Jiuzhaigou Was Indeed Beautiful
This post will be focusing on my trip to Jiuzhaigou National Park. Even though I included Huanglong Scenic Area in the itinerary, but I will not be talking too much about it. However, if you have any questions for any part of this trip, feel free to ask them in the comment! Have a nice day!
In the early days of my studying journey in China, I was having a lunch with some friends, both classmates and seniors. In between our meals, we somehow involved in a conversation with the topic of, “What is your most favourite place in China?”
I thought I would hear the famous cities like Shanghai, Xi’an, Chengdu, or the hong cyberpunk city of Chongqing. I was wrong. A senior, Amel, told us that her favourite place in China was Jiuzhaigou. A name that sounds foreign to me cuz I’ve never heard of it before. The name, and Amel’s excitement stuck in my mind. I didn’t remember the other answers cuz I was so distracted. I immediately looked for the name on Google. I was in awe. It was truly beautiful.
A small voice in my heart whispered. “Shall we go?”
I was so excited and I knew I would be going, but I need to make a plan. A good, solid one.
When it comes to MBTI, I’m a J-person. So people said that we’re always good at planning. I don’t think I’m the best planner out there, but I knew that to make a good plan, I need to do a bit of a research before realising my plan. So that’s what I did.
Long story short (cuz trip-researching story will likely be a bit boring—except maybe this, which I think was the most important information regarding my plan), after reading some information here and there, I’ve decided to go in the mid-term break between 16–24 November 2024. I had wanted to go earlier but I didn’t want to skip any class and there would be a few exams before the break. I didn’t want go on a holiday while was also thinking about some upcoming exams. I also didn’t choose the National Holiday (1–7 October 2024) because probably there would be way too many people there and the foliage might not be the in the best colour possible. But life seemed to enjoy testing me.
The HSR that would take me to Huanglong Jiuzhai Station (C5746)
A few weeks before my trip, my school announced that the mid-break will be ceased to accommodate for an earlier Spring Festival in 2025. So all the classes scheduled for the fourth week of November were moved to the third week, which meant that I would only have three days on 22-24 November 2024 where I was completely free. I was contemplating whether I should still go or I should just wait until 2025 to have a better schedule. As I’ve mentioned above, knowing that by that time we already had a high-speed rail (HSR) connecting Chengdu–Huanglong Jiuzhai Station (the closest HSR station to Jiuzhaigou), I chose the latter. Here is the simple breakdown of my plan for the trip with the actual time:
| Date | Time | Activity |
| 21 Nov 2025 | 12:00 PM | Thursday morning class finished |
| 4:00 PM | Flight: Beijing (PEK)–Chengdu (TFU) | |
| 7:05 PM | Arrived in Chengdu, spent a night there | |
| 22 Nov 2025 | 6:14 AM | HSR: Chengdu East–Huanglong Jiuzhai |
| 7:53 AM | Arrived in Huanglong Jiuzhai | |
| 9:00 AM | Bus: Huanglong Jiuzhai HSR Station–Huanglong | |
| 10:00 AM | Arrived in Huanglong | |
| 4:00 PM | Bus: Huanglong–Jiuzhaigou | |
| 6:30 PM | Arrived in Jiuzhaigou, hotel checkin | |
| 23 Nov 2025 | 8:00 AM | Going to Jiuzhaigou National Park |
| 5:00 PM | Out of Jiuzhaigou National Park, dinner, schleep | |
| 24 Nov 2025 | 6:00 AM | Bus: Jiuzhaigou–Huanglong Jiuzhai HSR Station |
| 9:05 AM | HSR: Huanglong Jiuzhai–Chengdu East | |
| 10:45 AM | Arrived in Chengdu, exploring Chengdu | |
| 7:00 PM | Flight: Chengdu (CTU)–Beijing (PEK) | |
| 9:45 PM | Arrived in Beijing | |
| 25 Nov 2025 | 12:00 AM | Arrived home |
| 10:00 AM | Monday morning class |
I knew the schedule might be a bit packed for some people, but as someone who cannot wait patiently for his first Jiuzhaigou experience, I guess I had no choice but to go with the plan, while also hope to be able to give the place a second visit in the near future. As you can see from the schedule above, I also squeezed Huanglong Scenic Area into the list because I read somewhere that since both World’s Site Heritage are within the vicinity of each other, it’s better to visit both places, which I did.
The view from my hotel window near Chengdu East Station
After arriving in Chengdu (TFU), I rushed my hotel next to the Chengdu East HSR Station to get some badly needed rest before taking the early morning train to Huanglong Jiuzhai the next day. It didn’t take long before I fell asleep.
The next morning, I woke up quite early, checked out, and headed to the train station. It was within a walking distance, so it was quite convenient. I have a few experiences in regards of China’s HSR, but maybe I’ll keep that for a future post. Let’s see.
