed to smoke in the park.

I reached the Nouriang Travel Center around and kept hiking down, but as I said it only got more and more crowded. The lower sections were just as pretty but again crowded. The only time I didn't see people was on a section of the trail near Dragon lakes, but that's only because the trail was closed for reconstruction (which I ignored). They are redoing the plank trails and will have to say the trail system in the park is pretty amazingly maintained.

Tip: If I were to do day 1 again, in the early AM ask the driver to drop you off at Bonsai Shoals. This area in the lower part of the park is gorgeous and is really crowded in the PM when everyone is on their way down. It would be wonderful to catch say around 730-930am when the crowds are all going up high. I'd say stop off at Bonsai Shoals, then hike your way up to the visitor center which should take around 2-3 hours is the best way to go, you're likely to have this area to yourself.

Day 2:
For today, I wanted to hike the Zechawa valley. As I discovered, this would be a VERY different experience as Zechawa valley is very different from Rize as there is little to no water (no streams). So it is more of a forest and lake hike. But you will get to see a variety of climate zones as there is some really gorgeous transitions from deciduous to conifer to alpine zones on this hike. As well, since there are no buses going up til 9am, if you get here early in the AM you can only hike which actually makes for a pleasant experience. But you are hiking up, so it can be a slight workout as the Nouriang Travel Center is about 2400m and you have to hike up to 3100m at Long Lake. Despite the little water, I am convinced that this hike has two huge advantages:

1. It is even more remote, so if you want a real solitude experience this is the place to go. As well, the plank trail is slightly more "adventurous".
2. This is an absolutely gorgeous fall hike given my experience was wonderful despite it being after peak. The trees/colors are absolutely gorgeous. Further, the signs of wildlife are much much higher here than the Rize valley. Despite not seeing any pandas (which I really hoped for), there were a LOT of game trails and a lot of fresh scat. I secretly wanted to dress up as a panda and videotape the Chinese tourists going crazy and throw my video on youtube, but unfortunately was by myself and couldn't pull it off.

What I did was again hit the 730am bus. Tell the driver you want to get off at the Nouriang Travel Center (I said it in Chinese). I simply got off with a few of the workers. The tourists all heading up to Primeval forest will look at you weird (or think they will want to get off too), and the workers will all remind you there is no early shuttle bus (as they assume no one hikes). Get off here, and start heading up the road towards the Tibetan Village. Once you reach the village, you will reach a flat section and shortly see a parking lot on your right hand side (west side). Watch out for a wooden plank path that starts and disappears in the woods and that's your trail.

As I mentioned this trail is more adventurous. Meaning the trail is not maintained and there are sections where the planks disappear outright (leaving you a regular hiking path), sections where the cross planks disappear (giving the opportunity to do some balance beam walking), or parts of the trail near cliffs where big boulders have come down to take out parts of the plank path. Overall though, the trail is not difficult nor dangerous. The tricky sections you can simply not balance beam and walk on the ground, or just simply walk around the broken sections in the wood. I'd say ~90-95% of the trail is in decent condition. The higher you get the better the condition.

Anyway, after heading into the woods on the plank path about 30 min later the planks will disappear and you're on a small trail in the woods. This only lasts about 300m or so, so don't fear. About 45 min into the hike you reach your first lake, Lower Seasonal Lake, which is a gorgeous display of colors. At the lake though, the trail follows a cliff on the west side of the lake where boulder bombs have come down on the trail. Similar to the Rize valley, the plank trail is covered here with wire mesh which reinforces the trail and it is actually quite safe (minus the parts where the bombs took out some planks - nothing too difficult though). Just don't dillydally in the parts where you see rocks, as I wouldn't want to be there if more rocks come down. This is a good place to take a short break (not where the rocks come down of course), so find a nice spot as the next section is a bit long. At this point, you've gone 4.8km.

Depending on your speed, the 9am buses will start roaring past you here. Buses really don't get busy until around 930, but from then on it's a constant flow of people. However, if you hike at a good pace you can reach the top around lunch hour which is a slow hour, so at the top the crowds are less.

After the lake, its a long 9.8km to the next Lake (Upper Seasonal) but the hike is quite pretty. There is a balance beam section where the cross planks were missing for about 200m after the lake, but like I said you can simply walk on the ground if you want instead. The next stop is 10km to Upper Seasonal Lake. This section includes some really neat transitions of different forest types and you might get lucky to see some wildlife. The path unfortunately does go next to the road a few times and buses are quite plentiful (hence my panda idea) but still a very nice hike. There isn't really a good place to stop to rest/eat (i.e. great views), but you can certainly stop. The trail does start ascending here so take your time and enjoy the views.

Once you go through a really really pretty conifer zone (reminded me a lot of the Canadian Rockies), you will reach another path where you're near a steep cliff and rocks have rained down on the path. Again don't dilly-dally here. While I didn't see any workers, there were definite signs of doing plank path repair though and they had lots of building materials laid across the plank path.

Again, pending your speed this section will take you about 2 hours to do. The last 45 min is a slow but constant stair climb (more gradual than stairs though) but it's pretty and the increasing views are worth it. When you reach a flat section that goes around a corner with the road, you only have about 15 min to the next lake and a few more stairs. When you reach the Upper Seasonal Lake, it's again beautiful and a great place to take a break (I had lunch here). There is some major trail construction going on here (as again the trail was bombed with rocks) and there were quite a few people working on the trail. Further, they are building some structures near the lake so by next spring it should be done.

After the lake, it's a short 10min or 1.5km hike to the 5 color pool where you should expect to see your first sign of people and crowds. From the pool, its a 15 climb (yes I mean climb) where the stairs are slightly steep to Long Lake, but you might as well hike it as you did the rest of the hike. I reached the Long Lake at 1pm (spent 30 min at Lower Lake, and 1:15 at Upper Lake) and the crowds weren't too bad. There are bathrooms here as well as the hawkers renting Tibetan stuff. Don't forget to hike down to the lake and walk the small board path for some neat pictures and escape from the crowds.

To descend, simply hop on the bus at the Long Lake stop and ride it down 5 min to the 5 color pool. Here, hop off the bus when it drops off the loads of people and hike to the front bus who are queued up to take people. From there, this bus will take you to the Nouriang Travel Center where you can go somewhere else or head home.

Tip: This trail will give you a vast different experience from Rize valley, so take your time and relax. I think the going up route was the way to do it, but you can also take the first bus up at 9am and then hike down. Time your breaks appropriately, as the stretch between Lower and Upper Seasonal lakes can take 2+ hours. You can of course stop in between for a quick break/snack, but I like places with outstanding views.