China: Chengdu, Tibet, Jiuzhaigou, Chongqing - 24D23N itinerary

Index page for 24 days in Chengdu, Tibet, Jiuzhaigou and Chongqing.

Pre-travel

Breakdown of travel days and accommodations

Basic apps on travel to China

Random things about Tibet

Food in Tibet - Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Chengdu

Day 1 & 24 - Kuanzhai Alley, Jinli Street, People's Park and Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Tibet

Nyingchi Prefecture

Day 2 - Flight from Chengdu to Nyingchi Airport and a leisure walk around town

Day 3 - Cypress Park, Sejila Pass, Lulang Forest, Zhatanglucuo and Tashigang

Day 4 - Lulang Scenic Area, Draksum-tso and Tsodzong Monastery

Lhasa

Day 5 - Draksum-tso to Lhasa along Niyang River via Min-la pass (5100m), evening at Barkhor Street

Day 6 - Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery

Day 7 - Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Street, Potala Palace, local tea house 

Shannan Prefecture / Shigatse Prefecture

Day 8 - Lhasa via Kambala Pass (4794 m) to Yamdrok-tso. 

Stopped by Karo La Glacier and continued to Gyantse Old Town to visit Tibet’s most famous stupa Gyantse Kumpum in Pelkor Chode Monastery. 

Shigatse Prefecture

Day 9 - Gyatse to Shigatse to visit Tashilhunpo Monastery, which houses the world's largest statue of Maitreya Buddha. Then continued to Sakya.

Day 10 - Morning visit to Sakya Monastery. Then continued to Saga. 

Day 11 - Road trip from Saga to Darchen along stunning view of the Saga valley between Gangdise Range and Himalaya Range.

Ngari Prefecture

Day 12 - Eco-bus to Tarboche (Yama Dwara) for about 7 km, then to the bottom of Qugu monastery. Hike up to monastery for a visit. 

Day 13 - Tirthapuri Monastery and hot spring, Bonpo Gompa (Gurgyam Monastery), Khyunglung, and earth forest along the way to Zanda.

Day 14 - Ancient ruins in western Tibet, from vast soil forests on the Ngari Plateau to Ruins of Guge Kingdom, Tholing Monastery.

Day 15 - Morning explore the Donggar and Piyang Caves, the world's largest Buddhist cave complex. 

Day 16 - Morning visit Lake Manasarovar and Chiu Monastery before back to Saga. 

Shigatse Prefecture

Day 17 - Eco bus to EBC and Rongbuk monastery, sunset at EBC.

Day 18 - Sunrise at EBC. Back to Shigatse via Pelku-tso, Gawu la pass and Gyatso-la pass. 

Day 19 - Back to Lhasa for flight out to Chengdu. 

Huanglong / Jiuzhaigou

Day 20 - Chengdu - Huanglong - Jiuzhaigou

Day 21 - Jiuzhaigou

Chongqing

Day 22 - Jiuzhaigou - Chengdu - Chongqing

Day 23 - Chongqing

Day 24 - Chengdu

Day 25 - Arrival in Melbourne

Side note: Where to next? ;)

China: Chongqing in a day

The plan was to go to Langzhong but all the train tickets were snapped out within minutes. We improvised and went to Chongqing instead. As we travelled from Jiuzhaigou, it needed a change of train at Chengdu. On hindsight, maybe it was a good idea not to carry all our luggage as it was a little hectic to navigate an unfamiliar train station with so many people in limited timeframe. 

We arrived in Chongqing around noon time and left the next day passed 3 pm. On arrival in Chongqing, we had lunch at Rongliji in the shopping center next Shapingba station.

Green pepper fish

3 flavoured bubble bing fen

We stayed in Jiefangbei and walked everywhere except to and fro train station on arrival and departure. We are not as efficient as those Instagram influencers, we didn't do that many things in a day. 

The hotel was at many storeys high. After checking in and taking a short respite from the hot weather, we went out. 

Chopstick building on the right

Jiefangbei is the CBD and located in the center of downtown Chongqing, In the center of this huge pedestrian area of Jiefangbei is the People's Liberation Monument. We stayed in Jiefangbei so naturally we crossed or passed this area many times.  

Over the other side but nearby is this cat wall. 

And further down the road is this chopstick building, i.e. Chongqing Art Museum. We walked passed again later at night. 

 

We had an early-ish hotpot dinner to avoid long queue. We went to Chun Hong Hot Pot (Hongyadong Branch). There was a online queueing system but didn't work for us so the staff gave us a paper number ticket. We selected the ingredients and broth base that we wanted while waiting. Yes, I was well again and in time to have mala hotpot. 

