In peak season, New Zealand caps tickets to its famous Milford Track to just 40 per day. For us, one of the highlights of walking the Milford on its shoulder season was sharing the huts with just 4 fellow travelers. We cringed at the prospect of sharing this pristine nature and extraordinary vistas with the peak-season crowds.
Jiuzhaigou is China’s premiere National Park. In peak season, Jiuzhaigou welcomes not 40, but 40,000+ visitors every single day. Over four months, the crowds passing through Jiuzhaigou equal the entire population of New Zealand!
This tide of humanity floods the most scenic stretches of the park - a frenzy of selfie-sticks bob on the surface as you are whisked down valley by a current of Chinese tourists. At the park’s edge, a Vegas-like strip of hotels, restaurants, and lights pulses late into the night. Such madness rivaled the mountains for our fascination.
It must be said that Jiuzhaigou is truly magnificent, as captured by National Geographic in 2009. The number of natural treasures in a single valley is astounding.
And, China gets kudos for remarkable management of the human footprint on this precious natural resource - not an easy feat. Cars are prohibited. Modern, coordinated buses safely navigate the winding road and deliver its passengers to the top of each valley. The crowds then stream down a boardwalk that extends the entire length of the valley. Under the watchful eye of an ever-present workforce, the trash from 40,000 picnickers quickly disappears from sight each day. With the memory of Gunung Ranjani still all too fresh in our minds, we were quite impressed.
We were also amused by one quirk - a particularly dramatic instance of a trend we’ve noticed before. China is big, really big. And this giant population is beginning to travel. The hotspots that top Chinese wish lists are thronged by the masses. And yet, the magnetic force of each must-see sight disappears just a stone’s throw away.
The result is eery. On a boardwalk immediately in front of a famous waterfall, it was like Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street. On a side trail just 100 feet off the main route, there was no one. Literally, no one. In some places, the complete solitude continued for kilometers. The crowds of thousands of people didn’t drop by half, they disappeared entirely. Oh, Jiuzhaigou!
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