Bus to Jiuzhaigou

Whilst in Chengdu we found out that it was still possible to take a bus out to the national park Jiuzhaigou, an area that is just north of the main epicentre of last May’s huge earthquake – the route was slightly longer as it had to avoid the main affected area but hopefully the park would be worth it. So we settled back for our first long bus ride of the trip thus far and hoped the 10 hours wouldn’t be too uncomfortable! After a few hours and already with a very numb bum the scenary dramatically changed from city and suburbs to that postcard image you have of China: Steep mountains with cloud clinging to the tops, little villages scattering the hillsides, water buffalo trudging through paddy fields, rice and sweetcorn sitting on the roadside drying in the sun – it was stunning! This unfortunately soon changed to one of distruction! We’d reached the earthquake area and everywhere you looked the damage was evident, whole villages were buried under rubble and rocks, roads had been submerged under landslides, crumbled pieces of metal that were once cars sat in the torrent of the river, blue tents for emergency housing lined the make shift roads – 600,000 people died in the earthquake but little more than a year on there was an army of workers trying to rebuild villages, houses, roads etc. For around 200km the people were trying desperately to salvage something and start again – it was awful to see but also nice in a way to see so many people working together to rebuild their communities, if that doesn’t sound too voyeuristic or weird! Bloody long bus ride though, took 4 hours longer than it should have – need to rebuild those roads a little quicker!!