Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 6

Day 7 - 23rd Dec 2012

Bao Shu Tang

Today we woke up slightly late and prepared for the day. left our luggage outside the room and went down for breakfast and slowly eat until it is time to board the bus. It was about a 2 hr ride from ErMei back to Chengdu.
First stop, we went to Bao Shu Tang, a place where they sell....dun know what they sell. Got mediated plasters for aches, cream for face and herbal drink. We were brought in a room, where there was a guy and  he started to promote all their products. He also let us try some for testing...After his 'speech', they started to see who wants to buy..then after that, we left for the next stop - Pearl Jewellery Outlet. It was a short distance to the pearl outlet. When we reached, there was a lady explaining how the pearl was taken out and was made into jewellery. After the explanation, she brought us to see their finished products for sale. She even took 1 pearl necklace out and put on one of the ladies in our group. Later then, is shopping time again. The boss even came out and gave us his offers. There was a cream made using pearl and ginseng/lingzhi. He was giving his offer, buy 1 box of 6, free another box and free another 2 bottles...like very attracting o....hohohohho....Some of them shared the cost and bought back..from the boss, we also got to know that our tour guide is the top 3 best tour guide ranking. Then we went to another room, where they are selling pearls jewellery (taken from sea)..more expensive...the lady who was still wearing the pearl necklace was deciding with her husband whether to buy it..hohoho..She tried to negotiate the price with the boss. The boss asked her what is the price she wants,  一口价 $3000 sgd..the boss said ok to her wo and even threw in a ring and earrings to make it a set. Her husband was 'sweating'...lol...After the payment, the boss took out another more expensive necklace and tried to persuade her to get it too.. for a price of $6000 sgd and even  throw in a ring and earring to make it a set. He even told her if she gets this, he will refund her the $3000 she paid for the earlier set, so to make it a free set (this is how they make business...hohoho...). She decided not to get it..as the 2nd offer doesn't sound worth. There was another family who also bought a nice necklace back..The husband was also getting 'worried' on the price..hahaha..It was funny to see all the husbands when the wives are shopping for jewellery..The rest of us were just walking around the shop to pass time..and we were getting very hungry as it was near to lunchtime. My friend and me went on to the bus to wait for the rest. The 2 kids and the grandparents of another family were on the bus too. Wah...the older kid actually shouted vulgarities at his grandma and the younger one followed...The grandma was also complaining to us that the 2 kids scolded her for eating their mum's snacks and the 2 kids were just kept shouting at the grandma...Kids these days.....

Lunch Place

Finally, all came out and we were off for our lunch. It was a feast of herbal dishes, which the tour guide told us it was actually dishes made in palace for the royals and it was later passed down the generations. We reached the restaurant and started our lunch, there was a small wine too for drinking or you can pour into their chicken herbal soup to drink. The wine has a super strong taste sia...don't like..anyway the waitress spilled mine on the table when she was putting the dishes on the table. The sweet and sour pork was nice....gone very fast...lol...The food was nice in this place...After lunch, we made our way down to Huanhuaxi Garden, where there is a path that Chinese poems are printed on the ground (诗歌大道). But it was a Sunday..the garden was packed with people when we arrived..and the tour guide still asked us to pick a poem to recite when we come back to the bus..Sianz...so we just walked around the garden to pass the time...and bought ice cream to eat before getting back on the bus. After that, we made our way to JinLi Alley for shopping. During the journey, the tour guide really got a person from every family to recite a poem. My friend went to recite..kekeke...

