For those who are going to stay in Mix Hostel during the national day holiday there is a good news that I should tell you. Which has been absent for many decades that the Kung fu arena contest will be held in near by Wenshu Fang Folk Street dring National Day Holiday.

This popular arena contest used to be called "Da Jin Zhang", the Kung fu maters from all corners of the country will present in this event, this is really a rare chance as this event seemed no longer existed for several dacades!

The time schedule for Kungfu Arena Contest:
1st-6th of Oct, 10:00-11:30 every morning, 15:30-17:00 every afternoon.

Some Kungfu maters may show you some stunts which hardly see in nowadays!

Today is Chinese traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, a relatively big festival for Chinese people. Usually family members will get together to enjoy dinner either in home or eating outside. Moon cake is never to be missed in this festival. This sweet stuffed thing symbolizes the "reunion", and also reflects the moon on sky as today the moon turns out the most round shape.

In the past, parks and temples held many activities for public, after having dinner home everybody went out to participate those activities, it was a great fun.

If you are looking for a traditional Mid-Autumn Festival night, go Wenshu Fang Folk Street near Mix Hostel, it will be very busy tonight. Starts at 19:30, the ceremony of Mid-Autumn Festival brings you traditional ceremony show of “Sacrifice to Moon ", traditional performances, games and snack exhibition.

Don't know where Wenshu Fang Folk Street is? Grab a FREE HOSTEL MAP from Mix Hostel. It's just around the corner.

While some travelers talking about the backdoor to Yunnan, I'd like to suggest you another route which actually more comfortable, leisurely however the beautiful sceneries will never be out of eye sight.

Backdoor to Yunnan from Sichuan means travelers travel through Sichuan and Tibet highway (mostly in and off the south route), you'll pass by Kangding (A geographical border between Chinese han and Tibetan), then most of travelers off to Tagong for several days (horse trekking, hiking or visiting Tibetan nomadic people). After that, travelers usually will come back to south route again and straightly heading to Litang where the cowboy like Tibetan walking around you, Litang built on 4000 meters high plateau, take precaution for high altitude sickness. From Litang, bus starts down to south direction, passing by Daocheng (the gateway to Yading National Reserve) to Xicheng. Stay overnight in Xicheng, bus set off to the end of your backdoor journey in Zhongdian, also named as "Shangri-la". On the way some parts of the road are in relatively bad condition, and the snow storm might occurred when bus crossing the 5000 meters' high pass.

The route I suggest is not very adventurous one but you'll see at least 4 different minorities. They are literally "Yi", "Mongolian Moso", "Moso" and "Naxi". You start you trip from Chengdu, take the night train to Xichang. You'll arrive in Xichang in the early morning, catch a taxi to long distance bus station. As I know the last bus heading to Lugu Lake directly departs at 8:30am, so try to be bus station before that time. Bus takes about 7 hours to Lugu Lake town via Yanyuan Town where bus stops for lunch.

Lugu Lake Town in fact is still some several kilometers away from lakeside where most of family accommodations can be found. You can expect some van waiting for tourists in Lugu Lake Town bus station. You can walk to lakeside or if your backpack is too heavy, share a van to lakeside.

Lugu Lake is located on the border between Sichuan province and Yunnan province, where the altitude is more than 3000 meters' high. At the Sichuan side, most of inhabitants are Mongolian, but they've already merged into Moso culture, so real Moso people call them FAKE MOSO, but i prefer to call them Mongolian Moso. As the tourism is not as developed as in Yunnan side, so Sichuan side is comparatively cheaper and more original. The most prosperous area at Lugu Lake is at Yunnan side Luoshui Town, bars, hotels, souvenir stores are fully packed there. Lige Island is a perfect balance in Lugu Lake. Lige Island is to the west side of the lake, a small peninsula stretches into the lake. Along the lakeside, more and more small hostels and guesthouses have been mushrooming, so you'll never feel bored.  Don't foret to get up early in the morning to take a morning sunrise photo, which is awesome!

You can find buses head to Lijiang (For Naxi culture)in Lige Island village or Luoshui Town.

Laura is our travel agent, today is her birthday, happy birthday Laura!

North Sichuan is generally in "Aba Tibetan Prefecture" where the majority is Tibetan but they are living along with "Qiang people" and "Hui" (Chinese Muslim). "Tibetan" and "Qiao" once had war in the past but now they really live peacefully and harmoniously together.

