There were a lot of pigeons behind Kokura Castle. There were some colorful pigeons and they congregated there probably because there were a couple of people feeding them. It was a good opportunity to take out my Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM telephoto zoom for some shots. I am quite pleased with them, I hope you will like them too.

Jiuzhaigou Valley (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: Ji?zhàig?u; lit. “Valley of Nine Villages”; Tibetan: Sicadêgu) is a nature reserve in northern Sichuan province of China. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. It belongs to the category V (Protected Landscape)in the IUCN system of protected area categorization.

Jiuzhaigou lies at the southern end of the Minshan mountain range, 330 km north of the provincial capital of Chengdu. It is part of the Jiuzhaigou County (formerly Nanping County) in the Aba Tibetan Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of northwestern Sichuan province, near the Gansu border.

The valley covers at least 240 km², with some protection organizations giving the area as 600 to 720 km², with buffer zones covering an additional 400 to 600 km². Its altitude, depending on the area considered, ranges from 1,998 to 2,140 m (at the mouth of Shuzheng Gully) to 4,558 - 4,764 m (on Mount Ganzigonggai at the top of Zechawa Gully). source : wikipedia.org

I was took a trip there last fall. It is a place of amazing natural beauty