Jiuzhaigou with a Tibetan Family

Emily's friend Andrew works in Jiuzhaigou which is China's premiere park. He met us in Songpan and drove us to Jiuzhaigou, sparing us another bus ride and provided nice company. He then proceeded to hook us up with park accommodations that were nicer than most hotels I have stayed in the US and got us free admission to the park. The park is actually more than Yellowstone for the fee so it was nice to get in for free. Jiuzhaigou is actually forested and unlike Yellowstone receives most of it's precipitation at rain instead of as snow. The park, mostly karst topography, varies not only in the ecological sense but is managed very differently. You are not allowed to leave the board walks, there is no camping inside the park and hardly any vendors. Andrew let me see the park plant list before we headed inside and that really made my week. They have over 2,000 vascular plants and even more exciting, they have lots of spruce, fir, oak, maple, and even a hemlock. However only 3 different species of bamboo and the grass/sedge species seemed pretty depauper compared to Yellowstone. OOOOh but there are 48 different species of orchids, 24 of which are different genera. Would be fun to be here in the summer. The elevation of Jiuzhaigou varies 2000 to 4000 meters.

Sooo we bought our bus tickets for the park (you must ride the bus, there are no private vehicles allowed) and our plan was to spend the night inside the park with a Tibetan Family. Technically this is not allowed, but her friend Andrew told us that no one says anything about it. While trolloping the boardwalks, we were flattered to have nine high schoolers alternate posing for pictures with us. We also took a picture of us with them. It was great fun and we felt like celebrities. We had a nice day of taking in gorgeous travertine waterfalls and eyeing all the splendid trees when some kind bus drive scooted us on the last bus, as we of course had no idea what the bus schedule was. He dropped us off at our Tibetan Village and we proceeded to try to find ourselves a place to stay. It had been really hot for my northern blood and we were not prepared for the lack of water vendors since everywhere else in China we had old ladies trailing us up the water trying to sell us water sooo basically after a day of playing camel we were thirsty and tired.

We went up and down the village with our Mandarin Chinese book, but everyone avoided eye contact and would avoid us. We were beginning to think we would be camping in an abandoned building when a nice old man motioned for us to come this way. Then he pantomimed out sleeping and we nodded "yes" madly. He showed us the room, but I don't think either of us were in a bargaining position seeing as how were were parched and hungry. We paid 50Y (7US) for a room, dinner and breakfast. They brought us hot water and we gulped it down. Our guest house was painted in pure bright colors with pictures of animals. It was a bit dusty, no electricity but we had a candle, two blankets each and meals and the view out our second floor room was amazing. The second floor rooms (although we were the only one's there) had a deck with a small bench along the entire length so we sat outside and watched the moon rise above the snow capped peaks, waiting for dinner, wondering what it would be. The food vendors also had not been as prevalent as we had planned for.

Dinner was delicious--it was cabbage with pork and spice and rice. The grandpa fixed it and told us so. Later we were invited inside. A generator ran the daughter's lap top, T.V. with satellite, & electricity. It was interesting to see the modern day conveniences juxtaposed in the Tibetan Family. The inside of the house was painted with the beautiful ornate panels. the center had a wood stove for cooking. Two walls had built in benches with embroidered cushions. The 13 year old granddaughter did her homework on her lap top while listening to rap music and occasionally asking us a question. She told us she liked basketball and rap music. The father and uncle watched TV and tried to find channels that we liked (we told them we didn't have TV). The grandpa (74) watched our card game of gin rummy (Emily won every time except once!). The grandma (67) spun wool. The mother finished up dishes and then enjoyed some good laughs with her daughter. We never did figure out what was so funny. It was so much fun to see them all three generations together and feel like we were part of their family, even though communication was obviously quite limited. We managed to communicate to them that dinner was good and find out their occupations. The father took pictures of people in the park and the mother sold jewelry. It made me miss my family. They told us breakfast was at 8.

In the morning, the park was so nice and quiet. The grandmother was spinning the prayer wheels and burning incense in stupas. Breakfast was rice porridge (an acquired taste) with cabbage and spices on the side. They also made dumplings for us that were steamed on top of the rice. The dumplings were good but filling and so they gave us more and we had to stuff them in our pockets so as not to hurt our feelings. They came in handy later in the day for lunch since there was really no one selling food in the park. In the sweltering heat, it was funny because at the vista overlook there were being loads of people trying to rent you a very warm Tibetan costume and then of course you would pay them to take your picture and they printed if off on a battery run computer/printer operation. All I wanted to do was find a shade tree and get away from the heat radiating parking lot, I couldn't imagine putting on one of those costumes. They seemed to be quite the hit with the Chinese tourist though.

We left the Tibetan family, but both of us agreed it was one of our most favorite experiences so far.