MRS WALKER'S OBSCURE TOURS - no. 2 - JIUZHAIGOU, CHINA

It struck me you probably want to know of an area of the world so beautiful that even the most philistine people on the planet fall to their knees at the sight of its beauty.

Yes?

What if I were to tell you that in UNESCO's list of the 40 most beautiful places on the planet, this ranks #1?

In fact, UNESCO made the Chinese turn it into a National Park since they claim it is so far beyond-lovely it is clearly World Heritage and thus owned by the entire population of the world. Since you, like me, always believed that Bora Bora and Morea in Tahiti were the most beautiful places on earth and they rank considerably lower on the UNESCO scale - mind you, still in the top 10 - you must now see that this is a place you MUST visit in the very near future.

Have I sold it to you yet?

Well, it's called Jiuzhaigou National Park and it's in Mainland China right next to its border with Tibet.

I have never been there, but Mrs Walker has, so I can see I'll have to twist her arm and get all the info on it, and when I do, I'll put it up here. Here's a link to some great photos by Jon Batchelor.

In the meantime, from the descriptions I've heard, it sounds like a larger version of that area of NZ above Rotorua that disappeared under lava when the volcano exploded back in the 1880s. If that's the case, it's a MUST SEE!

Like, if Mother Nature was so kind as to give the world TWO places that look like this, and then takes one of them away, all you can do is honour the second place by going .