Jiuzhaigou and the Earthquake

I am currently in Northern Sichuan and to get here we had to pass through the area where the 8.0 earthquake struck back in May. Most of the towns we passed had faired well, but had buildings yhsy were in various states of repair and some buildings looked like they had been knocked down as there would be piles of bricks where a house or store once stood. Blue "relief" tents were packed into any available space. A bridge had collapsed into the river at one point and we drove over a one lane temporarily constructed bridge down river. The area continues to have aftershocks (though none that we have felt) and there was a large 6.0 aftershock last week.

Not only did the earthquake topple buildings and kill over 90,000 people (70,000 dead, 20,000 still listed as missing). It continues to do economic damage to the region. We are staying in a resort area near a nature reserve called Jiuzhaigou. This area is absolutely beautiful and while they experienced an average of 6,000 to 7,000 visitors a day before the quake, the number is probably hovering around 200 to 300 at the moment, many are only up for the day. Many hotels and restaurants are closed. The ones that are still here have given enormous discounts.

For this reason we (me and three other Americans who stayed at the same hostel as me in Chengdu) decided to stay at the five star Sheraton Hotel here. We are sharing a double room that is normally listed at 1200 yuan a night, for only 600 and this includes a 65 yuan all you can eat breakfast buffet for each person. The hotel also has a pool and the other amenities you would find in a five star hotel. The best part about the hotel is it has a restaurant. We would have stayed at the hostel (150 yuan a room/300 total a night on the other side of town but there were no restaurants open or any other hotels open nearby. It was a ghost town over there. So the four of us are packed into the room, but it is like a giant slumber party and we ate really well for breakfast.

Lunch today is a completely different story. We stopped at a local restaurant for food and had a hairy cow (yak) and mushroom soup, chicken and green pepper dish, eggplant and pepper dish, and rice. Shortly after the food came a fight broke out outside. We watched as a man grabed a woman's shirt, she hit him with a bottle, blood gushed from his forehead. He would not let go of her, then he tried to swing his own bottle at her. She pulled away but her shirt ripped open as she fell and then she went at him again. It was better than tv. Sadly no one really intervened, though eventually they were seperated. We finished eating, then they brought the bill and they wanted 158 yuan!!! We then proceeded to have a fight with the restaurant owners over the fact that it was way, way, way too expensive, I personally think it shouldn't have been more than 60. Thankfully no bottles were swung, we settled on 111 yuan and finally walked away. Now about two hours later our entire group is feeling a bit sick... the food just didn't settle well.

I will stay here in Jiuzhaigou two more nights. Tomorrow we will go see the nature reserve and in the evening come back and watch the openning ceremonies for the Olympics. The following morning we will all pile on a bus out of town. I will head back to Chengdu and do Pandas and Leshan (Giant Buddha) the following day, then the next day it is on to Guangzhou and then Hong Kong. All else is good here, hope it is good for you too.