Mother Nature's techni-colour dream coat : Day 2

Was away again so I never got to finish rambling about Jiuzhaigou. But yes... you generally get the idea. I loved it and was truly sad to leave. Daniel & I spent the next two days going into the nature reserve. The area open to public covers more than 240sq km and is split into 2 trails - The Rize Valley and Zechawa Valley. If you walk just 1 trail from the entrance, its an estimated 98km... thank goodness for their eco buses that stop at every point of interest!!

Day 2 of trip -First day in the nature reserve
It was a rainy day. On a rainy day, the beauty of Jiuzhaigou is best reflected in the mists, mountains and flora. The autumn colors just look brighter under the rain and the valleys look also mystical with all that mist. Daniel & I went along the Rize Valley and saw:
a. Primevial Forest ( Trees that weren't chopped down in the 60s & 70s logging era)
b. Arrow Bamboo Lake (this is where a famous scene from "Hero" ( 英雄) was filmed. The one where a swordfight between Tony Leung and Donny Yuen took place over a lake of breathtaking beauty)

c. Panda Lake ( Pandas used to roam these forest and stop for a drink at Panda Lake but these days the hordes of tourists have scared the pandas deeper into the 700 sq km of forest. And mainland tourists make enough noise to be heard miles away lor!)
d. 5 Flower Lake ( So named for the brilliant colors found here)
e. Pearl Shoals ( A scene from the old " Journey to the West" was filmed here! )
f. Mirror Lake ( we got lost on the trail and ended up walking almost 5km to reach the next site)
g. Nuorilang Waterfalls ( 20 m high and 320 m wide, they are supposedly the widest highland waterfall in China)

We were really cold but totally enjoying the view, even our 5km hike was fun because we hardly saw anybody on the trail. Funniest thing is we saw a cat! He was going about his own business in the park ( i.e sitting around cleaning himself) and appears not to belong to anyone. I was trying to take pix of him and other tourists thought I brought the cat there! Most amusing.