Sichuan Spicy Girl

Well, after being pushed around in Beijing and suffering from severer skin rash in Guangzhou, I dragged my draining body to the rural area in west China – Sichuan – hoping to breathe in fresh air as well as to escape from my dull fathersitter life.

I joined a tour this time. Yes, I was traveling in uniform hats, walking behind a tour flag and competing to take photos with many others. No boredom nor being tied up were experienced. Why? The tourmates I hung out with were great fun, despite they were all over 45 years-old. The aunties and uncles played and laughed as freely as I do. I listened to their hardship stories and talked randomly about the way young people are living their lives nowadays. For the whole seven days, I was laughing and talking non-stop, temporarily throwing the boredom of my city life aside. By the way, I was in an orange “army” – loving it.

My big contribution in this tour was to finish most of the spicy food. I can’t remember when I started liking the hot and pungent flavors of chili; this unusual savor is rarely seen in Cantonese. VIOLA, I suddenly became the hot girl in our meal table. At the end of the tour, everyone knows Mapo Tofu was my favourite and I could not eat rice without chili.


Day 1 Chengdu – Maoxian

We were picked up by a dainty Sichuan girl in the airport and were sent on a bus trip of four hours to a small rural town called Maoxian. In the bus, I was still recovering from the aftermath of this morning’s big I.D. drama: I mistakenly took my Singapore I.D. instead of the China one. My mum had to bring my China I.D. scudded in a cab from the city to the airport. I barely made it to the plane! Gosh, I am reliable on lots of things, except for taking planes. There was once I missed my flight to Tasmania last time. The lesson is: never trust me when you are to take a plane with me.

Back to Maoxian, it is a small peaceful town in rural Sichuan. There was nothing to see around our hotels, except for assorted craftworks made of yak’s horns. I got to see the raw materials of those beautiful crafted ornaments – the dried yak’s heads and their giant horns. They were waiting to be burnished and sold.


Day 2 Mounigou Scenic Area

After another three hours of bus trip, we finally got to our first destination – Mounigou Scenic Area. The main attraction of this area was its tufa waterfall – Zhaga Waterfall. On our way into the area, we went through the charm of natural hand and the beauty of calcification remains. Breathing in the fresh air produced by the virgin forest, I threw away the bad memories of our crappy lunch and dirty bathrooms.

The waterfall was either marvelous or grand, but it has this natural tranquility that pacifies you into its serene cradle. Its calcific rocks were reflecting a unique colour which could only be seen in the Tibet region.

The rest of the day was another long-hour of bus trip with me reacting to the thin air in the high altitude district; I had a headache.

We stayed in a hotel closed to the entrance of Jiuzhaigou Valley. It was a boring town, no night life after dark and with restricted time for hot water supply. I walked with the aunties and uncles to check out the local accessories before we called it an early night. I needed the rest to recover from the headache anyway.


Day 3 World of Fairytale – Jiuzhaigou Valley

Jiuzhaigou Valley is the world of fairytale – a well preserved national park where nature created large and small pools reflecting different colours of the sun. Minerals were deposited into the water that enhance the distinctiveness of the water colours.

Jiuzhaigou (nine valleys) was named for its nine valleys found in the area; only three valleys are currently opened for tourism. The geography of Jiuzhaigou and its beautiful pools formed like a “Y” shape and are surrounded by snow mountains and virgin forests. Inside the valley, eco-cars run frequently like communal buses that drive tourists around to visit different pools.

There are numbers of pools/lakes with different charms of its colours scattering inside the valley. I will only pick several ones that I like the most to write about.

The most colourful – Five Coloured Lake

The lake is also called Peacock Lake. As the name suggested, its water at different level covers a colour spectrum from pale blue to aquamarine to emerald green. Such different colours in one lake phenomenon is attributed to mineral concentration. Some tree trunks and branches have fallen into the lake by natural force, which has greatly enhanced the beauty of the lake. You would be allured to the scattering patches of the lake reflecting different colours created by God’s hand.

The Mother of the Valley – Long Sea Lake

Long Sea Lake is located on the top of the valley – 3200 above the sea level. Its water is running all year round and supplying to most pools/lakes in the valley. Snow mountains vividly presented their immaculate figures right in front your eyes. At their feet, the stretched panoramic view of the lake helps you to open your heart to the natural environment.

A Tranquil Lady – Firework Lake

We came in a fairly dry season, the trees were not in the best shape, neither are the colours. Anyhow, I like about the tranquility of this lake, where tourists hardly came to visit because it was hidden from the main road. The 1KM walk was well rewarded as soon as I saw the beauty of this aquamarine colour lake. The backdrop was one of the nine villages and tourists busy walking along the main road plus buses driving pass. From where I was standing, I could hear nothing but the soothing sound of the nature.

