Jiuzhaigou Valley
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How it came to be
Jiuzhaigou, a valley in the Min Mountains of northern Sichuan, takes its name from the nine Tibetan villages along its length. Tibetan and Qiang peoples lived here for centuries, but the rugged area was little known outside.
In 1975 the forestry scientist Wu Zhonglun surveyed the valley and wrote to the Sichuan provincial government urging it to protect the landscape and stop the logging. Logging in the valley was halted, and in 1984 an administration bureau was set up and the valley opened to tourists.
Its lakes and waterfalls running over tufa terraces were inscribed in 1992. Visitors rose from 5,000 in 1984 to 1.19 million in 2002. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake in August 2017 broke two natural dams, including the one at Nuorilang Falls, and the valley stayed closed until March 2018.
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