Jiuzhaigou is a Y-shaped alpine valley of travertine terraces and lakes so saturated with blues and greens they look colour-graded. Multicoloured pools sit under 4,000-metre peaks, waterfalls spill through forests that turn gold in autumn, and nine Tibetan villages give the valley its name.
The park runs on hop-on-hop-off shuttles: ride to the top of each valley branch and walk the boardwalks back down between stops. Five Flower Lake, Nuorilang Falls and Long Lake are the icons, but the quieter boardwalk stretches between them are where the valley actually gets under your skin.