Jiuzhaigou's entrance gate was built shortly after Jiuzhaigou was listed into the World Natural Heritage Catalog in 1992. The gate reflects the features of Tibetan remote areas. The bark of logs wraps round the whole gate that appears primitive, but also displays the flavor of thew modern arts. It seems to tell us that you will find yourselves in the world's most exciting and unspoiled nature. As you know, Jiuxhaigou has been crowned with several titles: The World Natural Heritage, The World Bio-sphere Reserve, the Green Globe 21 and The State 4A-Level Scenery. Besides,each site and each image shows something more-the true essence, the spirit, and the magic of Jiuxhaigou, Jiuxhaigou's wonders inspire the country's top photographers and artists because the best of their work is here. Others express their feelings through words, and there are numerous quotes from writers or visitors. However, many others articulate this land that seems indescribable. As the saying goes, it is better to see once than hear a hundred times. I think Jiuzhaigou's reputation attracts all of you to come here for a vidit. I believe, whether you are a frequent visitr or someone who simply enjoys beautiful places, the visit to Jiuzhaigou will be a perfect way to remember the unique sites and beauty of jiuzhaigou in days to come.

Jiuzhaigou scenery is licated in jiuzhaigou County, the ASbe Tibetan and Qiang Nationality Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Jiuzhaigou literally means nine Tibetan village gullies, which are all scattered in the scenic area. The names of the villages are Heye, Shuzheng, Zech awa, Heijiao, Panya, Yala, Jianpan, Rexi and Guodu.

Jiuzhaigou scenery has taden shape due to the geographic movement in glaciations, earthquakes and calcification. However, there is some folklore that vividly describes the formation of Jiuzhaigou. Here is a story. A long tome ago, a male and female hilly deities fell in love with each other. The man is called Dage and woman Wonuosemo, who decided to reside in Jiuzhaigou because they deeply loved Jiuzhaigou's birds and animals, and forests and mountains. Unexpectedly a devil called Shemozha found out that the female deity was so beautiful that ho fool in love with her, too. Two devil didn't like the male deity to live here in Jiuzhaigou. Therefore the devil waged a war in orser to drive the male deity out and marry the female deity. A fiere battle occurred between the deity and the devil. During the battle, the female deity was snatched away by the devil. Bewildered, the female deity dropped down to the ground her precious mirror given by the male deity. The mirror was broken into over a hundred pieces, which immediately turned into over hundred high mountains and beautiful lakes. The battle continued, and the male deity and the devil fought all the way from inner Jiuzhaigou to the entrance. Despite that, there was no sign indicating who would win the battle. At this critical moment, Zhayizhaga, the king of multi-mountains arrived to join the fight on the side of the male deity. The king first put a huge screen-shaped cliff behind the devil and then crashed the devil beneath the cliff. The devil was buried there, eith his head off the cliff. Afterwards lical people called the cliff the Devil Cliff. Now ot os called the Precious Mirror Cliff. Since then Jiuzhaigou returned to peace and looked more beautiful due to the newly added over a hundred colorful lakes and mountains. The man and womand lived together in Jiuzhaigou forever as the important deities to safeguard jiuzhaigou.

Jiuzhaigou is 47 km long from the south to the north, 29 km wide from the east to the west, covering an area of 720sq. km. In 1990 Jiuzhaigou became one of 40 best scenic spots in the country; in 2000 Jiuzhaigou was evaluated as one of the first atate 4A-level sceneries in China; in 1992 Jiuzhaigou was listed on the World Bio-sphere Reserve.

In Jiuzhaigou scenic area there are three gullies that seem to be in the shape of y. There distributed 108 lakes, 47 splashed waterfalls, 12 tirbi;emt screa,s. 5 shoals and 3 Tibetan villages. All these scenic sites create a unique landscape of jiuzhaigou, to China and the rest of the world.