Long story short, I arrived in Huanglong Jiuzhai Station. Afterwards, I used the previously-booked bus to get to Huanglong Scenic Area. From the bus stop near the tourist centre—where we can keep our luggage in the smol shed next to it—we need to walk a bit to get to entrance with the cable car. The ticket to Huanglong Scenic Area includes the ticket for the cable car up. The cable car took around 20-ish minutes to get to the upper station. After reaching there, we can choose to walk on a wooden walkway below the road or to ride a smol car with a cost of RMB 20 to get to the entrance of the Yingyue Colour Pool/Multi-colour Pond. I chose the latter.
The Map of Huanglong Scenic Area from China Discovery
Huanglong was beautifully unique. From the information I had read, some people warned about the oxygen level due to the altitude, but for me it was quite alright. I spent quite a good amount of time there even though I could not visit all the attractions. Some said that one of the best way to enjoy it is to take the cable car up and slowly walk down on the “right-side” (see the picture above) route back to the entrance/tourist centre. I didn’t have enough time and I didn’t wanna get too tired before my ultimate destination, so I just used the easiest way of using cable car both ways. On my way down, I saw a cable car up with a couple who was passionately kissing inside of it, and I was just sitting there seeing them with a poker face, questioning what was I doing there alone. Nah, I’m kidding—I love travelling regardless whether I go alone or not HAHA.
A glimpse of Huanglong Scenic Area during winter
The journey from Huanglong to Jiuzhaigou took longer than I anticipated, not sure what happened. Upon arriving, I quickly checked in at my accommodation and had a meal in the nearby restaurant before resting for the main day tomorrow.
I woke up a bit reluctantly and only went out around 8 AM. I should’ve gone earlier, but I didn’t. My accommodation is located about 1.5 Km from the entrance, so if I walk, it would take me around 25 minutes to get there, so I decided to just use DiDi. I underestimated the location on the map, I thought it was a small distance and I didn’t check further. My fault. There are a few other accommodation that are closer to the entrance. So if you prefer to walk to enter the park, my suggestion is to choose these places instead. After queueing to enter*—this is where I knew I should’ve come earlier—we still have to queue again to get onto the bus. The ticket includes this sightseeing bus, cuz otherwise we wouldn’t have enough time to explore the whole area. It was too vast!
Look at the queue!
*I forgot if we still have to exchange the digital ticket with the digital “boarding/entrance pass”, but by the time I was writing this article and checking it (13 Jan 2026), Trip.com says that we can just go directly to the queue. CMIIW.
As for the bus, I’m not sure if we can stay at the front of the queue and wait for the next bus to get a seat, cuz when I was queueing, everyone seemed to be in a rush and wanted to hop onto the bus as quickly as possible. So I followed and in the end, I didn’t get to seat and during the whole 30 minute-ish trip to the first stop, I was standing on the bus.
The Map of Jiuzhaigou National Park, also from China Discovery
To put it simply, the National Park looks like a big Y-shape and when I get onto the bus I didn’t know to which “branch” the bus would go. Mine went to the right-branch and the first stop was at the Arrow Bamboo Lake (箭竹海)*. I read here that during peak season, we don’t know which side of the park the bus will go and that when the bus is nearing the “centre of the Y”, the bus staff will announce it and passenger can ask the bus to stop there.
*That article also mentioned that the bus sometimes goes to the Primeval Forest (原始森林)—which is confirmed by this article as well. But during my visit, the bus only stopped at the Arrow Bamboo Lake, where all passengers need to get off, and then took a U-turn afterwards. Probably because it was near winter, but I wasn’t so sure. Do let me know if any of you know the reason(s).
Arrow Bamboo Lake Waterfall
From the Arrow Bamboo Lake, I was walking “down” the road following the wooden walkway along the river-pond-lake formation. As I walked down, I encountered hundreds of small waterfalls, alternating between the lakes, ponds, and river. I don’t know what or how many adjectives I can use to describe the whole scenery. To say it as “magnificently beautiful” is an understatement because it was THAT beautiful.
Mirrored view of a snowcapped mountain on Panda Lake
After every few sections/bus stops, visitors were taking take bus to save times, although walking would also be possible. I couldn’t remember how many bus ride I took, but I remember I saw Panda Lake, Five Flowers Lake, Pearl Shoals, and Pearl Waterfalls. I think after that I took a bus to the centre of the Y.
After a few hours of walking-bus hopping on the right branch, I arrived at the centre of the Y where the Nuo Ri Lang Waterfalls (诺日朗瀑布) is located. I should’ve stopped there and took some pictures but instead I continued my journey to the left branch. From the centre, we need to walk a bit to the bus stop heading to the Long Lake. If you’re confident with your Mandarin, you can ask the staff or just follow people moving up along the souvenir shops/area.
