Jiuzhaigou is a narrow strip of lowland ... It got its name because there are nine Tibetan villages in the valley. As it is a remote place with unusually charming scenery and few inhabitants ...

This story appears in the March 2009 issue of National Geographic magazine. Jiuzhaigou means "valley of nine villages," because it once harbored nine, but other numbers are more significant now.

Stretching over 72,000 ha in the northern part of Sichuan Province, the jagged Jiuzhaigou valley reaches a height of more than 4,800 m, thus comprising a series of diverse forest ecosystems. Its ...