If you get closer to view the cliff that is over a thousand-ren cliff, you may see a bizarre figure image on the cliff. What does it look alike? It is a devil's face, and it is now called the Precilous Mirror Cliff. Down the cliff is a gully called Zharugou, where stands Zharu Monastery. In Sichuan Tibetan areas local Tibetan people believe in what can be properlyu described as "Lamaism", an ancient strain of Tantric Indian Buddhism, coupled with Tibetan Shamanism. It flourishes in regions inhabited by the Tibetan and Mongolian people. During the reign of Songzan Gapu in the 7th to 9th century, monks from India crossed the Himalayas through Nepal and arrived at Tibet to spread Tantrism. Tantrism, Mahayana and Bon, the indigenous religion of Tibet, intermingled and developed into Lamaism that strongly believes in reincarnation. Lama means "teacher" or "superiorbeing". A lama must be a monk, but not all monks can become lamas. Lamaism has several sects: the Yellow, the Red, the Black and others. The YellowSect, founded by Tsong kha pa in the early 15th century, and rapidly grew into the dominant sect thanks to the support of the Qing government. The Yellow Sect perfected the Tibetan Buddhism and greatly promoted the evolution of the mergence of govetnment administration with religion the Tihetan a Buddha in your present lifetime. The monks in Zharu monastery believe in the Black Sect Buddhismthat is also called Bon. The religious activity of the Black Sect, much more influenced by the indigenous religilon, has centered on the primciplkes that everything has spirit; the Black Sect followers pray to gain happiness and drive out disasters.

Yoy may be aware of the dense forest growing along the sides of the road. it mirrors together thescenic sites of main plants in Jiuzhaigou. The evergreen plants consists of Chinese pine, hemlock, fir and dragon spruce; the red-leaf plants are maple, little tiller, smoke tree and others; the yellow-leaf plants are birchm, golden-rain tree, elm, larch, poplar mix together in harmony, offering a rainbow of natural pictures that easily please to our eyes, It is commonly believe that the colerful plant scenery is one of the main features manifested in Jiuzhaigou. As autumn arrives, the plants keep changing their colors. As colorful leaves and forests are mirrored on the lakes around, the stunning color images seem to allure viewers into a dreamlike world because it is too beautiful to absorb all of them during a time-limited tour.

As you enter into Shuzheng scenic site, and start walking through it, the garden-patterned landscape might inspire your passion to write poems or paint pictures. Here is the Reed Sea. If you close your eyes, you may feel as if you were in the region of rivers and lakes in southern China. Actually the sea is a kind of moisture land that suits the growth of varied water plants. Some fiah swims in the shallow sea, and they have a strange name, called"naked carp"or they has no scales, but belong to the family of the carp.

The water in Jiuzhaigou is a big attraction, and is commonly considered the soul of Jiuzhaigou because ot remaons much less touched by human beings. Ginerally the water is so clean that youy can see to the bottim even at 30m in depth. Now we wrrive at the first lake in Jiuzhaigou called Shuanglonghai. You can dimly see two calcified lower banks in the shape of tibbon. Once waves in the lake surges, the two banks seem to wriggle. The local dlegend says that they are two swimming dragons. It is said that there are four dragons in Jiuzhaigou. The dragons in the laks here are two of the four, who take charge of raining and hail. Maybe because they have no strong sense of their duty responsibility, they often make mistakes, and therefore there is no rain when it should rain; there is no hail when ot should hail. Therefore Geshaer, the Tibetan hero has subdued the two evil dragons and imprisoned them at the bottom of the lake.

The water here is closely related with calcification. The water from the Rizegou Gully has rich content in the ion of calcium and magnesiu,. Due to the suitable temperature in the water hee, the flowing ion easily turns into particulate matters, which stick to plankton or tiny sediments, and depisit on the lower earth bank. narrow mounds, trunks and tree branches in the bottom. Gradually calcified segments have fully covered the objects, forming unique natural phenomenon.

Shuzheng Waterfall, one of the main scenic sites, is 11m in height and 62m in width. It is an unseen stream from the high terrace meandering among the forests down to the edge of the cliff. As it approaches the edge, trees, bushes and rocks there devert the unseen stream into may sub-ones. The sub-streams fall downwards, presenting a splendid huge waterfall and hanging off the cliff. Down below the cliff grow rich trees and bushes and protruding rocks, and the water keep splashing off these objects in varied shape.

Beyond the waterfall is a smooth terrain. Near the road is the Xiniu Lake that is 2km long and 18m deep, the largest one in Jiuzhaigou. Toward the southern end of the lake is a forest where there is a simple bridge spanning across the lake. Nearby is a stream, and the water from the streamoffersw sweet and refreshing tastes. The local Tibetan residents think that it is a stpernatural stream, for it is said that the water from the stream can stop diarrhea and quench a thirst. The legend had it that a long time ago, ja lama from Tibet arrived here on a rhinoceros. He was so sick that he couldn't walk further. So he drank the water from the stream.