Jiuzhaigou Valley, the Paradise

Jiuzhaigou Valley which means “Valley of Nine Villages” , which is the hometown of nine Tibetan villages; is located in Nanping County in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture about 450 Km north of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province in south of China Mainland.

Jiuzhaigou is well-known in its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes. This place is full of more than 100 beauteous lakes and what makes the lakes in Jiuzhaigou area differ from other lakes is a high concentration of calcium carbonate so that the lakes and embankments are all covered with crystals.

The water in the lake is so clear that you can see the bottom despite depths of several meters.

The main essence of Jiuzhaigou is water and there are all kinds of waters such as small ponds, calm lakes, rushing streams or magnificent waterfalls. Jiuzhaigou’s core of the scenery is waterfalls which were situated between lakes on different level with water flowing down to the cliffs covered with trees.

Location and Climate of Jiuzhaigou

The location of Jiuzhaigou is secluded from outside, the geography of Jiuzhaigou is mountainous which belongs to a carbonate barrier lake landform, high mountains and deep valleys also can be found there. Jiuzhaigou covers a vast area of 60,000 hectares with the scenic area over than 80 Kilometers long.

The main obstacle for traveling to Jiuzhaigou is the dreadful roads from Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province, China that leads to the Valley. The buses have to journey along the winding roads and that’s still ok unless include frequent landslides that may send the big rocks flying onto the rocks and if unluckily enough on to the buses and below the roads, there is the rushing Minjiang River. The drivers have to familiar with the route otherwise it’s going to be the horrible trip.

The climate in Jiuzhaigou is cool temperature, humidity and cold on the high mountain slopes and dry and cool in the valleys.

Average Temperature in summer is from 19 degrees Celsius to 22 degrees Celsius; in fall season is from 7 degrees Celsius to 18 degrees Celsius; spring season is from 9 degrees Celsius to 18 degrees Celsius and for winter is under zero. The average annual temperature is 7.2 degrees Celsius.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Jiuzhaigou was first found accidentally by woodcutters in the 1900s then became a nation nature reserve in 1978. In 1982 it became a part of the first batch of scenic areas under special nation protection and the best new scenic area in 1990. In 1992 UNESCO world heritage declared Jiuzhaigou as the world natural heritage list.

Legend

As China is the country of legends, Jiuzhaigou also the same as other places in China that has so many legend and what I would like to present here is the one I heard about…

Once upon a time, a warlike philosopher grounded a charming mirror with the wind and cloud the present it to his beloved who is Goddess Wunosemo. Unfortunately the monster meddled and the Goddess dropped the shatter broken mirror into the human world so that its became the numerous lakes in Jiuzhaigou nowadays.