Wow, it’s been a whole week since I left home…it’s felt like forever so far (just because we’ve been doing so much). Well, this morning and afternoon was more sightseeing as we actually went to Jiu Zhai Gou (the park…it was officially named a world heritage protection site whatever on December 14, 1992). The place has like 1000 lakes or something, and they’re all extremely clean (the water’s a majestic blue, because of high calcium levels…I think, but you can still see to the bottom in some areas). The adults compared this place to Yellowstone Park, but umm…it smells a LOT better (if you ignore all the exhaust from the buses constantly driving people back and forth), and the whole entire scenery is much more beautiful because of the mountains and the blueness. Okay well, we spent like 8 hours there today and we saw part of the park (we’re going to see the other half tomorrow). Chinese people are so impatient. Like when we were in line (yes…there were bars trying to bring organization and try to form a line) to get on the bus, we would be in the front, and then people would somehow push, shove and squeeze their way in front of us. I mean, we’re all going to get on the bus eventually…if not now, then in another few minutes…chill out! And then, when we blocked people off, and then were waiting (for example) for people to get off the bus before we got on, the people behind us would start yelling at us to get on! How impolite! The guide then told us that like maybe two years ago, they didn’t even have any bars and it was just a mass of people waiting in the courtyard and whenever a bus came, it was a free-for-all.

Okay, back on topic. Of the lakes we saw, were Sparkling Lake, Hidden Dragon Lake, Long Lake, Bonzai something, some really cool waterfall, Five Color Lake, and a few others. I kind of have a spiel with the Five Color Pond. Well how it is is that there’s this flight of stairs from the road down to the lake (supposed to be 168 steps, but I counted 176 or 177…close)…meaning there’s a flight back up to the road…but I’ll get back to that later. Anyways, the view there was really beautiful. It wasn’t five colors like red, yellow, etc, it was more like bright blue, dark blue, blue, blue-green and green, but it was still pretty. Okay, so the local guide warned us beforehand that the stairs up are pretty tiring and that not everyone has to go down and see. Therefore, only my dad, Terry’s dad, Xu Shu Shu, Pei and myself went down. On the way up, it was really funny because they would all have to take breaks every once and a while. At first I offered to wait up for them, but my dad told me to go on without him…hehehe. Well I got to the top and filmed the rest of their slow journey up the stairs…rest time and all =P. Oh yeah, this happened again on an even shorter flight of stairs that we had to climb later on.

After our park adventure, we went back to the hotel, rested awhile, went to dinner, and then went to see another show put on by aboriginal people (but this time to Jiuzhaigou). When we entered the building, it looked like some kind of Chinese circus. There were seats in three rows encompassing the stage area, and in front of each seat was a tray with wine, tea, and milk tea (nai cha). This show was much more elaborate than the one we saw in Zhangjiajie and it had much less people smoking (which is always good for me). There were only two problems though; the music was extremely loud (meaning that when they sang in their shrill, high voices, it was a bit hard on the ears) and there was a smoke machine, which eventually resulted in the whole building smelling like smoke. Anyways, the first thing I noticed when I got there was that all the women had their faces painted pale white, and all the guys had mullets. I also noticed that they were all really tall. All the guys were like a little taller than me, and the girls were either the same height or taller! The show was interesting, but it dragged on. There was another marriage, but it was just one couple this time. See what happened was there was this tug of war competition, but in this tribe or whatever, tug of war is played with a ring of cloth. Each person puts their head inside the ring, and then steps over the cloth as if they’re straddling it or something. Then they get on all fours and crawl towards the goal, a bell signifying the end of the competition.

I was going to talk about how Chinese people have to be really good drivers (but still aggressive ones too), but I think I’ll leave that for some other time. Oh well, tomorrow is another trip back to Jiu Zhai Gou. More walking, more sights to see, and more sunburns (yeah, I think I got some today). I’m out.