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Posted On Monday, November 10, 2014 at
at
11:15 PM
by Alvin
Since eons ago, there had been nine Tibetan settlements/forts/villages in this beautiful part of China - Jiuzhaikou (九寨溝). Yeh, these lucky villagers had Jiuzhaikou all to themselves - farming, weaving, raising cattles, dating, getting married, bringing up kids, passing their O-Levels, going down the pubs, clubbing, that sort of thing; basically enjoying this piece of paradise on Earth for generations. Then one day, some clever dudes from the local government thought : hang on, we could charge passers-by a fee for taking beautiful pictures of these stunning rock pools, waterfalls, pristine rain forests, reed lakes, snow-capped mountains !
And there you have it, in 1984 Jiuzhaikou officially opened its doors and had since become one of THE premier destinations in China, hosting around 12,000 visitors per day during high seasons - truly a tourist hot spot (no kidding man...). This had been especially true during Autumn when the local fauna turned to a patchwork of crimson, liquid golden and fiery violet - see my next Blog entry for a few stunning photos. We visited two of these Tibetan villages (則查洼寨 and 樹正寨) and we were pleasantly rewarded not so much by the villagers selling us soft drinks but by the very original style and decoration of their houses, stupas and the way they pretty much went about their own businesses. I even managed to ask for permission to take a photo (below) of one family's pet dog - a massive Tibetan Mastiff (藏獒) !
