Yes, I’m a colourful character. 🙂
China trip: Part Two. Part One is here.
Both Huang Long （黄龙）and Jiu Zhaigou （九寨沟）are from the same mountainous area. The difference is Huang Long is at the top of the mountain but Jiu Zhaigou is a few hours away at the valley. Both are clasified as Class A scenery beauty in China, they are also being categorised as world natural heritage by UN. The entrance price to both Huang Long and Jiu Zhaigou is expensive, it is RM100 per person.
Although both places are very beautiful, it is also not easy for us to go to both places to appreciate the awesome sights. Visitors to Huang Long risk high attitute sickness because of the lack of oxygen. My mum and YB Fong Kui Lun’s wife suffered from drousiness when made their way up to Huang Long. Both of them did not manage to walk into the park to appreciate the beautiful scenary but waited for us at the entrance station.
Both places required us to have long walk, so if you don’t have strong legs and not in tip top condition, visiting these two places will be a huge challenge. In Jiu Zhaigou, the most beautiful waterfall is the “Pearl Beach Waterfall”, in chinese it is called 珍珠滩瀑布。
Autumn is the best time for tourists to appreciate natural beauty in both Huang Long and Jiu Zhaigou, because we can then see trees with different colours. Both Huang Long and Jiu Zhaigou are very crowded at this time, as autumn is considered the peak tourist season in China. Many people like to take leave and go for holiday. That’s why the hotel rate and entrance fees are so high. During my stay in China, I heard from the TV news that the government decided to lower the entrance fees for most tourists’ spots from November onwards as there will be fewer tourists during winter. The entrance fees for Jiu Zhaigou will reduce from RM120 to RM80, and for some famous tourist areas, the entrance fees will be reduced 50%.
The number of people visiting Jiu Zhaigou is shocking. On the day of my visit, the tour guide told us that some 18,000 people bought tickets to go into Jiu Zhaigou area . If we multiply RM120 with 18,000 people, that means the Chinese government will earn RM2.16 million a day. According to the tour guide, most tourists visit Jiu Zhaigou from May to October, can you imagine the revenue China will get from Jiu Zhaigou in a year?
As the Tibetian tribes staying at Jiu Zhaigou are banned from farming and other related works after the central government decided to turn it into a tourist area, the government pay 8,000 Renminbi (equivalent to about RM4,000) subsidy to each Tibetian in that area yearly, even baby can get the subsidy too. This is a kind of compensation for the loss of income. I am quite impressed with this policy. How much has our Malaysian government pay to the natives of Sabah and Sarawak when the government built Bakun Dam and allowed logging and carrying out other projects that uproot the natives? I shalll look further into this matter and see what my colleagues and I can do to push for fair compensation to those have been marginalised through lofty projects.
Tibetian houses in Jiu Zhaigou
YB Fong Kui Lun, Mrs Fong and me at Jiu Zhaigou
Beautiful clear blue lake surrounded by colourful trees
“Pearl Beach” Waterfall