The natural sights in China will probably surprise many people. From red rock deserts and snow-capped mountains, to crystal clear lakes and the rocky towers that inspired the Avatar movie – China has it all, and today we’re exploring the blue lakes of Jiuzhaigou National Park. 

The park suffered from overtourism in previous years, with two million annual visitors, and then a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit in 2017, causing the park to close for two years. 

In that time the damage from the earthquake was repaired and the visitor numbers were capped to help protect the park. 

We stayed in a hotel near the park entrance – expecting a small, rural vibe but instead it felt like we’d arrived in Vegas, with sky-rises and multicoloured lights. 

The park didn’t open until 8am, so we decided to turn up at 7:30am to beat the crowds, especially as it was a weekend. I really didn’t want to visit on a weekend, but we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to visit on a blue-sky day. As luck would have it, the previous week was a public holiday, and in China they sometimes shift the work days, which meant the Saturday we visited happened to be a work day for the country – what a relief. 

Even still, as we queued up at the front of the line, we watched the crowd grow behind us, thousands of people filling the room – I can’t imagine what a normal weekend is like! 

Once the gates opened everyone scanned their ID and jumped onto the buses which would take us up the three valleys in the park.

You can only really take the bus in one direction, so the goal is to go to the end of one valley and do a mix of walking and shuttle rides back down. 

We got lucky and were not only on one of the first buses to enter the park, but it didn’t stop at the Nuorilang service centre – a central hub for bus changes between the three valleys. Instead, it continued up the Rize Valley towards the virgin forest, making sure we were the first ones to arrive. 

We got off the bus at Arrow Bamboo Lake which was a beautiful first sight with forested mountains reflected in the still water. A path led us past waterfalls and eventually to Panda Lake. We had the trail mostly to ourselves until we arrived at Five Flowers Lake – one of the park’s most popular sights due to the kaleidoscope of colours in the water. 

The water was as clear as gin and a fabulous aqua blue colour. Fallen trees were visible meters below the surface, and it was mesmerising looking down and seeing through the water as if we were wearing snorkels. 

There were viewpoints positioned around the lake, each one causing us to pause and soak in the view. From one side we got a great vantage point of the snowy peaks and the turquoise water twinkling below. 

We walked down to Mirror Lake, which was vast and not living up to its name due to a gentle breeze, and then we continued down to Nuorilang, where there was a waterfall streaming down the calcium wall. 

I’d seen an impressive photo of the waterfall from up high, which revealed a blue lake hiding above the falls. We weren’t sure if someone had illegally used a drone, or if there was a hike to see it, and that’s when we discovered a series of steps leading up to a viewpoint which we had all to ourselves. 

The next valley we were exploring was Shuzheng, which was a stunning area of the park with a cluster of lakes nestled between the lush green foliage like blue gemstones. 

Rhinoceros Lake had opaque water so it looked totally different to the spring-fed ones we’d seen earlier in the day, and the water was a fabulous sky-blue colour. 

A few old wooden buildings beside the river were the only sign that Tibetans used to reside in the valley. The name Jiuzhaigou translates to ‘Nine Settlement Valley’, two have been abandoned – maybe that’s what we were witnessing, but seven remain in the valley.

Things seemed much quieter in Shuzheng valley, especially when we walked the tranquil boardwalk around the cluster of little lakes. The water was glistening in the sunshine, dropping from twilight blue in the depths, to the colour of a Caribbean beach in the shallows. 

Some of the lakes had white bases which intensified the blue water and created a beautiful ombré effect where the depths changed and the blue shades shifted seamlessly. 

After we explored the lakes up close, we climbed a series of steps to reach one of the park’s best views. Below us were ten bright blue lakes at the base of a verdant green valley. 

We still had one more valley to visit, Zechawa, which turned out to be a challenge to reach as no buses were allowing us to go south. Instead, we had to go north, back to the park entrance, and change buses at the central hub.

The valley was vast at 17km long, but it didn’t offer many sights along the way as many of the lakes were seasonal and dry – even still, China built a boardwalk the entire route which no one used. 

The final bus stop took us to Long Lake, the longest and deepest lake in the park and just a couple of kilometres away was Colourful Pond, which was a small but mighty lake, with absurdly clear, blue water – it almost looked like someone had put dye in it. 

But we didn’t have long to view it – the park staff were already closing up the area for the day and were ushering us to move quickly and take the bus back down. 

When we returned to Shuzheng valley we had one last place to stop at a beautiful stretch of river where the turquoise water meandered through the golden grass. It was a little late in the day so the sun was low and shadows were creeping across the grass. On the other hand, maybe we timed our day perfectly, because we did a great job at avoiding the crowds. 

We ended up walking 20km, and spent 10 hours exploring the park, and still it felt rushed towards the end. If the ticket was valid for two days we’d have loved to have spent more time in the park, but at £20 per person, it was too much to pay twice.