On Bifengxia Sightseeing

We have planned to visit Bifengxia (Bifeng Gorge) on Oct 3 and 4 (two days), a famous place where giant pandas live. Bifengxia includes two parts: bifengxia zoo, and bifengxia view.

Planned Schedule:
Oct 3.
8.00 out from home
9.00 get on bus to Bifengxia
12.00 get to the inn (100meter from Bifengxia), check in
13.00 zoo
16.30 finish visiting zoo, and break
18.00 dinner and rest

Oct 4.
7.00 get up and breakfast, check out
8.00 enter to the Bifengxia
15.00 finish and down to Ya'an bus center
16.00 get on the bus to Chengdu
19.00 back to Chengdu

Exactly:
Oct 3.
8.00 out from home
9.00 get to the bus center to Bifengxia
9.30 get on the bus
11.30 bus out of oil, wait for 1.5hrs
13.00 get the bus center of Ya'an
16.30 get the inn, check in (13.30 find an unlicensed little bus, RMB20 for getting bifengxia, there's 16km between Bifengxia to Ya'an Bus Center. The traffic was jammed since there's many many cars, and buses, with only two lanes. Sometimes even
17.30 souvernoir, dinner
19.00 break
20.00 BBQ
22.00 sleep

Oct 4.
7.00 tickets to zoo (booked on the Internet, CNY130/person, fully 150/person)
8.00 zoo
8.30 zoo's feeding bus
12.30 finish
13.00 find an unlicensed little bus to Ya'an Bus Center
14.00 buy tickets to Chengdu
14.51 get on the bus
17.30 arrived in Chengdu
18.30 get home

The two-day experience is very bad, I think. It didnot go as I expected due to bus out of oil, traffic jam, unlicensed little buses, too higher price inns in holidays (CNY50~ in non-holidays, CNY250~ in holidays), chaotic managing of traffic.

I remember I traveled to Hokkaido when I was a trainee in Japan. Things went on as I expected almost. Although there was bad news about traffic jam in express ways all around the nation, it was not an excuse for the bad managing.

The news reported there's a car accident in Beijing-HK-Macao express way[1], tourists knifed[2] and 36k tourists stayed in Huashan[3,4],

I believe it's not because of thin road, but the traffic control. For better traveling, I think:
1. develop public transportation between cities, including rails, great buses, shuttle buses between the sightseeing point to the nearest city (the drivers of unlicensed little bus could be recruited for shuttle buses)
2. higher parking price for private cars
3. cancel the holidays more than three consecutive days, shorten them to two days or even one
4. annual leaves could be arranged by employees
5. cancel the shift of work days with holidays or even weekends

If the private cars show the personal fortune, how about those guys taking public transportation, with enough money buying cars? If the city's public transportation is fast and convenient, people are easy to make the choices.

References
[1] 京港澳高速韶关段9车连环相撞致7死3伤. http://news.qq.com/a/20121005/000564.htm, Retrieved on Oct 7, 2012
[2] 北京青年报:应问责"华山论刀"下景区混乱. http://news.sina.com.cn/pl/2012-10-06/000025304431.shtml, Retrieved on Oct 7, 2012
[3] 华山滞留游客基本疏散完毕. http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2012-10/03/c_113272394.htm, Retrived on Oct 7, 2012
[4] 华山游客逾最佳接待量1倍 官方吁本省居民避高峰. http://news.xinhuanet.com/yzyd/local/20121005/c_113278945.htm, Retrived on Oct 7, 2012

   Send article as PDF