Songpan and Jiuzhaigou are probably the most popular destination for travelers, however comparatively Songpan is less spoiled than Jiuzhaigou. From Chengdu to Songpan takes 8 hours on bus, if you travel in summer raining season you might encounter the landslide particularly in the area of "Yingxiu".  Songpan town has been rebuilt because it had been destroyed by a fire several decades ago, so it looks quite new, and not as charming as some other old city like in the north China the "Pingyao City". Backpackers go to Songpan for horse trekking to ice mountain or some other area altitude over 3000-4000 meters high. Horse team arrange everything for you including tent, sleeping bag, food. On the way you have chance to camp in the wild, meet nomadic Tibetan family and check out the Tibetan Lamasery.

Jiuzhaigou national park is actually only 3 hours away from Songpan, but if you take the public bus, you can expect stopping somewhere to wait for more passengers to fill up the bus in case the bus is not full. Jiuzhaigou International airport is in fact not in Jiuzhaigou, It's actually located in Songpan, so even you fly, you still have to change a bus and spend several hours  to get to Juizhaigou.

If you are budget traveler, you'll be happy to know that more and more budget hostels have been mushrooming in expensive JIuzhaigou, get the hostel card or ask Mix Hostel to book the bed or room for you in advance.

Officially, tourists are not allowed to stay in national park, and you must go out of park the same day, but ticket is valid for two days excluding bus ticket. A bit confused? Actually the ticket for Jiuzhaigou is combined with National Park Ticket and Bus Ticket (Jiuzhaigou is big, you must take the bus to get around), in total it cost more than 300 RMB. (In high season the bus ticket is 90 RMB, 80 RMB in low season), that means you can use the same National Park Ticket to enter the park next day but you should have to buy the bus ticket again.

However there is a trick. If you insist to walk instead of taking bus, you can only pay the National Park Ticket which is about 220 RMB (Between NOV. to FEB is only 80 RMB). Then you need to walk for several hours to the second Tibetan Village which is called "Shu Zhen Zai", from there you can catch the bus and usually nobody will check your bus ticket. Also, most of secret lodgings can be found from that village, if you like, you can stay there  for couple of days, only thing you need to beware is that if you want to come out of the park, do it in afternoon not morning (It's not logical to come out of the park in morning, isn't it? ^_^)

Tip of one day trip to "Jiuzhaigou":
The National Park is in shape of "Y".  Catch bus at entrance all the way to the right top point of "Y" then walk down back to the intersection of "Y". From there change another bus to left top point of "Y". After catch bus back to the intersection of "Y" again then walk down to see all the tourist sites.

We then keep going up north. The destination we'd like to be is Langmusi, it's right located at the border of Sichuan Province and Gansu Province. We had been told that there was no bus heading to Langmusi from Jiuzaigou, but a guy who lived in the same hostel with us bought a bus ticket and that bus is surprisedly going to Langmusi (she told us that bus will arrive in Langmsi in two days). Bus actually goes back towards Songpan and then goes up from "Chuan Zhu Si". I checked the map of Sichuan, there actually is a road connects Jiuzhaigou to Zoige, but local told me that road is extreme bad with a lot of landslides, that's why bus has to go back a little bit then reach to another road which connects to the road to Zoige, absolutely it takes longer time.  So, we chose to hire a car which is 600 RMB/day. Driver found a short-cut, so we arrived in Zoige pretty soon (6 hours approximately), we left Zoige immediately after having a lunch in Zoige. On the way, the vast grassland seems endless, hundreds of sheeps and yaks were grazed there.

We arrived in a place where the road branched, we saw the signs hang on at roadside, right direction is to Langmusi, left is to Tangke. Because of the road construction, the short way to Langmsi is closed, so we had to run another direction and get a big round back to the road to Langmsi. We missed the "Flower Lake" which is at the middle of somewhere between where we were to Langmusi, but as a makeup, we'll pass by the "First Bend of Yellow River". Car finally arrived in Langmusi in dark. It took a whole day.

Address: Chengdu Tianfu Exhibition Center (South of downtown, on the way to Huayang)
Admission is required.

Ist Huang Long Xi International Ancient Town Festival is gonna be held in Huang Long Xi from 27th of Sept to 7th of Oct 2007. During the festival, you'll have chance to see many river activities inside the ancient town with dramatic special effect. You can also observe the fire dragon dance, releasing river lights and other traditional activities rarely to be found in today.

Women World Cup Kicks Off in Chengdu