JinLi Alley Entrance

We arrived at JinLi Alley and the tour guide let us to walk around the place for shopping. So we just walked around the alley and see see...there are people standing there to help you wax your ears too..kekeke..There was a panda house, selling panda stuffs too...and there was a area selling snacks, there was restaurants and pubs there too. We saw a guy eating chicken wings and he just throw the bone on the ground. Even when we saw him again at Liu Xiang's tomb, he also throw the bone in front of the tomb...wah piangz...cannot find a dustbin to throw de leh...After walking for some time and was crowded with people, we walked towards to the entrance and waited for the tour guide to fetch us. The tour guides came and fetched us all at around 6 plus, then they brought us to our dinner place. It was a beautiful place, we even had the original mala tofqu and gong bao ji ding. After the dinner, we went for SiChuan Opera...We were seated in the 1st row and not allowed to take photos or videos...(but we bought their DVD to keep). There were a few short plays in the whole performance. First to start of was the brotherhood of the 3 brothers (Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei) from the Three Kingdoms. Followed by the battle of Liu Bei, then followed by a performance of Liu Bei with Sun Shang Xiang. Then it was a puppet show, showing He Xian Gu admiring the lives of the humans. After that, it was a performance of hand shadowing, showing animals and humans from shadows...it was interesting...Next was a comedy of a wife punishing her husband from getting home late after gambling. It was funny and the wife was trying to get the husband to blow out the candle on his head without using his hands...The whole conversation was in Chengdu language..it was hard to make out what they are saying but there was translation on the side tvs...hohoho...Next was a performance on Erhu Solo...nice music...After that, was the highlight of the show - Face changing. There were 3 persons doing the face changing, one of them was actually a puppet. It can also perform face changing too..Amazing...At the last part, they even did a clothes changing. The whole show lasted about 1 hr plus..Very entertaining...nice nice (Make sure you go for this performance if you are in Chengdu). After that, we went to check in our hotel - Crowne Plaza Chengdu Panda Garden. When we arrived, there was a big christmas tree, there were masks all around the tree. And we went into our room, there were a small gift on our beds, cookies was inside (My sis ate up the cookies..lol). It was a big and spacious room, quite nice...there was a partition that can open up from the toilet to the room and there was a bath tub too. But too bad, only staying for 1 night nia...heater was strong and we can't open the window as there was some burning going on outside (got smoke smell)...Anyway we stayed up quite late before going to bed...kekeke...

To be cont'd.....

Places visited:
1. Bao Shu Tang
2. Pearl Jewellery Outlet
3. Huanhuaxi Garden
4. Jin Li Alley
5. SiChuan Opera

Hotel Stayed:
Crowne Plaza Chengdu Panda Garden

Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 5

Day 6 - 22nd Dec 2012

Mount ErMei

Today woke up super early again (everyday woke up early, much earlier than work days...hohohoho). We went down to the hotel's restaurant after getting ready for our buffet breakfast. Ahh...oily food for breakfast again..nothing much and nice to eat too...We saw Annie they all and sat with them for breakfast, we also asked them whether their toilet in their room smells...kekeke...Apparently theirs too, and the heater was also strong, which the room too warm. Had to open window to sleep. Their room was near to the lift, they could even hear people outside pulling luggage and talking..lol...And they told us their experience on their full body massage the night before. So funny, it was not a good and disappointed experience for them..hohoho..
After breakfast, we all boarded the bus to set off to Mount Er Mei.The tour guide gave us an introduction on the 4 scared mountains and the 4 Great Bodhisattva in China (for Buddhism). These are:
1.  Er Mei Shan - House of Puxian Bodhisattva
2. Wutai Shan - House of Wen Shu Bodhisattva (Bodhisattva of Wisdom)
3. Putuo Shan - House of Guan Yin Bodhisattva (Bodhisattva of Compassion)
4. JiuHua Shan - House of Dizhang Bodhisattva (taking care of the afterlife beings in hell realms)
Then the tour guide also told us the 4 weird sights in Er Mei Shan -> Sunrise, Fu Guang (really needs to depend on your luck), Ermei Monkeys (very brown and super big) and frogs sounded like singing.
 
We reached the mouth of Er Mei Shan at around 8 plus (going to 9am), then we went for a toilet break while the tour guide went to get out tickets. The tour guides later distributed out the tickets to us and we went in to wait for a mini bus to go up to somewhere near to the top (It is a 2 hour ride up there and we still need to take a few mins cable car ride up to top summit). So we went up the bus and went off..We stopped a shop halfway after 1 hour late, in the shop, they sell Lingzhi too, big big ones. Then we continued the way up..the bus stopped after some time, to put chains underneath the bus as the road is having ice on it. Then the bus continued moving up...We also put on the so-called to prevent slipping socks over our shoes. It felt like normal socks (costs RMB$20 for a pair), anyway we just put on.

