Jiu Zhai Gou: May 12-13
Hey, sorry for the super delayed post, but here it is. Most of it is on Instagram, but they don’t exactly have a lot of background text.
On the first day we left, we stopped by the site where the large Sichuan earthquake happened. We coincidentally went there on the day of the anniversary of the earthquake, 5/12. They had kept the site as a remembrance and somehow turned this into a tourist attract as well. I really can’t understand Chinese people.
That day, there was a traffic accident in a tunnel and we were stuck in the same spot for 5 hours. At first, I was just sleeping, but then I turned on my iPhone and played some games until my battery went out. After that, it was hell, being so bored.
After getting “unstuck”, we finally went to lunch and… It was terrible. The food was gross, we had to eat with some really barbaric ladies and the washrooms even had no water. Whatever, it was food.
Some hours later we arrived at the hotel. Our tour was split off into 2 groups; just our luck we ended up with a pack of chain-smoking, mucus spitting, smelly old farts. Again, China-styled, everyone just touched all the dishes with their personal chopsticks. My mom and I passed on the nasty saliva-sharing dishes and went out instead for our own dinner. Noodles. The hotel rooms were even more disgusting, the shower only had hot water for 3 hours a day, no water came out of your shower head, the kettle would pour out brown water, the toilet did not flush, and I had bloodstains on my pillow and bed sheet. It was seriously terrible, and I felt disgusted…
The next morning we hit up the same noodle joint and grabbed some eggs and bread from the downstairs convenience store. Not really like we had a choice, since if we had not, we should be sharing some nasty-ass meal with those disgusting men.
After setting out, we finally got to Jiu Zhai Gou. You can see the Jiu Zhai Gou photoset here.
I was glad to find out that because Jiu Zhai Gou was UNESCO protected, it had a no smoking policy. Anyone found smoking would be fined 500 rmb. Of course, this would make it tough for the Chinese, because of how disgustingly dependent they are on cigarettes.
Contrary to what we had anticipated, Jiu Zhai Gou was fucking cold. It may have been hot in the city, but not over here, 3000km above sea level. In fact, before going to Jiu Zhai Gou, they encourage you to buy this Tibettan medicine that helps you combat the altitude differences. Because it is so high up in the mountains, many people are not used to the air quality, and end up with symtoms such as headaches, vomiting, or fainting.
They had a pretty good system. You ride buses up to the top, and there are stations set up all over the place, where you really only have to wait 5 minutes for the next bus to come along. This would be an essential tool to being able to visit all the spots, but even without that, I think it’s a nice scenic tour, because you can see all the attractions at a quick glance, before actually picking the ones you wanna walk along and take a look at. What you might find while walking around, is lichen which only exists in clean places. To be honest, I don’t know how much longer you will be able to see this if the Chinese keep polluting the area.
Jiu Zhai Gou is really beautiful. But, to be frank, I think it is only slightly better than the Great Canadian Scenery. Really, it’s overhyped. If you looked at the photoset, you would probably agree that it is beautiful, but at the same time, you might also understand, that you could find the same things in Canada.
I was actually quite honestly disappointed with Jiu Zhai Gou. Partly, because of the let-down from all the hype. Part of it was also because while they had a “Tibettan market”, everyone sold the exact same things. I don’t think anything is authentic Mongolian Cow anything, and probably just plastic that’s manufactured by someone. All in all, I didn’t really care about that.
The biggest disappointment is that they had a smoking pit. Are the Chinese really that weak, that you can’t stop smoking for a day? The point of the no-smoking policy is so that the air quality and that the nature is not destroyed. You would think that if you really needed a smoking pit, it would be somehow filtered, but no! It’s just out in the air. Really, this whole smoking pit shit doesn’t change anything. If anything, I think UNESCO needs to get involved with this, because when I found this, I was outraged.
Edit: So after this, I was pretty angry and I went to UNESCO site to find where I could contact them. Instead, they link you to Trip Advisor. My review should be showing up in a bit. I just cut and pasted this thing though. If you agree with me, maybe you can find my review helpful?
