First time after long time I changed from the rails back on wheels and went for an eight hour bus ride to the north of Chengdu to Songpan. A small town in the reach of the Huanglong national park. Situated in the county of Sichuan on the border to the region of Tibet high up in the mountains. Compared to Chengdu which was humid and smoggy this place is full of fresh air.

Even if it feels huge to me it is a fairly small place in Chinese scales. Although, its also very touristy since many people take a night here before they had out for horse trekking or hiking around the national park.

Off the touristy centre into the hidden roads behind the rebuild old town we found the market place were they slaughter the animals and sale the meat on the market. Where kids play between sculls and skeletons of yaks.

The day after the arrival we headed out to the Huanglong national park which is a ‘short’ two hour car ride away from the place. On the way there the car climbs higher and higher up the mountain. Finally we were eaten by a cloud. The visibility left was just a few meters and didn’t allow the driver to go fast.

The park itself is on a lower altitude on the other site of the mountain. The lower part was out of the cloud which allowed us to see the landscapes which was shaped by the water streams running over the stoney ground. Forming those amazing little ponds wight the turkeys coloured water in it which was inviting for a bath despite the fact that the water was cold.

The weather became more miserable the higher up we climbed and finally it it started to sprinkle. We kept going and on the way to the top we found this little tibetan temple.
Even if the weather was ‘shit’ people kept coming here to see the national park. After mt. Hua Shan we had to recognise again that national parks in China might be designed in a different way than those in the west. More about mass tourism than sustainable tourism.

Next stop was at the national park of Jiuzhaigou just two hours further to the north. This one was much bigger so that you needed to take buses inside of it to get to the far ends. And it was designed for even more people. In Songpan a Chinese couple told us that there on their day of visit might have been up to 20k people. We didn’t believe it till we were there.

The park holds a couple of small tibetan settlements which became part of the ‘attraction’. Quite interesting to me were those mechanised prayer wheels which are powered by water. Engineering everywhere 😉

As Huanglong this place also has crystal clear water which is glowing in turkeys colour. But additionally there is old wood hidden in the depth of the water which makes it kind of mystical. There was almost no wind going so that the surface became almost a perfect mirror reflecting the colourful trees along the bank.

Its weird to say this but in some moment it felt like this place could be in the alps. For sure not when the forest was presenting exotic plants but if looked into the distance … it could be, couldn’t it?

For me those national parks are amazing place to see some of Chinas nature. The only problem with them is that they are over developed and therefore overrun by the Chinese mass. Its sometimes hard to relax if you get pushed around or you have to walk slowly behind someone not used to walk at all. Its also hard to see how they treat the nature, littering around or just to scare off the few animals left.

Lucky us that we got could leave. Since it was raining the days before the local stream was on its limit. At some spots the street got damaged by the river, some small landslides came down the slopes and even some boulders were caught by the safety nets along the streets.