ErMei Monkey

Finally it reached, we all got off and it started to snow.  Then we started to climb a very long stairs to walk up to the cable car entrance. On the way, we saw stalls selling gloves, anti-slip socks, corns, sausages, etc and monkeys. The monkeys are very big and people are throwing fruits to them to eat. The tour guide had told us that the monkeys are very fierce there and tend to snatch tourists' bags if they see you open your bag and digging to take something out. And even plastic bags, they may even snatch it from your hands if you are carrying them. But when we saw the monkeys, they are busy eating their food and a lot of people were trying to take photos of them. Then we continued to climb up, so tiring and it was very cold..the stairs are slippery too as some of them are already frozen with ice. Finally reached cable car entrance after 1 hour later, we went in. The cable car was so cramped with people (luckily it was only for a few mins...). Then we reached and alighted, we even bought some sausages to eat, got hungry. Nice to eat in old weather...kekeke..There is another type of hot dog..smells good, luckily we didn't buy it cos later we got to know it was ma la flavored hot dog. Christina's family they bought and they were all saying very ma...tongues cannot feel anything liao..hahaha...We continued to walk up to the golden summit, but when we really reached the golden summit, it was a super white scene greeting us. The fog had covered all the temples and statues. Cannot see anything beyond, everything was white. Cannot even see the giant golden PuXian Statue..i can only see the 4 elephants at the below, managed to see the bronze and sliver temples though. Didn't went up to see the golden temple, but we went to light the candles to wish for families' health...When i came out, i saw a group of people taking photos of the mini elephants around the giant Puxian statue. One of them was really an idiot, he was standing on top of the mini elephants and posing to take photo. Our tour guide saw that, and went over, politely asked him to come down as the elephants are also scared. When he did that, whatever good he did was gone. hohohoho....Then i continued to make my way downhill to the cable car station for meetup, near the cable car station, there was a stall selling locks for wishes. You can buy the locks, write down your wishes and lock it there. While waiting for the others in the cable car station, we bought some food to eat...still hungry...lol....

Skiing Ground

After everyone had arrived, we made our way to the cable car and waited for the car to come. After waiting for 5 mins, it came and everyone was forcing their way up to the car. Again it was packed with people...haiz...the car went down and when you see outside, the whole place was super white..We arrived and alighted from the car, some of the people wanted to take the sedan downhill, my friend also took it..hohoho...It was a sedan carried by 2 person and instead of you do the walking down the stairs, they carry you down for a price of RMB$220. But they were fast..i was still slowly climbing down the stairs, they were already gone from our sights. The stairs were really slippery, as some ice was formed, i almost slipped a few times. Was grabbing on the sides to help climb down...also saw people slipped when climbing the stairs. The tour leader told us that he last time brought a group here, the stairs were actually covered with ice, they literally needed to slide down to get down. And the people there actually put water to let the stairs covered with ice, so that they can sell those socks to walk on ice. I finally reached at the bottom of the stairs after 20 mins later...kekeke..feeling tired already....Then we went for our lunch...many dishes...and with fried egg omelette (having omelette for days and for every lunch and dinner...lol). After lunch, the group was split..one group to go skiing and the other to go back to hotel. My friend and me went for the skiing, then the tour guide took us to the skiing place. We didn't play..just watching other people play. Bought sausages to eat again..hahaha....My friend went to hide inside the rental house with Annie, then i went to take photos around with Annie' friend. After 1 hour, finally can leave the place..cold cold and nothing to do there...our tour leader brought some of us down to the main entrance first while those playing will stay on...My friend and Annie were so fast in getting out of the place, mi and Annie's friend were calling loudly from behind, but they didn't hear us shouting..hahaha..in the end, we just walked and hope the 2 of them will stop at the top of the stairs to wait up..hohoho....

As we were walking up, we heard the song that was sung during the Zhan Zu's performance.hohoho....the road was white color (already covered with snow)...then we waited for a while for the tour leader to come..then we walked down to the car park to take the bus downhill..which is a 2 hrs ride again...soo sleepy, almost fall asleep in the bus...Finally we reached the mouth of Mount Ermei and we got on our tour bus (bus B). The tour leader told us we need to wait for those still up there skiing..so in the meantime, the driver played a movie for us to kill time..it was a china movie, a comedy (stupid one...kekeke)...Finally the rest appeared, we went back to the hotel for dinner and to rest for the day.

To be cont'd.....

