Jiuzhaigou 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 visit. I believe, whether you are a frequent visitor 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 modern 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 he fall 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 order 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. Be wildered, 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, with his head off the cliff. Afterwards lical people called the cliff the Devil Cliff. Now it is 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 springs, 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 in habited 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 Yellow Sect, 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.

　　You may be aware of the dense forest growing along the sides of the road. it mirrors together the scenic 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 dream like 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 land scape 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 fish 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 you can see to the bottom 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 dragon. 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 stream offers sweet and refreshing tastes. The local Tibetan residents think that it is a super natural stream, for it is said that the water from the stream can stop disease 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. Unexpectedly he was fully recovered and felt rejuvenated. Afterwards the lama drove the rhinoceros down into the lake, and he himself resided nearby.

　　Nuorilang Waterfall, located between the Rizegou and Shuzheng Gullies, is 30m in height and 270m in width. Nuorilang literally means magnificence. the water comes from Rizgou Gully. During the high-water season, the cascading waterfall produces a tremendous noise that revibrates in the gully. As the water hits the ground, the splashed liquik immediately moves high up into the air in the form of fine drops, which have been thrown, blown or projected, forming a splendid water curtain. Visitors often view a rainbow that appears in the curtain while the sun shines upon it. In autumn, the water gets much less. However, the waterfall presents another wonder. it seems as if the cliff hangs a colorful silk cloth matched wuth multi-colored bushed around.

　　As you enter the Nuorilang scenic site, Jinghai Lake appears at your sight. The lake, 925m in height and 262m in width, is encircled by precipitous hills at three sides, and the other side is open rather like an entrance gate. The hills by the lake look green and verdant, In the early morning when there is no wind the lake is as smooth as a mirror. At this time the blue sky, white clouds, hills and trees are all reflected in the water. The scenery in and outside the water is closely joined, and it is hard to tell which is real one or which is a reflection. The scenery has inspired the passion of many artists and poets. A figure of speech is used here just right to describe the situation. It says, "Inside the water birds fly, and up in the sky fish swims."The depth of the lake is between 10 and 20m, but the water so clean that you can see sof green algae move and fish swim at the bottom, and trunks in the water fully have been covered by calcified sediments that look rather like huge corals in pretty shape.

　　After you leave Jinghai Park you continue to walk for a while before arriving at another scenic site by the name of Zhenzhutan. The slope-shaped shoal is calcified, 160m in width and 200m in length. The water flows freely downwards on the surface of the shoal that appears quite uneven due to the calcification. As the water unrolls, it splashes numerous tiny drops tather like rolls and strings of snow-white pearls spraying over the whole shoal. Moreover, poplars, williws and azalea groe all over the upper part of the shoal. In May it is amazing to view the scenic beauty as you walk underfoot the rolling water spray, passing through the patches of azalea in blossom and listening to the ceaseless gentle sound from swaying willows.

　　Wuhuahai Lake is one of the main scenic sites, where it is an ideal place for photographs. The algae and bryophyte grows very well in the lake. Sediments act on the sense of these plants and give rise to the clusters of multi-colorful ribbons in the surface of the lake. When maple and smoke trees around turn red in autumn, their reflection on the water resembles raging flames. encircling the ribbons in multi-colors.

　　The road near Wuhuahai Lake spirals up the steep mountain. As it turns to a curve of the mountain, two lakes emerge in sight. One is called Xiongmaohai and the other Jianzhuhai. The panda and bamboo lakes join together, which indicates that pandas used to eat arrow bamboo plants and drink water here.As you know, the plant is the pandas'chief food source, In winter the Panda Lake is frozen, but the Arrow Lake remains what it is like before. At the lower end of the lake is a Waterfall, the highest one in Jiuzhaigou. It is called the Panda's Waterfall that resembles a flight of three stages. The first stage is 19m in height and 5m in width; the second one is 24m in height and 4m in width; the third one is 19m in height and 14m in width. Water falls down rebounding stages one after another before cascading into the deep valley. In midwinter the three stages hang ice-formed dripping water, which forms varied-patterns nd looks magnificent as if you found yourselves in the ice-carving world.