Procrastination was the word! It has been two months since my wife and I visited Jiuzhaigou. First week of September was weather perfect for the Jiuzhaigou visit, IMHO. We went into the park with a light jacket and ended up taking it off after an hour or so of walking.

Rewinding to the night when we arrived at the Huang-Long airport around 6PM. Yes, the taxi price on the board outside of the airport terminal did say $200 Yen for a one way airport-Jiuzhaigou ride. However, the taxi drivers as a group was playing hard to get by wanting to have $250 Yen for the one way ride. It took about 10-15 minutes before we were able to settle on a $400 Yen round trip airport-Jiuzhaigou rides. I think part of the reasons is that we were staying at the Sheraton which has the longest distance from the airport. It was interesting that the taxi driver would absolutely not accept the one way payment when we arrived at the hotel. He insisted that we pay him the round trip fare when we departed Jiuzhaigou. I think he was worried that we may be making the trip to the airport with a different taxi. On the day of departure, the taxi driver was already here at 5:30AM for our 6AM departure reservation.

I kept seeing comments on the web that it only takes 10 perhaps 15 minutes to walk between the Sheraton and the park. I think it takes at least 30 minutes for casual walking. We tried walking back one day and it took us an hour or more as we wee walking along the bank through the shopping and restaurant area between the park and the Sheraton.

We got to the park around 7:30AM in the morning by paying a flat rate $10 Yen for the taxi that queued up outside of the Sheraton. It was around 8AM by the time we got the entry tickets and to the tour bus loading area. It was pretty chaos at the bus station. There were so many Chinese domestic tourists and tour groups. We got so confused and just got on the first bus we were able to get on. Anyway, I don't think there was any sign that designated where (i.e., which one of the three valleys) the bus was heading to. We, of course, got onto the wrong bus! All the advanced planning just went down the drain! LOL!

The original plan was to take the Rize Valley bus to Panda Lake and walk our way DOWN (hill) to the tourist center by noon to catch the Zechawa Valley bus to the Long Lake. Well, we ended up being dropped off at the lower part of the Shuzheng Valley to walk UP the hill, after a merely 2-3 minutes (at most 5-minute) ride from the park entrance! After walking for a couple hours seeing all the beautiful sites that everyone has been talking about on this forum and on the web (so I will skip), we finally were able to get back on the bus. Onto the bus, we and other people kept asking the driver where/what valley the bus is heading. The response from the bus driver was that he doesn't know yet. We were just driving up and up. We drove by the Nuorilang Falls and eventually, when we got to the tourist center area, the announcement came that either we got off at the tourist center or the bus will continue up to the Long Lake. So, our planned after noon itinerary is going to happen in the morning now. :-)

Not sure if it was because we arrived at the Long Lake early in the mid morning, the tranquility of the Long Lake at the time was not something that can be described by words! A lot of locals were working their costume rental business here. The initial asking rental price was like $50 Yen for a costume rental for picture taking. We kept saying no but they never quit asking and the price kept dropping. We ended up paying $10 Yen for it. LOL! From the Long Lake, we walk down to the Five-color Lake like everyone else did before we took the bus back down to the Tourist Center around noon.

After a quick snack/lunch/shopping at the Tourist Center, up we go to the Virgin Forests. They don't really have bus stops on the UP hill side. Some people have to yell/scream/shout to get the bus driver's attention to make a stop at the Panda Lake on the up-hill side. We just had a quick peek at the Virgin Forests and headed back down to start our down-hill walking from the Bamboo Lake. We were going to walk the inside loop/pathway all the way down but
the inside path were closed for maintenance from around the Panda Lake area and we were forced to change our (down-hill walking) plan and started hopping back to the bus to head down! So, the lesson learned is that you can plan all you want to but be flexible and prepared to change your plan. We finished the day around 5PM and that was way earlier than we planned.

We originally planned to visit the park for two consecutive days but ended up spending the next day walking/shopping around and watching a cultural show at night due to fatigue and jet lag.

Departure day at the Huang-Long airport was like a zoo. Our flight was scheduled to depart around 8:30AM. All the check-in lines were all full at 7AM. For those who are flying Air China, you can check-in at the short First/Business Class Counter with your Star Alliance GOLD membership. It helped us to cut our check-in line short and were able to even make it to the VIP lounge before departure. BTW, we were the only two in the so called VIP lounge that has no food or beverage setup what so ever. When we asked, the attendant responded and asked if we want coffee, tee or juice so she can make it for us. The coffee and tea did came with a small plate of cookies, nice! It was first of this type of VIP airport lounge that we have ever been to. However, it was better than nothing as my wife put it :-).