20 November
It seems our luck at avoiding crowds has come to an end. We've spent the day at Jûzhaigōu National Park and it's quite possibly my worst national park experience, ever.
The guide books has said it was busy and I'd even read that they limit entry to 40,000people per day! I thought no way will there be that many people. It's mid November and everyone tells us it's low season and buses aren't even running any longer to go north. I was wrong.
We arrived at the park just before 8am, the time it opened. Already it was swarming with flag touting tour guides and dozens of coaches.
Okay we thought, we'll catch the shuttle bus 32km up the road, get off the main path and take the trails on the other side of the lake. The majority of tourists will do a short walk, take pictures and then jump back on the buses to the next major spot, leaving us in peace to enjoy the beauty in tranquil surroundings. Nope, that was not to be.
The majority of trails were closed forcing every tourist the same way so you were more often than not in the midst of a throng of Chinese tourists, posing for selfies with selfie sticks and when not doing that, burying their head in the phone to look at photos or forward to friends. I was not in a good mood. So that my negativity didn't rub off onto Tony we went our separate ways for the day.
After fighting my way through the crowds, walking past fancy dress hire places with photographers taking your picture as you pose in front of the lakes, I finally found a spot on the other side of a clear blue lake, away from tourists and sat for a while looking up at the clear blue sky, a complete contrast to the grey smog of Chengdu. I then headed back to the road and the bus stop as there was no other way to go, to start walking down the road. I was stopped by some over zealous bus warden and no matter how many times I told him (and mimed) that I didn't want to take the bus, I wanted to enjoy the national park on two legs, he wouldn't let me. The 100 or so Chinese people who were intently watching this heated discussion, found this rather amusing. I know not to argue and lose face in China, unfortunately though I wasn't heeding my own advice.
I queued with everyone else and got on the bus to the next 'scenic spot'.
After doing this a couple of times I found a spot by a waterfall which wasn't crowded with tourists and so had a fairly peaceful lunch. I decided to try my luck again and set off walking down the road and once again was stopped. By this point I was feeling rather upset and sorry for myself and was doing all I could not to cry whilst the security guard stared at me. I tried to engage in conversation with a Chinese lady politely asking 'are you not allowed to walk anywhere other than where they tell you?' She didn't understand and just looked away.
I got off the bus at the next stop which was at a lake and heading down towards the exit. I didn't want to leave and so decided to head back up to where the roads split and take the west route to see the remaining lakes so I didn't need to come back tomorrow. No security guard was around and sensing my chance of freedom, I set off walking up the road. Rebel! I had 4km of no one else around me and could simply enjoy the stunning scenery. The road brought me to.....the security guard who had stopped me on the way down. He stared at me and tried to say something but given I don't understand Chinese and he can't speak English, the conversation didn't get far and I simply smiled and walked off into a crowd of people.
Unfortunately my venture up the 32km west side of the park was no better. I got off at a lovely spot looking out at snow capped mountains and crystalline waters and tried to walk around the lake but all the boardwalks were shut off and I simply had to queue for another bus to take me to another spot. The next time I managed to walk uninterrupted was heading down towards the exit when I managed another 4km before the paths stopped and a man said I couldn't go any further on the road.
Tony had pretty much the same experience and getting frustrated with getting pushed and shoved into buses, made a dash for freedom where the roads split and managed to walk 14km downhill all the way to the exit. I wish I'd had the same luck.
The above pleasure cost £17!! Thankfully it's low season or the price would have been £31!! Give me the peaceful English Lake District in Autumn, for free, anyday. It's such a shame as it really is a beautiful place, it's just spoilt by most of the trails being closed and 40,000 selfie taking Chinese tourists using the same paths.

Tomorrow we're planning on heading to Huánglóng, another national park. It's meant to be quieter than Jiuzhàigōu. I just prey it is.