Places visited:
1. Mount ErMei

Hotel Stayed:
Jiajiang Venie Hotel

Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 3

Day 4 - 20th Dec 2012

Western Gemstone and Jade Outlet

Today, we woke up early too..ahh..didn't manage to sleep well too. We checked out of New JiuZhai Hotel and went off to start our day...(Breakfast not nice anyway....). The tour guide let us get off by a road to experience the coldness...wah...it is really really cold...and there were snow on the ground....Later we drove off to Western Gemstone and Jade Outlet, during the ride, the tour guide told us how Tian Zhu come about and how to identify a real tian zhu and what to look out for. It was believed to be one of the expensive beads for Zhan Zu people. The tour guide also told us that he had bought one about 16 years old and had been wearing since. He told us to look out the bead's transparency, lines (hua wen), and how it glows (don't really remember the last one..hohoho...). Anyway, we arrived at around 10 am. The tour guide passed on to the guide in the factory and the guide started to introduce us to how the gemstones come about, and introduced on the different gemstones..like tian zhu （天珠）, mao yan (猫眼) and Amber. The guide also told us how to identify the real and the fake for all these gems...For tian zhu, there are the 3 points to identify which is the transparency and the lines. For tian zhu, there was so called '新天珠‘ and '老天珠‘. As for the lao tian zhu ('老天珠‘), they are normally kept for a long time and its transparency is much more, compared to xin tian zhu ('新天珠). So they are normally much much more expensive. And there are many patterns printed on every tian zhu, there are called 1 eye to 10 eyes, plus there are still other patterns which there are different meaning to every pattern. To identify the real mao yan, the guide told us to let it reflect with the light, there will be a line that will open and close like a cat's eye. As for the Amber, the real thing will need to identify by using its weight, it will float in water if it is the real thing. After the demo, the guide brought us to use a microscope to identify the tian zhu. After that, he brought to their main shop to do shopping for their tian zhu and there was a 50% discount now as they are closing for holidays. So we walked around and see. My friend and me bought a RMB$3400 (which is sgd$692) for a 9 eyes tian zhu...and we each also bought another 'turtle shell' pattern for RMB$300 (which is sgd$60 plus). Xiong....After shopping for some time here, we left for the next shopping shop....Zhan Zu Tea Outlet

茶马古道

Next, we arrived at a outlet (茶马古道） which is selling their tea. We were introduced to how their tea was being carried out for exports/imports by using the silk road. Then later we were introduced to the creator of tea and the super big and old tea tree. After that, We were brought to a small room, where everyone was seated. There was a lady who started to introduce their tea to us, there were 3 other ladies at the back preparing the tea. Then they let us to try on their 1st tea - 七叶胆...it smelled nice and sweet, quite refreshing..and the lady also told us how to hold the teacup when drinking...Later she later us try on the 2nd tea (don't know what is being called)...She also showed us how to drink the tea...it was funny..(somehow you will need to hold the tea in your mouth and suck it in instead of swallowing down..and you need to make sucking sound as loud as possible when drinking...lol). For the 3rd tea, it is called Zhan Cha - 藏茶. And during each tea testing, the lady told us that the benefits of the 3 types of tea. The lady told us that it was after the 2008 earthquake that they were selling this tea now, and half of the $ will be donated to charity for those children who had lost their homes/families during the earthquakes. And these tea are donated by their living buddha...And she also said that if you get their 10 pieces of zhan cha, you can actually send back the last 2 pieces to them and they will send a new box of 10 pieces to you. So in a way, you are paying 1 time and getting endless tea. And she said it is up to us whether to get the tea anot and it is still limited edition (but if you are getting endless tea when send back, how will it be limited edition leh??? Haiz....) Me and my friend actually bought 1 packet of the 1st tea we tried..and already went out of the place..Suay suay, the lady came out and got us another offer to get another packet of the 1st tea and she will give us 1 more packet for free...Once we went in again...that's it sia....she started to persuade us to get that zhan cha. Gosh....even the tour guide was also persuading us to buy the tea for charity... -_-"...In the end, i just agreed to buy them...(3 pieces for RMB$1000 instead of RMB$1800). My credit card even bounced when i went to do the payment..hahaha...(Should have run off when it bounced..lol). In the end, my friend helped mi to pay for it first...Haiz....Lesson learnt..if really want to buy, always get the 1st offer..don't take their 2nd offer...hohohoho...

