Everythinginchinaisonagrandscale.docVIP

Everything in china is on a grand scale. Then have the biggest cities, the biggest population, the biggest wall. But I will been told all that man-mad stuff isn’t nearly as impressive as china’s natural wonders. I didn’t believe them because I didn’t actually think that china had any natural wonders. Well, it’s happened before, but turns out I was wrong. Jiuzhaigou is a world heritage site tucked away in the Sichuan province, over 300 k’s from the city of Chengdu. It is a pure and precious nature wonder with waterfalls, snowy peaks and its trade mark 114 lakes. Literally translated its name means ‘nine-village valley’ because of the nine Tibetan villages located in the area. Agricultural activities are forbidden in the park, so the villagers rely on tourism. Not quite an authentic Tibetan experience but you do still get a sense for the people that settled on this beautiful land over 1,300 years ago. The high Tibetan presence in this part of Sichuan has seen an increase in protests of china’s handing of demonstrations in Tibet, so you should check out the latest travel advice before you go. Believe it or not, the rest of the world didn’t find out about it until,like,30 years ago when loggers were sent in here to destroy it. Obviously, they couldn’t bring themselves to do it. Instead, they alerted the local authorities, who made it a world heritage site and along came the tourists. Photo in traditional dress three bucks! In a country of 1.3 billion people ,staying on the tourism track is virtually impossible. In peak season, this national park attracts over 10,000 visitors a day. But to protect and preserve the place, no public vehicles are allowed. In autumn and winter, snow covers the top hall of the park, resembling something like Canada’s Rocky Mountains. And because the lakes are spread over 2,500m of elevation, in a single day you can see this amazing contrast in seasons. In terms of the seasons we feature on Getaway, summer really does hog the limelight. Winte