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Throughout my time with Newsvine Photographers, I've posted a few random images here and there of some of the places that I visited when I was living in South Korea and China. However, I've gotten a few requests to do full albums of some locations and I always aim to please, so the first one up is Sichuan Province, China.
In 2007, shortly before moving back to the States, I visited Sichuan. I flew into Chengdu and the next day took a bus to Jiuzhaigou (Valley of the Nine Villages) in northern Sichuan, near the border with Tibet and Qinghai. This is actually one of the areas that would be hit hard by the 2008 earthquake. After spending three years living at sea level, with 95 degree temperatures and 80% humidity (and pollution), getting into the cool, crisp, dry air of northern Sichuan was refreshing. After two days at Jiuzhaigou, we would travel to Huanglong. We would finish by heading to the other end of Sichuan to see Mt. Emei and the Leshan Buddha.
Unfortunately, all I had at the time was a point-and-shoot Ricoh Caplio R6, so my ability to take quality pictures was somewhat limited.
Mt. Emei is covered with this particular species of monkey and they can be very aggressive. One such monkey mugged my wife and stole a bottle of tea, which he proceeded to open and chug.
One of the many lakes that dot the valley at Jiuzhaigou.
Waterfall at Jiuzhaigou
At several places in the valley, the river spreads out and covers the entire valley floor. Where there is elevation change, it creates a cascading effect over the rock. Where the floor is flat, the river just disperses into a few inches of water covering the floor of the entire forest. It really is a unique effect that I have not seen in any of my travels through 45 states or 9 provinces in Canada.
We went to Jiuzhaigou in late October, which meant that many of the species of trees were in full color.
Jiuzhaigou is named for the nine Tibetan villages that extend the length of the valley. These are prayer flags at one of the villages.
If you look carefully, you can see the road winding down over the mountain pass. This is the road to access Huanglong. The mountain pass itself is at 18,800 feet, with the peaks several thousand feet higher.
Water flowing over rock at Huanglong.
Much like Yellowstone, there are some unique geological formations that have interacted with water to create levels of pools.
This is one of the photos in question from yesterday's Foto Friday.
