Shangri-la : Part 10 - Potatso National Park

Problem solved, readers! My so-smart sister that I always rely on for IT-related problems has found my answer to the limited storage to upload photos. It turns out there is this support site in Google, which how can I not realise that, that to ensure you are eligible for the free upload of photos, you have to make sure your photo size is within 800x800 pixels. Oh gawd.. resizing the photos. No worries. I will ensure there are enough photos to tell my story! :-)

Back to my China trip.

After lunch in the Ancient Village, our next attraction is to Potatso National Park. It was about 30 minutes drive from the Ancient Village to Potatso National Park. My friend commented that it's Potato with a 'S'. It's pronounced as 'Pu Da Cuo'. It was about a 5 minute walk from the car park to the entrance of the building where we purchased our tickets. 

  

This is a 5A tourist attraction. The ticket costs RMB190. The National Park closes at 4pm, which means no entry allowed after 4pm, but you can still wander inside. Payment of RMB190 ... just wow. I guess if you have 5A, you are entitled to that price ticket. So, we got a tag each upon payment of tickets. Just like Mugecuo Scenic Area, we took a bus to the main stops.

There were 3 stops. We skipped the 1st stop which is the view of Shudu Lake. We went to the 2nd stop which took 20 minutes. The 2nd stop is also Shudu Lake but from a different view.

From where we stood, there was a small jetty. So, we hurried down while there was no one around. The jetty was wobbly and I was very much afraid I will fall in the waters.

There were lots of buses available to take us to the next stop. So, one just hop on to the bus that is about to leave. Our next stop was Militang Pasture. According to the signboard - Militang refers to a long and slim eye-like meadow named after the narrow eye of Buddha. Probably that can be seen from a bird's eye view.

The bus final stop - Bita Lake. It is a huge lake. The signboard states 80 minutes by foot, but with all the photo snaps, it took us about 2 hours. Well, one can opt to skip this stop and take the bus back to the tourist building.

Maintenance of the park is going on.

There are lots of signs on the ground to remind us to take care of the environment.

By here, I have walked 40 minutes, and I was so tired. Going up steps were even more tiring. Plus, the average altitude is 3500m above sea level.

While my friend was seeking guidance from a professional photographer, 2 of us was fooling around with our shadows.

Finally, 4.2km walkway has come to an end. So glad to reach the exit. The walk was tiring, and the scenery was the same because of the large Bita Lake. This National Park is not what I had in mine. It is so well taken care of. There are pathways for people to walk on. Well, my friend told me that previously there were no pathways. That was 5 years back. We took the bus back to the main entrance. And our hired ride back to the Ancient Village.

When I hear National Park, I think of 3 things. Wilderness. Danger. Forest. In Potatso National Park, what came to my mind was clean, safe, and unfortunately boring. After seeing Yading Nature Reserve, and Mugecuo Scenic Area, Potatso National Park is so normal. Maybe if our trip's route started from the opposite direction i.e. from Shangri-la towards Yading towards Chengdu, I would be blown away by all the attractions, as the view gets more glorious.