Sichuan

Four and half hour flight from Singapore and additional 45 minutes flight or 10 hours coach ride from Chengdu to the final destination, a national nature reserve. Situated 4,900 meters above sea level, Jiuzhaigou, a spectacular scenic area, earmark, as one of the world heritages is located 500km from Chengdu, northeast of Sichuan province. Sichuan is the most populous province in China.

Jiuzhaigou is known for its crystal lakes, waterfalls, beautiful forests and rare animals. The locals used to call the natural reserve area ‘fairyland’ and I guess that place truly live up to its name. The panda bear, red panda and the golden monkey are some of the animal species that are unique to Sichuan. Each seasons brings forth different spectacular scenery and one must go to personally experience the breathtaking views. During late winter or early spring, the morning and evening temperature could drop as low as minus 20 degree while the mid noon temperature could rise as high as 35 degree C. Applying sun block to the exposed part of the body, in particular the face and hands is a must to avoid sun burnt and the strong ultra violet rays during mid noon. Jiuzhaigou is located in the high plains where the air is thin and exposure to ultra violet rays could result in skin irritation for those who have sensitive skins and complexions. It is truly a trip worth remembering though.

The flight from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou were fully booked during CNY so I had not choice but to take the coach. All together there were 6 of us who took the coach ride and we did not regret at all since there were so much natural scenery to watch and appreciate during the journey. Due to the long distance, the tour guide decided to split the journey into 2 days. We spend a night stopover in ‘MouXian’ county, a semi populated town situated in between Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou. By far and large the hotel that we stay put for the night in ‘MouXian’ situated between vast range of mountains is considered the best in its vicinity. The temperature was in the subzero range when we reached ‘MouXian’ around 7.30pm in the evening and it started to snow when we finished our dinner and headed to our respective rooms.


I must comment that China’s transport infrastructure; in particular the highways and roads are very well built and maintained. Only a handsome few coach drivers from Chengdu are confident and experience enough to drive from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou. The route from Chengdu to the final destination is dangerous at times, with steep and treacherous seemingly unending bends that cut across high mountains and valleys. The roads seems to wind endlessly in the form of reverse and forward ‘S’ shapes route. The coach seems to lose speed as it heads towards higher plains where the air gets thinner and this takes its toll on the engine that needs to burn more fuel due to the lack of air required for the combustion.

Traveling to remote parts of China has never been easier today compared to 10 years ago whereby the infrastructure such as land and air transport has been greatly enhanced and improved over the years. Barriers are built to improve road safety and warning signpost is placed in dangerous and narrow bends.

There some things that foreign tourist has to keep in mind with regards to central China heating system. Most of the restaurants and hotels in central and southern China are not adequately equipped with regards to heater facilities unlike its northern province counterparts. Standard air conditioners are used for warming, barely enough to warm a standard size room at maximum 30 degree Celsius.

Take a shower could prove to be a challenge even to the toughest guy on earth during winter. One could easily catch the cold when stepping out from the shower room which has no heater element installed. A sizeable number of restaurants do not have any heater elements at all so be prepare to have lunch or dinner in sub zero freezing cold temperature.

One thing that I have learned with regards to traveling to China is that one must be fully prepared in terms of physical fitness and health. Buy travel insurance if possible. Bring adequate first aid kit pack comprising medicine such as painkillers, anti diarrhea pills, gastric pills, muscle acne plasters and etc. Bring as many winter clothing as possible if you travel during winter. Never drink from the water tap. Drink from bottled water such as mineral bottled water during the trip. Depending on location, at times it is advisable to even brush your teeth from bottled water. Bring multi adaptor plug if necessary required to charge up your camera battery or mobile phone.

Most of the Sichuan food and delicacies are extremely oily thus advisable to bring along some tidbits and cup noodles. Never take your eyes and sight off valuable stuffs. Pickpocket incidents are rampant in China.

Try to empty yourself (if you know what I mean) before setting off for the long coach ride. Almost all the coaches in China are not equipped with toilets thus advisable not to drink too much water or take too much food before the long journey. Depending on the next stopover checkpoint, you may have to tolerate 3 to 4 hours ride in between breaks.
If you really had to relieve yourself during the journey, umbrellas would prove to be invaluable because you are likely to have to do your business in the open space thus umbrella is very handy to protect your privacy. Even if there are public toilets in the rural areas, you can be sure that there are no doors at all. Surprisingly I found that the condition of the public toilets has improved tremendously even in rural and remote areas.

Most of us would tend to put the blame on the local authorities for not improving and maintaining the cleanliness of the public toilet, we seems to overlook the fact that the civic mindedness of the public toilet users plays a large role in contributing to hygiene of toilets.

The thing that irritates me the most throughout the trip is the show off altitude of some of the members of the tour group. There is this woman who goes around telling people how much money she make through property transactions and boast of being the top 50 ERA property agents. It irks me to find such a thick skin lady who is arrogant beyond description and thinks she is the most successful person in Singapore.


Someone once asked me why I spend money to go on tour instead of saving it for rainy days. I guess as much as we should save money for rainy situations nevertheless we should enjoy ourselves if time permits and appreciate the rest of the world while our health permits us to travel. After all we only live this once so the more we should pamper ourselves if possible.
Last but not least, the Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu trip has left a deep impression on me. Chengdu may not have an airport that is comparable to Changi International Airport. However, the lifestyle in Chengdu is much more relaxing as compare to the hectic life style in Singapore. Chengdu climate is humid much like Singapore however its weather is much cooler and this makes it an ideal place to relax. More and more big companies are setting up R&D labs and research facilities in Chengdu. Big names like Intel, TCL and many more have established research facilities in Chengdu. Like many other places, property prices in Chengdu has sky rocketed as of recent. This is inevitable given the increased affluent lifestyle and improve standard of living. By and large, Chengdu is pretty much self-sustaining and provincial government has great plans to transform the city into a major industrial, technological and commercial hub.