After shopping at these 2 places, we went for our lunch. Nothing fantastic too, one of our tour group member even got ice in her rice...hohoho...the food area was cold too, no heater...and the food was also not hot...the 2nd round of rice is also half-cooked, hard hard one... After lunch, it was a super long ride down from JiuZhaiGou to Mao Xian. So the tour guide entertained us by telling us some information of how the 2008 earthquake had affected him...After that, he let us to take a nap on the bus. We arrived at the same pitstop where the bus got its bath and i went down to buy fruits. The stall owners were trying very hard to get business for their own...After the bus had its bath, we continued our journey down the mountain. By 4 pm, we arrived at a Qiang Zu Village. It was built for them after the 2008 earthquake. All the houses are newly built, some are even quite modern and all are at least 2 storeys high. The tour guide even went in one of the locals' houses and asked for permission whether we can go in the house to take a look. It was a 3 storeys high house and up on the 3rd floor, it had a super nice view of the mountains....After we came down, the tour guide tried to talk to the house owner, who has 3 daughters. After that, we took a walk around the village and the wind was blowing....very cold there...After spending about 1 and half hour there, we all went back to the bus as it was really getting cold. Then we made our way to the hotel - Maoxian International Hotel and our dinner was prepared by the hotel too. The restaurant was on another building beside the hotel and their wifi wasn't working when we were there...the hotel staffs said their router was having some issues, so it is unable to work (what to expect when staying on mountain areas?? lol). So we had our dinner there, again there was no heater in the restaurant...and food was so so too..During dinnertime, our tour guide told us that breakfast will be served as ala-carte dishes and on time too. So everyone needs to be punctual to have breakfast the next day. After dinner, we went back to our hotel room to rest. I called back to Citibank as my card was bounced earlier today...and the call lasted 18 mins, including a 3 mins call i made earlier, which got cut off. $72...heart pain sia...The hotel room is small and the only heater available is the heater blanket...and mine doesn't even get heat up...I was shivering the whole night during my stay there (luckily it is only 1 night...can't take it...was even wearing my fleece jacket and pocket warmer to sleep sia...i just quickly did everything i needed to do and crawled into my bed and don't want to come out..hohoho...). And still the hotel stopped their whole power at midnight to save electricity...Again, i was unable to sleep well due to the coldness.... 

For these few days, the tour guide had also told us information about Zhan Zu - how they come about, their culture and even their burial methods. They are actually people from Tibet,who have chose to stay on in China after their wars. They also put up colored flags around their houses, and on the flags, scriptures are printed on the flags. The flags are called '经幡'. One thing i find interesting is their ways of burial, there are actually 5 burial ways according to their customs:
1. 火葬 -  Fire burial (Is to cremate by fire)
2. 水葬 - Water burial (Is to buried in the sea and let the fishes to eat the corpse. Normally this is done for young infants/children who died. This is the reason too why Zhan Zu folks don't eat fishes.)
3. 土葬 - Earth burial (Is to buried underneath the ground)
4. 天葬 - Sky burial (For this burial, the zhan people actually chop up their loved ones' corpse into many small pieces and let the vultures to feast on it. Even after the bones are left, they will still chop the bones into smaller pieces and let the vultures to feed on them. By this burial, they believed that all the sins committed in this life by the dead person is being cleansed. Therefore, nothing is to be left behind.)
5. 塔葬 - Pagoda burial (This burial is normally for Dala Lama, or high monks. They are to be buried in pagoda and expensive items will also be buried together with it.)

To be cont'd..........

Hotel Stayed:
MaoXian International Hotel

Places visited:
Western Gemstone and Jade Outlet
Zhan Cha Outlet

Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 2

Day 3 - 19th Dec 2012

Jiu Zhai Gou

Today is a day tour to Jiu Zhai Gou (九寨沟),so we all wake up early to have our breakfast at the hotel. It was buffet style, but the food served are meat and vegetables,like having lunch/dinner. It was oily too,it really turned off our appetite.So we just get some light food and went to board the bus to set off to Jiu Zhai Gou.We reached the car park and we needed to walk a distance to the main gate.We reached around 9 am,and the tour guide went to help to get us our tickets.Our group had also booked a private bus but as the bus can only accommodate 21 people but our group consists of 27 people.So 6 of us needs to volunteer out to take the public buses.And so,i volunteered out, together with 5 others and my friend went with the private bus.Luckily it was our tour leader, Steve to bring us around instead of bus B tour guide.Anyway the group in bus B didn't book a private bus.There was wi-fi there too.Ahh..It started to snow too..First time see snow fall down from the sky...After getting the tixs,the tour guide leaded us to the entrance and we queued to get in.From there no, we went separate ways with the main group. They went on to get on the private bus and Steve took us to catch the public bus.Once on the bus,there was a tour member who was also alone. So i sat with her,and she said since we both are alone,can walk together. Her name is Annie.Another who had volunteered out was a family of 4, Christina and Jason and their 2 sons.Steve first brought us to Chang Hai (长海),the scenery was very beautiful.We took some photos and there are some vendors selling stuffs around there. After that, we went on to take the public bus again for our next stop.The bus was clean and there was not many people, actually the ride was quite ok (not like the tour guide had told us that it was super packed with people and we had to squeeze our way in. But again,it was during Spring time. Since it is winter period,there were not so many people visiting).

