6th Aug : Tongren

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Day three in Xiahe journey saw us venture up to the Gangjiang grasslands - a spectacular area of fertile lands and pasture where the nomadic farmers bring their sheep And yaks down from the hills to graze. They erect their yurts and establish themselves in an area for a time to graze and them move on. We had to cross a high mountain range to get yo the grasslands and that was exciting - had a horrendously muddy track most of the way, heavy mist and "Stirling Moss" as our driver ! Must have been over 4000m as we realised that even Xiahe is at 3000m altitude. We both got a slight headache so maybe first sign of altitude sickness ? Visited Bajio village - the remains of a prehistoric 'city' 2000 yrs old - had an interesting 8 sided ancient wall to protect.

Finally got to Tongren where we wanted to explore Wutun Lu - an ancient Tibetin monastery where they produced the famous Silk paintings called Thankas. Managed to see a few artists at work and visited the Monastery. Like many in this region, had been significantly destroyed in the Cultural Revolution (what an oxymoron that is ) and had been restored/rebuilt in the 1980's.

Came back to the hotel via the Sankjiang grasslands

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