JUZHAIGOU NATIONAL PARK - CHINA

Following our return to Songpan, Rich, Monika and myself enjoyed our first hot shower in a few days, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then jumped on the first available bus to the town of Juizhagou, only 2 or so hours further to the north. Still feeling pretty tired, we arrived and after sorting out bus tickets and some food, basically just crashed for the night. The following morning we made our way to Juizhagou National Park, China's leading tourist attraction and before even arriving there we began to wonder what we were getting ourselves in for. There were literally tens of thousands of tourists, all pushing and shoving their way into the park entrance and not only that, there was horrible music blaring from everywhere and people trying to sell all number of tacky tourist items.... in a nutshell, a typical Chinese tourist destination.

Despite the quite pricey entrance fee, we decided to continue and managed to shave off some costs by not paying for a bus pass (although we fully intended to make use of the buses once inside the park). After a longer than expected walk we reached the first bus stop where we attempted