On the second day in Jiuzhaigou, it started raining heavily in the evening. The forecast for the next day was rain followed by cloudy, and I had to leave for Chengdu by evening.
If I walked about 45 Kilometers, I could reasonably say that I had seen all of Jiuzhaigou. A friend who had a bank account in China reserved Jiuzhaigou ticket for my third day, but I decided to discard it.
The gateway to Jiuzhaigou by the high-speed railway is Huanglong-Jiuzhaigou Station. First part of the station name, Huanglong, is also a World Heritage Site. I managed to book shared van service from Jiuzhaigou to Huanglong-Jiuzhaigou Station via Huanglong at the last minute, and I asked the friend to secure an online ticket for Huanglong.
Huanglong has stunning views of ponds, but probably due to differences in the geological layers, the water has a different color from Jiuzhaigou. Also, Huanglong has steeper sloops along the way. Thanks to these slopes, it is possible to take photos without the sky in the frame. As long as not raining, I thought photos would be fine.
Jiuzhaigou was at an altitude of 1,800–3,000 meters, and the overall atmosphere was like early spring. However, Huanglong was at an altitude of 3,100–3,500 meters, and the scenery was still winter-like. I chose to take the ropeway on the way up and walk down on the way back.
After getting off the ropeway, it was about 3 Kilometers to Five-Colored Pond at the farthest point. Since I had already walked enough in the past two days, I paid an extra fee to take an electric bus. Even so, I still had to walk uphill for a short distance. When I reached the Five-Colored Pond, there were emerald green ponds spread out in the snowy landscape. It was a breathtaking view.
Most tourists seemed to be taking the ropeway back, but I had a mission to take photos, I decided to walk down as planned. While I continued walking, I saw a sign that suggested “Do not be disappointed because of the low water level at this time of year.”
The Five-Colored Pond seemed to have enough water, so I was quite satisfied with the scenery. If that was disappointing, I wondered how much water there would be at peak season.
Without understanding the intent, I passed through the forest and arrived at a point where I could look down on the next pond. The scene was shocking.
There was no water at all. To be precise, there were a few puddles here and there. There were also quite a few areas covered with snow. Either way, they were white or yellowish brown, too far from emerald green.
The signboard crossed my mind. It said “Warm Notice” in Chinese, but under the cold sky, content of the signboard seemed not warm. The phrase “at this time of year” implies that there would be sufficient water at “other” times of the year. in fact, the photos I saw when researching Huanglong showed numerous emerald green ponds. It also came my mind that ticket I had obtained the previous night was at low-season rate. Compared to Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong was relatively empty and there was no need to book tickets in advance.
In the end, I walked over 10 kilometers for almost no reason, but I finally realized something. Even with my lack of scientific knowledge, I could understand that the low water levels were due to the snow not melting. Besides, I could also understand that lower elevations have higher temperatures, so the snow melts earlier. Furthermore, I knew that water flows from the mountains to the sea, in other words, it ran from high elevations to low elevations.
There is a contradiction here. Contradiction is written as “矛盾” in Chinese (and in Japanese), it literally means spear-shield, which is based on the Chinese old story of an arms dealer selling the strongest spear that pierces any shields and the strongest shield that blocks any spears at the same time.
At an altitude of 3,500 meters, the Five-Colored Pond in the deepest and highest part of Huanglong holded emerald green water, yet the ponds at lower altitudes were almost drought. This must be contrary to the laws of nature. At the same time, since Huanglong is a World Natural Heritage Site, I should assume that nothing had been done to alter the natural environment.
It is like the spear and the shield. In the age of role-playing games, there must be a weapon shop, who sells both a spear that can pierce any shields and a shield that can block any spears, just before the end-stage monster’s castle where is at a high altitude in the steep mountains. The castle must be equipped a ropeway and electric bus in its backyard.