Day 22: Chong An

The main attraction for us at Chong An was the traditional market, where people from surrounding villages came to do their weekly shopping. We were quite surprised to find the goods and services offered in the market. Live fish, chickens, pigs, and dogs (a local delicacy) were a common sight. As for services, there were seamstresses, barbers and a dentist. Yes, a dentist.













In the evening, we went searching for a waterfall about 90-minute hike from our hostel. On the way there, we met a local who told us that the waterfall no longer existed. It was blown away to make path for the water pipeline. Fortunately we found a cold spring (28 degrees Celsius) and had a very nice dip with two locals. Picture yourself dipping in the cold spring inside a gorge with river flowing by and the sun slowly setting on the gorge...

Day 21: The Long Journey to Kaili

It's like the great escape from the Red Army in western Sichuan. After a 3-hour car ride from Tagong to Kanding, an 8-hour bus ride from Kanding to Chengdu, an 18-hour train ride from Chengdu to Guiyang and a 2-hour ride from Guiyang to Kaili, we finally arrived in Kaili, the jump-off point to the minority villages in Guizhou. We would spend the next couple of weeks touring the small villages and do some light trekking.

Kaili is a fairly modern city with many shops and hotels. It is a major service center for travelers from all directions, and was a good stop-over for us to rest our tired bodies. This is where we met Billy Zhang, the number 2 ranked tennis player in entire Kaili (his office is right next to a tennis court). When we met him, he was going to play a match. :) Actually he is the tour operator at ICTS (organizing trips for foreigners). Billy gave us very helpful information regarding the villages, the market days and the road condition. Thanks, Billy.

With Billy's advice, we embarked on our village tour the next day, hoping to catch the once-every-five-days market at Chong An and Shidong.

Day 19: Tagong

Originally after Zhonglu we planned to go to Bamei to look for a small village accessible only by a river boat. After arriving in Bamei (another bumpy ride), the locals told us that there was no such village. So we shared a ride with two Chinese girls to Tagong, known for its vast grassland.

Tagong is at the same altitude as Lhasa (3,700 meters). On the evening of our arrival in Tagong, we developed symptoms caused by high altitude sickness, i.e. pounding headache, nauseous. The old Tibetan woman running the guesthouse brewed us a tea with special Tibetan herbs. Katy and I just lied on the bed until the next afternoon.

On our last evening in Tagong, we managed to do some “horse-riding”, i.e. some poor soul walking and leading the horses which Katy and I were sitting on. Despite the cheesy act, the view from the top of the hill overlooking the grassland was amazing.

We spent only two days in Tagong and decided check out because the Chinese government had tightened the security measures in Western Sichuan (due to the upcoming Olympics). There were about 40 armed riot police officers marching up and down the main street of Tagong when we were there. The atmosphere was pretty tense. Many shops were closed and only a handful of tourists stayed.










Our meal options were fairly limited due to the shop closure. After a few pretty bad meals, we asked the guesthouse owner if we could eat with them on our last evening in Tagong. She asked us if beef, vegetable and some noodles were OK with us. Sure, we can do steak with greens and noodles on the side anytime. Finally a real Tibetan home cooking on the grassland! Oh boy, did we get our expectations high. The dinner was basically a soup with minced beef, bak choy and white noodles. We could barely finish ours while her second son had three huge bowls.

Our original plan was to go to Litang. From there, we could either go to Tibet or Yunan. Unfortunately some 250,000 troops were already stationed in Litang, and all foreigners (including Taiwanese) were forbidden to enter the city. So we decided to return to Chengdu and go to Guizhou/Guilin instead. That is the closest that we would be from Tibet for this trip. Along the way, we saw several armed checkpoints. When we entered Chengdu, two armed police officer came aboard for a quick inspection. We were glad to leave Tagong.

Photos from left to right: 1) & 2) prayer flags on top of a hill, 3) Tibetan man handing out prayer paper during our bus ride for good luck, 4) view of a surreal mountain in Bamei

Day 17: Zhonglu

I came across Zhonglu from someone's blog entry by chance. It is not even listed in the guide book. As it turned out, the two days we spent there were the most memorable so far.

Zhonglu is located in the mountains, about 25-minute drive from Danba. We stayed with a Tibetan family (Dongpuo), a wonderful host. A double room with ensuite toilet/shower and two meals cost only RMB50 per person (US$7). During one lunch, we had 11 dishes (not including the funny-tasting yak butter milk). It was incredible.









During one pleasant stroll around the town, a little girl was shouting to us from a tree, asking if we wanted some peaches. She threw us half a dozen peaches. On the way back, we met an old farmer, who invited us to his home and gave us several sweet plums. The peaches and plums were great snacks for our lazy afternoon reading.











There are still 88 watchtowers remaining in Zhonglu. The purpose of the watchtower was to guard against the barbarian invaders. At its height, there were around 5,000 watchtowers in this region. It was interesting to see the watchtowers scattered in the middle of the farms or next to houses. Also, watching the sun setting on Zonglu and the valley below was an amazing experience.












Tibetan women carrying 60kg of hay for the cows during winter










Gerong showing us his family treasure dating back to the Qing dynasty












Katy enjoying her favorite afternoon activity: reading and feeding the family cow apples













Female lama in a water fight

Day 15: Danba

The bus ride to Danba was the complete opposite from the ride to Kanding the day before. It was a smoky, crammed mini-bus. The road was so bumpy, the kid sitting behind us kept throwing up. For the second half of the ride, he just kept his head outside the window – no need for plastic bags.

We came to Danba to transit to Zhonglu or Jiaju, two of the several small Tibetan villages scattered around Danba well known for the historic watchtowers. After a quick lunch, we strolled around the center of Danba – a simple one street affair. Here you definitely see more Tibetans than Hans. Even though Danba is a small town, it was still bigger than what we were looking for. So we promptly hopped on a taxi and headed to Zhonglu.

Photo: View of river and mountains by Danba

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

Day 13: Last night in Chengdu

We are leaving for Kanding tomorrow morning - the start of our back-road to Yunnan. We plan to visit a few Tibetan villages (Danba, Bamei, Tagong, Litang) before arriving in Zhongdian, a.k.a. the Shangrilla. During this time (around two weeks), we will likely have no Internet access.

We will leave you with these two photos: