It was half way between Langmusi and Chengdu… well it was at least on the way to Chengdu where I needed to be, and I had seen pictures of the place and so I thought I’d take the 6 hour bus to Jiuzhaigou. I booked the Tibetan Barley Inn which was fine. After coming down from the grasslands though it was like arriving in Disneyland – bright lights and large plastic sculptures.
If anything demonstrates the difference between ethnic minorities and the Han Chinese it’s Jiuzhaigou. 
I hadn’t done much homework about the place but had seen some great photos. However, it soon became clear that my experience of being in the mountains was going to be alongside hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists. And that’s fine – it’s their country after all.
But even though I’ve been in China nearly 8 years, the pushing and shoving still iritates me and there was plenty of this at the gates to the park where we all had to get onto buses for the journey up the mountain.
There were hundreds of buses – as soon as one was loaded up with people, another would arrive. I must say that the Chinese are very good at moving a lot of people around. But, even though there was a constant convoy of buses, people still felt the need to push onto them or jump the queue. 
I was already regretting this side trip but when we got off the bus to look at the Bamboo Arrow Waterfall I felt the full force of the crowds as we moved as one body, along the wooden walkways.
At every turn there were dozens of people taking selfies and group pictures. They didn’t stop to take in the sights and wonder at the beauty of the place. Instead they took selfies. Selfies sticks are a hazard in crowds and on several occassions I had to duck to avoid getting stabbed by them.
Like much of Gansu and Sichuan there is a serious lack of anything which I would classify as ‘delicious’ to eat. I settled for some dumplings which I drowned in vinegar and smeared with chilli sauce.
The folks at the hotel were kind enough to book a shared taxi for me the next morning to get to Chengdu but sadly the next day, it failed to arrive despite much phoning by the receptionist. 
In the end I stood by the side of the road with a sign in Chinese that read ‘Chengdu’ and waited for someone to take pity on me.
If you’re thinking of going to Jiuzhaigou, go out of season because in the summer it’s hell on earth and it’s hard to take in the scenery when there are people barging you out of the way and swinging selfie sticks around. It could be fantastic – would be in fact, if it was just you there. But then, if you can’t cope with crowds you just wouldn’t live in China! Crowds are part of the deal.