Colourful Villas – Lotus Leave Village

Even the villas in Jiuzhaigou are colourful. Different houses were painted in different colour themes. The houses are built by stones and made three levels. According to the tradition of Zang minority group, a young man needs to climb up three floors to meet the girl he likes. Well, no wonder they build such thick pillars in most villas.

Cultural Show

We have paid a substantial amount to see a cultural show in the Jiuzhaigou district at night. The saying of Sichuan produces pretty girls and handsome boys is indeed true. The girls wore delicate clothes with embroidered patterns danced gracefully while the guys marching in macho steps to perform the manful side of their tribes. We were also delighted to see a number of good singers to present us the most native voice from the Tibet mountains.


Day 4 Bus Trip of 12-hour with a Surprised Snow View

Today’s schedule was a 12-hour bus trip back from the rural Sichuan to its capital Chengdu. To our great surprised, as our bus climbed up, we got to see snow covering not only the tip of the mountains but the roadside. For our Cantonese, snowing is scarce. We felt like being driven into a La La Land and could not wait to get of the car to play with the snow.

I was wearing a pair of three-quarter pants that day as I thought I would be confined and squashed in the bus for the day. When I was playing with the snow, some of my tourmates challenged my bravo! Aha, later that day, my dress code was proven right for the day, which had stroke up to 26C.

We ate in the same restaurant as we first came to Sichuan. Even though we had similar dishes, we felt that they were much nicer this time. After eating crap meals in the past three days, I guess our appetite and hygiene standard have dropped like the current stock market.


Day 5 Leshan Grand Buddha

We packed our bag and moved again after a night of luxury staying in a four-star hotel. This time we came to the feet of the infamous Leshan Grand Buddha.

The tour guide tried to persuade us to take a boat trip to capture the full Grand Buddha in our camera. She exaggerated that climbing the Buddha was not easy, on top of that, we had to queue for two hours to go down a cliff road. Only three of us decided to climb; of course I was one of them.

The climb was not as difficult as described and the queuing was merely half an hour, given that several people had jumped our queue. We’d gotten a close view of this thousand years old giant Buddha which was originally covered in gold. I was even able to touch its curly hair and its giant toes!

At night, we stayed in this very nice hotel at the foot of Mt Emei. We had a huge communal balcony which we could oversee part of the Mt Emei city.

After dark, we went out to a street famous for food in the city centre. One of my tourmares and me joint a group of oldies, trying do dance in the elderly aerobic music. We were fed with enough laughter.


Day 6 Mt Emei

We woke up at 5am in the morning in order to catch the first bus to go up to Mt Emei – a famous sacred place of Buddhism. To be honest, there are not much to see apart from the monkeys alone a short walkway and the four-faced giant Buddha.

For thousands of years, people from all over China came to pilgrimage, making three important wishes of their lives. Do in Rome as Rome does, I pray devotedly in front of three Buddhas. I have made wishes for health, love and career. In front of giant Buddhas, I was whispering and repeating the same wishes again and again …. what can be more important than these wishes in one’s life?

It was very foggy up on top of the hill. I could not see the trees within 10m radius. When we took the cable car down, we felt like we were on top of the world and became Gods.

The monkeys in Mt Emei are famous for its vulgar attitude. They are well fed by tourists all year round and show no gratitude towards human – they are the king of the mountain, not us. While we were having fun feeding the massy monkeys, a tiny monkey baby climbed up from the cliff. Swoosh, the little bub was snatched by his father and hidden deeply inside his arms hold. Almost at the same time, the mummy came in front of daddy and started grabbing the bub’s mini head. Wow, we heard the little one making screeching noise in-between two mighty hands. Poor baby, living in a primitive world is not easy.

In our last night in Sichuan, I finally got to experience the cultural atmosphere of Chengdu. We went down to Jinli Street where olds blended into news, bringing the resonant Chengdu life right in front of your eyes. From traditional Chinese tea houses to modern western bars, from Sichuan snacks to spicy hotpots, from shadow puppet show to toys from the old-time, all were displayed alongside the vibrant street for you to savor. I was dazzling with local cultures and variety of local craftworks during the two-hour excursion inside the street.


Finally … Time to Say Goodbye

After seven days of sharing the same bus and meal table, I was about to leave my jocose aunties, uncles and other tourmates. Two will go back to New York, another two will head to Northern China for more traveling, the others are either going back to their ordinary lives or exploring something new in Guangzhou.

My two-month of traveling is also about to come to an end. A frantic life is waiting for me ahead. Well, well, I would rather come back to the PR battle field, rewarding myself with achievement than traveling like a lonely planet. There are so many things to see in the world, why rush to see them all while you can take a slow pace with a good accompanier.

Anyhow, I concluded my journey in great satisfaction.