There is a chinese saying: "九寨归来不看水." It means: You have no wish to visit any other lakes after viewing the Jiuzhaigou Valley. The colourful lakes and snow mountains in Jiuzhaigou make it like a fairyland in the world, espacially in autumn, the leaves change colour into yellow, orange, red...make the whole valley looks like a colourful painting!

Jiuzhaigou takes it's name from the nine tibetan villages in the valley. Jiu means nine, zhai means village, gou means valley.

As a most popular scenic spot in China, the per day visitors number was once up to 30,000 in the national day of 2013! This made a big trouble for the park at that time, so as such popular place to go in China, you'd better not to go there in chinese national holiday, otherwise you can only see people mountain and people sea(人山人海)!

And the last thing to remind you is: even the park is close at 5:30pm, but usaully the workers in the park will ask you to take the last sightseeing bus at 4:30 in the park to go down  if you are still at somewhere far from the gate , because it is really a big park, it gonna take you quite a long time to visit along the way back. So if you want to visit the whole spots in the park, better to hurry up when visiting.
 

Mt. Siguniang( Four Maidens Mountain) is situated  in the middle of Mt.Qionglai Range in the buffer zone between the west Sichuan Plateau and the mountainous area on the rim of Sichuan Basin, where Xiaojin County and Wenchuan County of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province meet. The whole scenic area covers 2,000 square kilometers.

The name of Siguniang( four maidens , means the guardian deity of mountains in the Jiarong dialect of Tibetan language. In fact, the mountain is comprised of four peaks standing side by side like four girls. The peak of the Fourth Sister, with a summit elevation of 6,250 meters above sealevel, is the highest of Mt.Qionglai Range. Of all the mountains in Sichuan, it ranks second only to Mt.Gonga, “King of Mountains in Sichuan”, which is 7,556 meters above sea level. Its reputation is “Queen of Mountains in Sichuan”. The other three peaks, Mt. Third Sister, Mt.Second Sister, and Mt. Elder Sister, are 5,664, 5,454, and 5,355 meters above sea level.

As a region inhabited by the Tibetan, Qiang, Hui, Yi and Han People, with the Tibetans as the major ethnic group, Mt. Siguniang also nurthres and cherishes the old and simple folk customs of the ethnic minorities.

Bipenggou National Park is located above 3600 metres high above the sea level,north to Siguniang Mountains,and Wolong Panda Reserves.It is less touristy than the similar attraction-Jiuzhai Valley National Park,but you almost can see the same views,including crystal ponds,red leaves,glaciers,snow summit and various kinds of wildlifte.
People go here in spring for wild flowers,enjoy cool weather in summer,see the fall foliage in september and october,while ski here in winter.

Huanglong is the largest Travertine Landscape in the world.

It is located in the southern part of the Minshan mountain range, 150 kilometres (93 mi) north-northwest of the capital Chengdu, in the northwest part of Sichuan province.

the best attraction is the large-scale open-air travertine accumulation landscapes, Huanglong travertine has a total length of 3.6km, It looks like a golden huge dragon wheeling in the snow-capped mountains and valley. It is mainly composed of 4 types of landscapes such as travertine banks, colorful ponds, travertine waterfalls, and travertine cave.

at an average elevation over 3,000m, Huanglong area built up on the glacier ruin of the Quaternary Period. There are glaciers, snow mountains, valleys and rivers.

Ethnic Customs

there are mainly Tibetan people,Qiang people,and Hui people.

as one of the oldest nationalities in China, Tibetan has lived and multiplied in the solemn and beautiful mountains for over a thousand years. The vast and pure land has nourished this brave and kind-hearted nationality.

Religions and Beliefs

Tibetan Buddhism is the most important part of Tibetan traditional culture.

Taoping Qiang Village is located in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture,220km away from Chengdu.

Qiang people is one of the lodest people of 56 Peoples of China.

with the hills at its back and a river in front of it, facing the south, has a systematic and intricate layout. it is a

typical example of the Qiang architectural art. the stockaded village is known as "a mysterious ancient castle in the

East". Among all the buildings, the blockhouse is the landmark of the Qiang village. it is the tallest building, a

stronghold which was contrusted to fight against invaders.

