We opted for a leisurely check-out timing on Day 17 since we had nothing planned for the day apart from making our way back to Chengdu. We took on board the check-in time for our Chengdu accommodation — Citadines South Chengdu — then worked backwards to snag first class cabin tickets for the 2 hr 5 minute train journey from Jiuzhaigou back to Chengdu, then a transfer from our Jisheng Hotel to Huanglong Jiuzhai Station.
As it turned out too, today, Day 17, was sunny — again — in Jiuzhaigou, compared to the cloudy and badly overcast weather we had to tolerate yesterday in the valley. The other group of visitors who were in the hotel transfer to Huanglong Jiuzhai Station observed the same too, and mused about the rotten luck they had during their visit to the valley yesterday.
We got to Huanglong Jiuzhai Station with both a bit of regret that the great weather we saw today was absent the previous day, but still with plenty of time to spare before our 1:10PM train ride, and reached Chengdu East Railway Station slightly earlier than the scheduled 3:16PM arrival time. The station was massive, and it took us a good 10 minutes to get to the car-hailing pick-up points to get a Didi ride to our hotel. The usual touts were about asking if we wanted rides (to somewhere), but perhaps until we’re a bit more familiar with the public transportation systems in Chengdu, we’re not going to risk going with touts. We needed a larger vehicle anyway to cart along our three large luggage cases, so we opted to travel in luxury with a Premium XL vehicle to Citadines South Chengdu.
One thing dawned on us when we checked into Citadines: we wanted to spend more time in this apartment unit (short review: it’s a fantastic unit!) and were simultaneously pretty worn out from the previous 16 days of hustling around every day, with most mornings waking up super early for quick breakfasts => packing => checking out. The daughter wanted to go shopping, the wife said we’ve already seen pandas, I was dreading long travel journeys again — more so as we were now in a very built-up and busy city, and the boy had no opinions and was happy to go with anything. So, we decided to drop our Day 18 plan from earlier on — visiting the Dujiangyan Panda Center and nearby irrigation system — and opted to just stay within the city.
That’s a wrap for Day 17. We’re gonna take things real slow in the next couple of days: Days 18 to 20!