五彩池

Our next stop is Wu Cai Chi (五彩池). The water was very clear and beautiful (There supposed to have 5 colours in the lake). We spent some time there and had some photos taken. After that, we made our way down to the bus stop and saw bus B group too at the bus.We went for a short toilet break and walked down to bus stop.When we boarded the bus,Steve asked the lady guide on bus where the bus is heading. She told us that it was going to a Zhan Zu (藏族) village instead of the lunch place we are going.So we went ahead and got off at the village.It was a small village, there was shop selling their local stuffs.There were alot of colourful flags around the village and the local had written their scriptures on the flags. It was said that when the wind blows the flags,it will be counted as 1 time that the scriptures are being read (It was done cos the locals are getting more busier now).After that,we walked our way slowly to our lunch place.We reached earlier than the other group and our lunch vouchers are with the tour guide, so we had to wait for them to arrive before we can have our lunch.So Steve let us to walk around the place first while waiting. There was a performance at the stage too. Finally the other group arrived,and we finally can have our lunch.I met up with my friend and had lunch together. The lunch was buffet style..but...everyone had to take a tray (like those in campus/camp) then we had to queue to take our food. There wasn't much selection and the rice was out when i went to take. Actually some of the food was already gone and the staffs were slow in bringing out the refills.And i had to finished my lunch 15 mins earlier than the other group..sad...

珍珠滩瀑布

After lunch,my group went off first and we went to take the bus down to our next stop. Our next stop was Panda Lake (熊猫海),there was a small part of the lake got frozen.There was a small waterfall at the opposite side which got really frozen...white white...After spending some time here, we made our way to the next stop.Next Stop: 五花海.....it was very big lake with mountains surrounding it...All the water in the lakes are super clear, you can see what is underneath the water and it can show the reflections of the mountains clearly. After that, we went down to Pear Shoal (珍珠滩). It was a huge waterfall, we walked from the top down to the below of the waterfall by the stairs...We caught up with Bus B group too. So we just walked slowly down to our next stop after taking photos here. Our next stop is another waterfall, Nuorilang Falls (诺日朗瀑布). It was super huge too...and all the water were gushing down...After this, Steve took us to take the bus to the next stop..Tiger Lake (老虎海). And from here (after taking photos here), we walked down to another waterfall called SuZheng Waterfall (树正瀑布). Then we walked slowly down back to bus stop..to get back to the entrance. At the entrance, the tour guide took us to a fast food restaurant, called Dico's. So we had some food there, and i tabao back for my friend, who was already back to the hotel. Hohoho...we even took cab back to our hotel. Later i got to know that my friend had befriend with Annie's partner during the tour too. Hohoho..new friends made...and we too got to know who are in our bus, had got to know them during mealtimes too. Hahaha..everyone was asking us on SingTel mobile plans and whether there are any Christmas promotions coming out once they got to know where we are working. We all rested in our hotel room before dinner, tonight we are going for a show by 藏族 after dinner...(Skipped dinner part).It was a few mins ride from our hotel to the theatre. During the ride to the theatre,the tour guide was telling us that how 藏族人 will greet us when we arrive and what we need to say when they greet us (扎西德勒....). When we arrived, there was a group of people lining up to welcome us and gave us a white scarf (I lost mine after the show...sad). Anyway the show started with a marriage of the King and Queen and later followed by a few dances performance and there were 2 singers singing their 藏族 songs. There was a flute performance from Qiang Zu (羌族),the performer was blowing a whole melody without changing his breath (Quite amazing..). Then the host was asking for 4 males volunteers from the audience and to go up stage to perform a small tug of war match, and the winner can 'win' himself a wife back (provided the lady agreed). It was quite a funny scene, after that, the show ended with a performance by their boys band group. (You can purchase their CD with their autographs outside too). Bad about during the performance was people smoking in the theatre and there is no heater (We got super cold during midst of the show...lol). After the show, the tour guide gave us instructions for the next day during the ride back to the hotel and we went back to our hotel,which ended our day.

To be cont'd..........

Hotel Stayed:
New JiuZhai Hotel

Places Visited:
Jiu Zhai Gou