Go to Jiuzhaigou

Thursday afternoon I found a cheap flight to a place called
Jiuzhaigou. Jiuzhaigou is a place of legend, sort of like China's
Banff National Park and one of the most popular places for Chinese
tourists. The most beautiful place in China? Possibly. Flights
prices triple starting May 1 so it seemed like as good a time as any
to go.
Jiuzhaigou is located in the north of Sichuan province, which is the
province that I am working in. The middle of Sichuan provine, called
the Sichuan Basin, is essentially a very flat circular area that holds
most of the people and large cities, including Leshan and Chengdu.
This basin is ringed by some of the highest mountains on the planet,
so travelling to the extremes of the province takes a long time even
if the distance is not great. I woke up near the end of the flight to
be treated to a vista of huge white-capped mountains as far as the eye
could see. One day, all of this will be yours.
The pictures speak louder than anything I can describe but still don't
do it justice. The massive waterfalls and emerald blue lakes flowing
through tall narrow valleys were spectacular. It was sort of
"packaged up" nicely for visitors, and none of the Tibetan villages
really felt authentic, but that didn't subtract from the beauty of the
place. Plus there were Tibetan prayer flags all over. Oooh, so
exotic.
I took the long 8 hour bus ride back to Chengdu on Sunday, which was a
nice way to see the countryside. Pretty dramatic scenery as we passed
small villages along the river valley. We were on a very new road
that workers were still putting the finishing touches on as we drove
throw Wenchuan, well known in Sichuan as the epicenter of the 2008
earthquake. A lot of building going on in that city, but situated on
the river it looked like a really nice place to live. Difficult to
imagine the nightmare that unfolded in those tall valleys a few years
ago.
The Sichuan Basin is known for its lack of sunlight, and true to form
it was sunny for most of the way back to Chengdu (I need sunglasses
now anytime it gets sunny). Then we went through a very long tunnel
with air quality that seemed akin to a coal mine. When we came out
the other side the skies were overcast once again. Welcome home.
Anyway, this week I'm doing a music lesson, and the students go batty
when they hear about that. We talk a bit about their favourite
artists and music (Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber) and
then work on organizing the scrambled lyrics to the Beatles'
"Yesterday". Would you take it as a compliment as an artist if your
music was being used to teach ESL? It's going really well, and also a
little funny to hear the students recite lyrics in their "Microsoft
Sam" monotone voice. Can't say I'm tired of hearing Yesterday yet,
but it's only Tuesday!