Fairy Tale

Jiuzhaigou. Not a misspelling but a place in the middle of China. Distinctly Tibetan and distinctly unique.

Yak, yak butter, yak meat, dancing yak, yak shops, yak honey… ok the last one wasn’t real, the honey we had was from local bees. First question on your lips then (dancing yak to be explained later) the taste of yak… texture of gammon, tastes like beef. Yak butter tasted like cheese and you can buy basically any part of the yak in a variety of food forms, the vacuum packed intestines was particularly interesting (not interesting enough to eat though).

Enough about the hairy horned individuals, we didn’t come for that but for the UNESCO Park. A Google search of the pictures will show you some of the stunning waterfalls and lakes that are tucked away in the mountains here… they may look too surreal to be true, I assure you they are!

You’d think that a national park would be quiet and serene, like a hike in the countryside anywhere else would be. But oh no, this is China, and everything that is remotely touristy is packed with ‘local’ tourists… I mean Disney Land packed. Fortunately these guys generally jumped from mini bus to main site to mini bus etc. so if you used your legs and walked between the particularly stunning areas you can get a taste of what it would be like if you were the only one there.

The lakes were not the only thing that was dazzlingly coloured (imagine a huge bath of Listerine mouthwash and you get the idea)… the local villages inside the parks were also bedecked with an array of sized and coloured prayer flags. Buddhism being the main religion (Taoism and Confucianism also being practiced about the area), it’s safe to say we’ve been to our fair share of temples along the way.

We stayed at Zhou Ma’s homestay nearby, a Lonely Planet promoted place, so it was full of foreign tourists from all reaches of the world (and where I tasted the yak food). Basically it’s her (Zhou Ma’s) home, beautifully decorated and painted (as most Tibetan houses are) with brightly coloured local and mythical animals and religious items, with most rooms being fashioned as bedrooms for us tourists. There was also a communal washroom and dining room, where we crammed with everyone else around a low rise table next to the wood burner that heated seemingly unending cups of tea. It was an awesome experience of local life and the chance to meet people from all walks of life (one of the main reasons why I love travelling).

So dancing Yaks. There was a cultural show in the local town, where nationally acclaimed singers performed with dancers and musicians, to portray Tibetan heritage and culture…and one scene included dancers dressed as Yaks, not actual dancing Yaks… though there was a real goat used in the production.

That’s a short summary of an incredible time in the countryside, a lovely (and clean) change from the cities of Beijing and Xi’an.

Pictures still in the works but for now let your imagination run wild!