I had to make a business trip to Sichuan Province in China. It was my first time visiting inland region of mainland China.
I am not good at spicy food. A long time ago, I went to a Sichuan restaurant in Hong Kong where was targeted Sichuanese people, but I ended up with terrible diarrhea and regretted it very much. Since then, I have been to Sichuanese restaurants in China several times, but I have repeated the same regret. So, is it really okay to go there?
Sichuan Province has a breathtaking natural landscape designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site named Jiuzhaigou. In fact, it had been at the top of my travel wish list before the COVID-19 pandemic, but I had hesitated to visit there due to those painful memories.
Visa-waived travel to China was reopened this year, but I kept putting the business trip off until my schedule was semi-forcefully finalized. It would be nonsense to me going all the way to Sichuan Province just for work. At first, I only thought of seeing pandas. In the end, I was who I was, so I squeezed few days to visit Jiuzhaigou. Apparently, pandas are only awake in the morning.
I am an unfashionable middle-aged guy. Aside from the running shoes I abandoned after I gave up jogging, I live with one pair of black leather shoes and one pair of light blue trekking shoes. Even though I squeezed in more private travel days than workdays during this business trip, I could not possibly go on a business trip with the light blue trekking shoes, besides the black leather shoes were not suitable for trekking. On the day the airline ticket was issued, I purchased a pair of black trekking shoes that was discounted as a dead stock. This should suffice for the business trip.
Recalling that my elementary school field trip book mentioned “comfortable shoes,” I wore the new shoes until the trip every day. Was it getting better because the numbers of shoes had increased, or was it getting worse because I no longer alternated between two pairs? No one cared what shoes an unfashionable middle-aged guy wore anyway.
I managed the business trip with the new trekking shoes and started my private trip from Chengdu. Due to the travel restrictions past five years or so, many Japanese-language travel guides of China have not been updated. I had assumed that I would travel to Jiuzhaigou by plane or bus, but there were almost no flights from Chengdu or Chongqing in Sichuan Province. Upon some research made, I found that a high-speed railway line was opened just last year. Even my Chinese colleagues in Sichuan were unaware of this.
Early in the morning, I headed to Chengdu East Station to board the first train to Jiuzhaigou. Foreigners can use completely ticketless system on China Railway, and some ticket gates allow to pass through by scanning foreign passport. However, perhaps because the Jiuzhaigou route has higher percentages of foreigners, the passport-compatible ticket gates were heavily crowded.
The biggest disadvantage of having private travel along the business trip is the schedule. Since I could not change my schedule at the last minute depending on the weather, I decided to spend two full days in Jiuzhaigou and wait for good weather. I was not sure how reliable the Chinese weather forecast was, but it forecasted that only the first day would be sunny.
The journey from Chengdu East Station to Jiuzhaigou takes more than four hours by high-speed train and car. Although I only remembered roughly 30 minutes when I transferred to shared van service at Huanglong-Jiuzhaigou Station, I eventually arrived at the hotel. Maybe because I had asked my friend’s business partner to make the reservation, they had prepared a room for me even though it was before check-in time. The weather was sunny as forecasted.
To make the most of the sunny weather, I dropped off my luggage at the hotel room and headed straight to Jiuzhaigou. I had planned to take plenty of my time for trekking if good weather forecast continued, but since the forecast was not that great, I decided to visit all the main attractions on that day. There were electric buses operating within Jiuzhaigou, but I was not sure how they worked, I ended up walking a lot. On the first day alone, I walked 26 kilometers.
As typical of famous tourist spot in China, Jiuzhaigou was extremely crowded. However, as I walked 26 kilometers, I was able to enjoy quiet lakes. I thought what Jiuzhaigou famous for was the dead trees lying on the deep blue lake bottom. It was very moving to see the beautiful lake away from the crowds. However, I did not have much time to enjoy the view as I had to keep moving.
On that day, it started to be cloudy in the afternoon, and the mountains were hidden behind the clouds. By evening, it had started to drizzle. During my business trip, I had been eating Sichuan cuisine every day, and my stomach was feeling rough. I was starting to crave Cantonese cuisine which has mild flavor. Unfortunately, I could not find any Cantonese restaurants in the hotel district around Jiuzhaigou but there was a McDonald’s. I was drawn to it like a magnet and walked toward the M.
In the next morning, it was still drizzling. I was too tired, so I slept in again and I had missed breakfast time. There was no point just lying around in the hotel room, I headed back to Jiuzhaigou just before my entrance timeframe was ended.
I boarded an electric bus without many expectations, but the sun began to peek through the clouds. There was no wind on that day and lake surface was literally “clear as a mirror.” Gradually, the mountains became visible, and I happened to realize that I could see snow-capped mountains reflected on the lake surface. It was an absolutely breathtaking view. The sunny weather lasted only a few hours in the afternoon, but I ended up walking 18 km on the second day.
When I returned to the hotel in the evening, heavy rain shower started. The electric buses became suddenly crowded, they passed the bus stop along trekking route with full of passengers. I had an umbrella, so it was not too bad. Yet, after waiting the bus for about an hour, I returned to the hotel soaking wet.
I was completely exhausted. I was able to see waters of Jiuzhaigou clear as a mirror, but my body was far from clear mirror. Still, it was a much better outcome than the other way around.