And another turn to get to hotpot place. 

We were not so brave, so we didn't order the 9 grid hotpot. We got the usual yin yang pot with mala and mushroom stock. 

Hotpot + desserts cost CNY 154

Cold desserts to extinguish spiciness. 

After dinner, more walks to aid with digestion. Crossing the Qiansimen Bridge to see Hongyadong. 

We walked back on the other side... and here's a picture to show you how crowded it was. My feet were stepped on many times even though it was less people when we first crossed. 

The next morning, breakfast was this crispy stuffed flatbread and a cup of soya milk. There were 2 fillings on offered but when we were there, only the mala filling was available so we bought one. We had a bite and decided we didn't want to share and got another one. 

The only paid entrance we went to was the Luohan Temple. The Luohan (Arhat) Temple was initially built in the Zhiping period of the Northern Song Dynasty around 1064-1067. The original name was Zhiping Temple. The temple was remodelled in 1752. In a 1885 year rebuilt, the temple was renamed to Luohan Temple. It was restored in 1945 after the second world war. 

Lunch was at a Chongqing street noodles shop on the walk back to the hotel. We read that wan za mian is popular and wanted to try. I'm not too keen over the mushy yellow peas toppings. As for wontons or dumplings, all variations we had were good. 

Side note: How come videos don't work on blogspot? 

China: Jiuzhaigou National Park in spring

Jiuzhaigou (Chinese for "Nine Village Valley"), Dzitsa Degu in Tibetan or Jiuzhai Valley National Park is home to nine Tibetan villages, many bird species and plants. It is located in the Min Shan mountain range, in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province. It is best known for its fabled blue and green lakes and waterfalls. 

As mentioned in the previous post, we got there from Huanglong National Park via taxi after being transferred from a Didi rideshare driver. We chose an accommodation within walking distance but the accommodation offered free drop off in the morning. We walked back to the accommodation in the evening. 

We were at Jiuzhaigou National Park on 2 days before 1st May where advices all around were to avoid visiting on the 1st May holiday. We were a couple of days earlier but visitors to Jiuzhaigou were noticeably much more significant that Huanglong just the day before. I don't know if it simply because Jiuzhaigou is a more popular destination or the crowd was already building up. 

Tickets

Likewise Huanglong National Park, we got our tickets on trip.com. Tickets included sightseeing bus. 

Routes in Jiuzhaigou

Routes in Jiuzhaigou National Park is in a Y-shaped. It just happened that the bus we got on went to The Primeval Forest first, so we started with that and made our way down before got on another bus that brought us to the Long Lake branch. 

Map from their website - https://en.jiuzhai.com/plan-your-trip/map

Fancy roof

Our first stop was the Primeval Forest. The forest consists of dragon spruce and fir trees. We didn't walk too far plus it started to drizzle again. 

We didn't get off at every stop nor walk the whole route, Jiuzhaigou is a very big national park. We did however got off to round the Arrow Bamboo Lake followed by the Arrow Bamboo Lake Waterfall. The actual location, whilst absolutely beautiful isn't that tranquil because - crowd. 

Our next stop after was the Panda Lake.

 

Our next stop was Five Flower Lake. We didn't really stop for lunch but packed some biscuits and buns with us. This one is a fairly big lake comparatively. 

We also stopped at Mirror Lake though ironically, I find this lake less mirror lake than others.

After this point, we took a bus to the other branch towards Long Lake and Five Coloured Pool. The bus will drop off at Long Lake. There is no bus stop at Five Coloured Pool. 

Five Coloured Pool, also known as "the eye of Jiuzhaigou" is Jiuzhaigou's smallest and most colourful lake. 

Look at how clear and blue the water was.

For the last stretch, we got off at Rhinoceros Lake and then walked towards Tiger Lake. Then it started raining again. 

We were a little overwhelm with the crowd by then, especially since we spent a lot of time in Tibet with expansive land and minimal contact with other visitors prior. We stopped by Shuzheng Lakes before called it a day. 

Getting away from Jiuzhaigou

There are buses from Jiuzhaigou to Huanglong-Jiuzhai Railway Station for CNY 51 per person. We got the bus ticket the day before after we left Jiuzhaigou National Park. The bus ticket booth is located in front of a theatre. Ticket purchase was through WeChat mini apps which we can't buy ourselves because we didn't have China mobile phone number, so a staff bought it for us and we paid him. 

Spot the pandas along the road

Side note: Perpetually sleepy