Balkan Tour (24) Historic City of Zadar & "Jiuzhaigou of Europe" - Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Travel Together Season 8 - Balkan Tour (24) Historic City of Zadar & "Jiuzhaigou of Europe" - Plitvice Lakes National Park Split, Croatia - Zadar - Plitvice Lakes National Park July 12, 2019, sunny to cloudy, 18-28°C. 08:00 Drive to Zadar. The highway has four lanes, the road is smooth, and there are few bumps. It is the best road since entering the Balkans. The state of infrastructure gives a glimpse of the country's economic strength. Blessed by God, Croatia has a coastline of more than 1,000 kilometers, along which there are many islands. This is unique among the Balkan countries, and it is natural to build holiday resorts and develop tourism. 9:00 Arrive in Zadar. Zadar, a port city in western Croatia, with a population of only 75,000, ranks as the fifth largest city. Zadar is also a historic city and one of the most famous tourist destinations in Southeast Europe. In addition to its rich human cultural heritage preserved for hundreds of years, it is also the birthplace of Croatia's first novel and the first Croatian-language newspaper. Admire the sea and sky, and the bay with large and small cruise ships coming and going; walk into the Lion Gate city wall and stroll through the squares strung together like pearls; listen to the world's unique, year-round sea organ; feel the Roman Forum, Five Wells Square, and St. Donatus Church, where history is frozen. This is Zadar, a small town with endless charm on the Adriatic Sea (Figures 1-4). 13:00 Drive to the next stop: Plitvice Lakes (Plitvice Lakes National Park). Plitvice Lakes, located in the karst mountains of central Croatia, was established in 1949 and is the oldest national park in Southeast Europe. It is now the largest national park in Croatia, with an altitude of 500-600 meters. There are many natural dams formed by limestone deposits in the park, which in turn form many lakes, caves, and waterfalls. Since there are mainly 16 lakes, the park is also called Plitvice Lakes National Park, which is intuitive and easy to remember. The lakes are connected one by one from upstream to downstream along the river, and in the dense mountains, countless waterfalls cross the tufa dams layer by layer, forming 16 fairy-tale-like lakes. The trees in the water, the calcified bronze objects, are smooth, lovely, and immortal, forming a rare underwater jade tree wonder. We arrived at the lake area at 15:00 and took a special car to the upstream at an altitude of more than 600 meters, then walked down the steps for two and a half hours, about 8 kilometers, while enjoying the scenery. In terms of both scenery and geological origin, Plitvice Lakes is very similar to Jiuzhaigou in China, so in China, it is often called "Jiuzhaigou of Europe." It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 (Figures 5-9). Stay overnight at Hotel Mirjana Rastoke.