Up until this point, Sichuan in the main has been nice, if not a little rushed.
Visiting the giant panda research centre in Chengdu was amazing. We arrived at 7.30am to beat the crowds and that we did. There was only a handful of people in the park and at one point we had twenty minutes by ourselves with tiny panda cubs asleep in their cot. It was adorable watching them wake up and twitch their tiny paws and feet as they came out of their slumber.
We also saw four older pandas sat munching their way through a mountain of bamboo. By eleven it seemed all the pandas had been fed and as they have to rest to conserve energy, they were mainly asleep. It definitely paid to get there early.
That night we sought out traditional Sichuan hotpot. We were offered a split pot which is half spicy and half not. Throughout Yunnan the food wasn't spicy enough in the main so we said we'd take a spicy hotpot. Phwoar. Mouth on fire!!! Bubbling hot oil with dozens, if not a hundred, Sichuan pepper corns and flaming chillies. Just smelling the oil made our eyes water! It was nice though - once washed down with cold beer, and we're going to seek out another. Maybe this time we will have a half and half pot!

The day after we caught the bus to Leshan to see the giant Buddha. It's possibly the largest in the world at 71m high, carved out of a rock face. It was quite impressive. One of its toes was bigger than me!
Unfortunately getting back wasn't quite as easy as getting there as no signage was in English, no one spoke English, and our Chinese is limited to 'toilet' 'bill' and 'thankyou'. A lovely lady phoned someone and thrust the phone in my face saying 'he speak English'. We arranged to meet someone who would take us to the bus but unfortunately they wouldn't let us out the south exit of the park despite the numerous signs saying 'exit this way'. We retraced our steps and came out no where near where the guy had said he'd collect us and tried unsuccessfully to arrange a lift to the bus terminal from here. We ended up walking an hour and fifteen, not stopping for lunch despite our hunger, preying we'd manage to get seats back to Chengdu, a 2.5hr bus journey North. Thankfully we managed to get the next bus, giving us just enough time to buy some dumplings from a lovely smiley lady outside.

The Sichuan opera that we had tickets for that night was fantastic. Laser shows, face changing masks, puppetry, music, fire blowing and acrobatics. A bit like Cirque Du Soleil.

We were planning on heading further north after staying here so we could visit the Labrang monestary and get a feel for a wilder China, before catching the overnight train from Langzhou to Xi'an. Unfortunately the buses aren't running so it looks like we will have to retrace our steps and do the ten hour bus journey back to Chengdu.
It's definitely been a testing few of days, the hardest of our travels yet. I think our first eight days in China had lulled me into a false sense of security as everything was easier than we'd psyched ourselves up for. I've had my day of whinging about how difficult and busy it is and now need to just get on with it! Still, looking forward to a bit of R&R in Vietnam and Laos in a few week, by which point I will no doubt be in major need.

21st November
Thankfully the visit to Huanglong National Park has been a vastly different experience, probably because it's a two and half hour taxi drive there and there are no hotels close by so it requires a bit of effort! We shared the cab with Lou, an Aussie who has a sideline in dressing as Blueberry the Clown and riding a unicycle!
We arrived at 9.45am to a deserted car park and ticket hall. We spotted twenty tourists in the morning and another forty or so after lunch as they'd taken the cable car to the top of the park and walked down.
Crystal clear water, frozen waterfalls, patches of snow on the ground, calcium terraces similar to those found at Pamukkale in Turkey and boardwalks all to ourselves. Mountains all around, clear blue sky and evergreens framing our vision. No stalls selling rubbish, no dressing up costumes and photographers and best of all, no buses!! It was exactly what was required to restore our faith in Chinese National Parks. A very pleasant day and even with the £45 return taxi ride, it was only £3 each more expensive than Jûzhaigōu.
Upon returning we decided to have a couple of beers. The two bars we found were empty and soulless and more of an annex to a hotel reception selling either Budweiser or a 2.5% local beer. We decided not to bother.

Next stop- back to Chengdu.