Day 14: Kanding

The bus ride from Chengdu to Kanding was unexpectedly smooth. The driver did not stop to pick up more passengers even though there were still empty seats on the bus. The driver did not smoke, and the passengers were asked to smoke outside the bus – very rare in China. In addition, one of the movies shown was "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn and Gary Grant. What a treat.

From our research, Kanding is a stop-over town for going to other cities. So we planned to spend only one night there before continuing to Danba/Tagong. Upon arrival, we walked to An Jue Si (a Tibetan temple) for accommodation (according to the Rough Guide). The Tibetan monks were surprised to see two backpackers looking for a bed. Good thing I had a backup hostel to fall back on.

Kanding was fairly modern with many shops on its main streets set on the banks of Zheduo river. It started raining soon after we checked into our hostel. Since we weren't into shopping, we just walked around the town and headed back to the hostel to get ready for our 7am bus to Danba.

Photos from left to right: 1) our onboard entertainment, 2) Tibetan temple, 3) main street of Kanding