The Qiang blockhouses are contrusted in shapes of different kinds, such as the tetragonal, hexagonal or octagonal shapes;

some of them have thirteen or even fourteen storey, more than 30 meters in height. Most of them are made of flagstones

stuck with clay mud. The edges of the blockhouse look sharp and straight as if they were cut with a knife, and the surface

of the walls are smooth, solid and durable. They have stood aloft there for thousands of years.

Qiang Village is like a maze
When you stand on the house roof, you will find the village presents a layout of houses adjoinhing houses which are

accessible to one another. Entering the village lanes, you may think that each house is seperated, but when you wanl on the flat roofs, you will find that all the houses are connected by the roofs. with such an effective dfense system the villagers could help each other in case that someone is in trouble. The whole village is built just like a maze, where the villagers might set up ambushes and the intruders were likely to lose their way and therefore dared not dash about. Below the village, is hidden a great water network.
underground ditch that leads to every household. The ditch is lined and covered with greenish stones slabs. Spring water flows through the ditch to every household from the mountaintop so that the people can fetch water indoors. In time of war they were not afraid of being surrounded by enemy forces, as the water supply system  might help them hold fast to their post for a long time. Beside, this water network serves as a perfect fire-fighting facility and a safe underground passageway.

Looking at such plain and solid blockhouses, you can imagine how this old ethnic group has managed to survive with great tenacity and willpower in this narrow space enclosed by ranges of mountains.

Local legend claims this area is the manifestation of a yellow dragon after its victory over a demon. In fact, Huanglong got its color from the terraced land, where water, containing rich Calcium Carbonate, flows down from the higher part of the mountain.  After millions of years of geographical sedimentation and natural oxidation, various types of sedimentary rocks are formed under the water, and from afar, looks like a yellow dragon lying in water. Hence, its name “Huanglong – Yellow Dragon”.
Huanglong, a smaller, isolated version of Jiuzhaigou, is famed for its mountainous landscapes, colorful pools of limestone formations, diverse forest ecosystems, as well as waterf alls and hot springs. The Huanglong area also has a population of endangered animals, including the giant panda and the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey.
Unlike Jiuzhaigou, the Huanglong valley is filled with fascinating limestone formations formed by the water that constantly flows from the melting snow of the surrounding mountains. Xuebaoding, the main peak of the snow-capped Minshan, rising 5,588m above sea level, is covered in snow all year-round.  As the attitude here is high (at around 4,000 meters), we will take a cable car and take short walks around the park to conserve energy.

There is slang in Chinese: Never want any water after coming back from Jiuzhai.  Jiuzhai boasts many clear lakes,some of which are hidden in the valleys and some inlay in the virgin forests.With variety of shapes and sizes, these lakes look like mirrors projecting colorful light rings in the sunshine.

With a total area of 20,000 square km,this huge Tibetan grassland is my favorate place.

Yaks,Tibetan Nomad Tents and  monasteries are the main things you can see in this huge grassland,no internet no starbucks.

Not always the Great Wall or the Terra Cotta Warriors or the Leshan Buddha,a few days of simple life in such remote Tibetan villages makes your Chinese trip special and unforgetable.

Songpan is a county in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. since the ancient time, Songpan has been the gateway to Chengdu Plain. the county is 2849.5 meters above sea level, 335 km from the provincial capital of Chengdu.
The wall in the small city was built in the year of 1379.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Tibetan king Songzanganbu asked the Tang Emperer to marry the most beautiful girl of the country, the Emperer Taizong sent him Wen Prince Wencheng. when they went back from Changan to Tibet, they passed here.

Unlike many other Qiang village in Maoxian or Wenchuan which were completely destroyed by the 2008 earthquake and rebuilt after that. The Heihu Qiang Village survives in the earthquake because it's 100 km away from the disaster. The Qiang people in this isolated remote mountain village are still keeping their traditional lifestyle, ladies dress their pretty hand made embroidered costume in everyday life. The village is few visited by tourists,quite peaceful and not commercialized yet. But easily to find a guest house there,no worry for accommodation and dining.

How to go there: Bus from Chengdu Chadianzi Bus Station(茶店子汽车站）to Maoxian(3.5 hours) then hire a min van to the village(cost a bout 50Yuan for one way,30min).