The magnificent Long Lake
As we can see from the map, since I only stopped at the Arrow Bamboo Lake on the right branch, it made the journey to the end of the left branch a bit longer. After another 30-ish minutes, I arrived at the Long Lake (长海). IT. WAS. BREATHTAKING. I stopped for a while at the viewing platform to admire the beauty. I took some pictures there before going down to take a closer look of the lake. There is another wooden platform on the shore that visitors can use, but due to the vastness of the lake, it was limited to only a few metres from the entry point. Again, I took some pictures there.
This specific picture is the “best-seller” in my Shutterstock account, helping me to gain $1 since I posted it last year LOL
By the time I was going from the Long Lake, it was already 3-4-ish PM and I continued my journey to the Five Coloured Pool. Despite its name, I only saw a blue-ish coloured lake. But I was still in awe, once again. It was probably the bluest lake I’ve ever seen. I spent another good amount of time there. While me and other visitors were there, there was a snowfall. I’ve seen snow before coming to China—while I was in India—but it was the first time I saw a snowfall. It was beautiful.
Five Coloured Pond
From there, as the snowfall was getting bigger, I decided to just hopped onto the bus in the nearest bus stop. People decided to do the same because the following two lakes at the Zechawa Valley looked seem to be dry by the time we were there. On the way down, I was hesitant if I should stop at the centre and visited the Nuo Ri Lang Waterfalls, but since that it was almost dark and I didn’t think I could get any good pictures/videos with such a low-light condition, I decided to just skip it and keep it for my next visit—hopefully.
I arrived at the entrance/exit around 6 PM and then I walked back to my accommodation. On the way, I stopped at a noodle shop and had my dinner. I remember I had a small talk with the restaurant owner about the previous song they played there. Initially they couldn’t identify/went back in the playlist, but somehow they managed to find it and showed me the song.
The song that was played while I was waiting for my meal—which my Shazam couldn’t recognise
As other customers were seeing our interaction and they can tell from my Mandarin accent that I’m not from China, they asked where I’m from and then we had small talked as well. They said they were also in the park today. Ah, I wish my Mandarin was better—I still wish for the same thing now.
My meal at the 秦云老太婆摊摊面 (Qin Yun’s Old Lady’s Noodle Stall—thanks, Google)
After I’m done with my dinner, I went to my accommodation and rest. The next morning, I had to wake up extremely early as the bus that would take me back to Huanglong Jiuzhai HSR Station was scheduled at around 6 AM. The bus was a bit late, but me and another sleepy tourists managed to get into our bus. I forgot to tell this earlier, but the same funny incident happened again. So the bus driver was practically calling everyone’s name/phone number on the bus before he drove. My Mandarin was and is not yet fluent, but I couldn’t catch if he was calling my name or the last four digits of my phone number. So I received a call, from the bus driver, asking where I was. I picked up the call, answered it with a bit loud voice, ”師傅，我在這裡“. He was looking at me, smiling, and shaking his head.
“Ah, this foreigner again”, maybe that was what he was thinking.
Yup, he was the same bus driver from yesterday’s trip from the station, and yes, he also called me to ask where I was before we departed from the station—I was in the bus the whole time LOL.
After I arrived at Huanglong Jiuzhai Station, I hoped into the train, falling asleep during the train trip, and eventually arrived in Chengdu. I spent a few good hours there as well to kill time. After three-four hours, I was feeling a bit tired and said to myself that I should’ve booked an earlier flight. But even with this short and tiring visit to the city, I knew I’d love Chengdu and I wouldn’t mind to pay it a second or third visit—again, hopefully.
Chengdu IFS Mall with its iconic panda
Later that evening, after a tiring quarter-day of strolling around the city of Chengdu, I flew back to Beijing following a packed three-day trip to the two of the most beautiful natural wonders in the north part of Sichuan Province. It was tiring, but it was worth it. The two places, was so freaking beautiful. I can say that late November might not be the best time to visit, especially if your goal is to see the different colour of the foliages, but nonetheless it was still gorgeous. I also understand some friends of mine who visited it at the end of October or early November and said that the view was “okay”. They expected the foliages to be more vibrant, but it was not as colourful as they’d expected them to be, so they were a bit disappointed. But for me, a tropical guy who has never been there and who has kept his expectation low before the visit, I couldn’t help but to be amazed by the vast, unique, beauty of the National Park; and as I was witnessing it myself while I was there, I said in my heart, several times, “Amel was right, Jiuzhaigou was indeed beautiful.”
In summary, here are a few highlights from the trip:
. Right branch: Arrow Bamboo Lake Waterfalls; Pearl Shoals; and Pearls Shoals Waterfalls
. Left branch: Long Lake, Five Coloured Pond
. Centre: Nuo Ri Lang Waterfalls (which I sadly had to miss/skip)
Transparency, yeay!
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