WWT: Jiuzhaigou Park
Posted at 10:31 am April 26, 2006 by Amy Parrott
Jiuzhaigou is a national park in the northern part of China’s Sichuan Province. It has been a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site since 1992 and was truly worth the visit. You used to have to drive through the mountains to get there, but now they have an airport (at about 13,000 feet or 3,900 meters!); from there, we rode a bus down the hill to our hotel (around 5,000 feet or 1,500 meters).
When we visited the park, we took official park buses (no other vehicles are allowed in the park), and got off at various points of interest. It is a very well-maintained park with wooden planked paths and “comfort stations” along the way. We saw several crystal clear lakes, beautiful snow capped mountains, incredible waterfalls, and many interesting birds. Jiuzhaigou means “nine-village valley,” which refers to the Tibetan villages in the area. We visited one of the villages and it was very interesting (fun shopping, too!)
On a personal note, I have finally mastered eating with chopsticks!
Amy Parrot, associate director of development for the San Diego Zoo, is the adventure escort for the Zoo’s WorldWild Tours (WWT) trip to China.
Here’s a previous blog about the trip.
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April 26th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Thanks, Amy, for your interesting post on the park. It sounds like a beautiful place indeed! Congrats on getting the hang of chopsticks, which have always been a challenge for me.
April 26th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Amy, congratulations on mastering the chopsticks. If nothing else comes from this trip, at least you have that.
Thank you for your wonderfully descriptive narrative of what sounds like heaven on earth. Sounds so peaceful and beautiful there. I am looking forward to reading more about the trip.
April 27th, 2006 at 5:46 am
i really like this web site. It is helping me with a school project on China. Thank u for putting this web site on the computer, IT ROKS MY SOKS. AND MY TEACHERS………………………..
April 27th, 2006 at 7:21 am
Eating with chopsticks isn’t so hard, once you’ve decided to do it – is it? And the food you eat, that is meant to be eaten with chopsticks, does really taste different when eaten as it was prepared to be eaten. Selection of each bite with the delicate points of chopsticks is different from scooping or spearing bites with the tines of a fork. The tastes and textures of ingredients come through quite distinctly with chopsticks. I am glad that you made the effort to learn to eat in the traditional way. It is a part of respecting all that another culture has to offer, to learn to eat in the way that culture has developed for eating. And now you have discovered the rewards.
April 27th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Amy–Thank you for taking the time to describe your travels in China. The park in Sichuan Province sounds so beautiful and pristine. Is this where ” Panda Home” is located?
Also, the new picture of Mei Sheng is great. He really looks like a frisky 3 year old in this one. And the latest photo of Su Lin in the news–so cute! She looks like she’s resting her cheek on one paw.
April 27th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
#4, Deborah: You’ve managed to put into words what I’ve always thought about chopsticks! I’m no expert–and thus never trusted my thinking–but I totally agree with what you say! If you hadn’t ” validated” my feelings, I’d probably forever have dismissed them! Now I can have my youngster read your entry, so she can understand what I mean! Thank you!
April 28th, 2006 at 7:08 am
#6, Christine – I so appreciate your response to what I wrote. It makes a huge difference to me that my words mattered. I love foods from all around the world; my husband and I enjoy cooking from many different cuisines (espcially Asian cuisines); and both he and I are cultural anthropologists – so all of these things color my perspective on why it is important to make the effort to appreciate the food of another culture properly. I hope that your youngster will give chopsticks a try. One other image that you might enjoy: when my niece was very small (maybe under 2 years old), she was in a Chinese restaurant eating cold sesame noodles – one noodle at a time, using a single chopstick. Needless to say, she is an accomplished chopstick user at age 19.