Blogs from Kangding, Sichuan, China, Asia
February 12th 2011
Naoki, Jason and I got up way too early to catch our 6:30 am bus. All of China goes by Beijing time and we were way out west, so the sun didn't come up until hours into the bus ride. It was awesome to experience the sunrise over the Tibetan plateau - the dark night sky faded to deep blue, then light blue, then pink-orange in one corner. Finally the first golden morning rays hit the endless rolling hills. We drove by a few advertisements written in the hills, which one can usually find in barren landscapes out west. The advertisements were written in Tibetan and looked so beautiful! (Ha, I am rather accustomed to Chinese characters, so they have lost their mystery.) Litang to Kangding wins the prize for "Most Air Caught on a Bus ... read more
August 14th 2010
Kangding is situated at 2600 m (about 8500 feet) above sea level in a narrow valley at the confluence of the Zhedu and Yala Rivers. It's a small city of 82,000 population, really a small town by China standards, although it's the political center for the Ganzi-Tibet Autonomous region as well as being the local county seat. The mountains rise incredibly steeply, and we keep seeing peaks above the ones we thought were the tallest as we look around more and when the clouds recede. There's one of over 7000 m elevation around here, although I don't think we've seen that yet. After enjoying a few days at our very comfortable accomodations 4 km north of town, we moved to a room across from the bus station in preparation for our 6 AM departure for Garzi ... read more
August 12th 2010
Our couple of days in Chongqing and Chengdu served the purpose of a brief acclimation to being back in China. Now we are at 8,500 feet above sea level in Kangding for a few days to acclimate to the altitude, the Himalayas and the Tibetan regions. Tuesday we took the fast train to Chengdu and spent the night in the apratment of Lynn's cousin. His parents are out of the country running an export business in Uganda, a trade relationship that the Chinese government is appaently promoting. So, he has the apartment, and this is the young person's hangout in Chengdu where Jacob has been spending some time. It was very nice of Jamie, the name by which her cousin is known to us, and all of them, to let us stay there. That evening we ... read more
Rivers & Roadworks - descending from the Tibetan Plateau - mile 10222
Published: September 13th 2010Asia » China » Sichuan » Kangding
June 18th 2010
A few miles from our overnight stop at Rawok Lake we get to Anju pass (4462m). Its not the most spectacular pass of our journey, in fact its just a large grassy plain, but it feels really significant - this is the watershed between India and Asia: to the west of us the rivers join the Brahmaputra and head off into India, to the east of us the rivers join the Yangtze, Mekong or Salween and flow into S.E.Asia. It really feels like we are leaving the India sub-continent behind. For the last few weeks we have been gazing south into Afghanistan, Pakistan, NW India, Nepal, Bhutan and NE India but from now on it will be S.E.Asia. It just reinforces how far east we have travelled. We're 1/3rd of the way along the Tibet-Sichuan Highway ... read more
In Search of the Fabled Shangri-La - Via the Sichuan-Tibet Highway
Published: October 1st 2009Asia » China » Sichuan » Kangding
September 9th 2009
The government restrictions imposed on Tibet has made the journey a pain in the arse and expensive. The government has imposed a permit system thus making travelling to Tibet illegal without a permit, on top of this they stipulate that you have to go on a private tour which is expensive. After finding all this out plus the fact that you can’t go off and do your own stuff, you are herded thought racing from one check point to the other, we decided to abandon our Tibetan adventure till another time. Instead we decided to travel from Chengdu through western Sichuan into north western Yunnan heading to Shangri-La. After speaking to various people who have made the trip they informed us that as this route borders Tibet you will experience the Tibetan way of life as ... read more
August 4th 2009
We arrived in Kangding Western Sichuan. A beautiful town in the mountains at about 3,200m(10,400ft) above sea level. What was to be only a layover turned out to be a two week excursion. When we attempted to buy bus tickets north westward we were denied. We later found out that tickets were being denied to all westerners. It isn't official that westerners can't travel by bus but they won't sell the tickets to a westerners heading closer to Tibetan areas. We then decided to stay in the cool clear mountain air for a bit before heading back to the heat and smog of Chengdu's 13 million people. The next day we tried to go to Mugecuo or Wild Man Lake sporting hot springs and alpine lakes with possible swimming. So we got a taxi and headed ... read more
August 1st 2009
We are currently in Kangding. I'm beginning this blog two weeks into our trip to China when we hope that it will become much more adventurous. We came to China at this time of year because of the total solar eclipse on July 22nd...more about that later. I was able to do a bit of business on the trip in Suzhou and Weifang.... read more
July 5th 2009
This was my first July 4th outside of the US. Ironically, I spent the day trapped on an 8 hour bus ride though remote China... and as I wrote this entry we were stuck and not moving in traffic. The driver actually turned off the bus. He and the bus assistant got out and walked around. Even the monks in the truck next to us became restless and started wandering. Women on bikes went vehicle to vehicle selling snacks and drinks from their bike baskets. Also ironically, my email acct was disabled due to suspicious activity. I'm one of at least 3 people I know to have this happen to them. I'm just hoping I wasn't really hacked and am grateful that the problem was resolved within day or so. Neither of these was the independence ... read more
July 5th 2009
Really, a day is all you need. After a lovely Sichuan hotpot dinner, me and 2 Brits wandered around the town a bit, attracting attention as we went. One guy wanted to take our photo on his cell phone and then we took his photo with our cameras. We stopped for some green tea at a teahouse before heading back to the hostel. The shower, while a bit creepy looking, was HOT and had marvelous water pressure. There was even a heat lamp. Which was wonderful since this fresh mountain air is freezing. It feels like winter in Shenzhen. The girl who runs the place wears a hot pink velour track suit with "fur" on the hood. She was kind enough to loan me her hair dryer. I still snuggled deep into my bed and extra ... read more
February 7th 2009
Ha-ha · · this is my an organization · New Year's Day three day-long vacation which found at a forum we reaches agreement to four girls to ascend 2 peak · · this kind of line of 6 people this year to harbor to the snowy mountain yearned for that we embarked Siguniang Mountain is located in the western Sichuan Province xiaojinensis, Wenchuan County, the mountain is located in the middle of Qionglai are Wolong National Nature Reserve. Siguniang Mountain peaks connected by the four components, the main peak Yao Feng-mei 6240 meters above sea level, has called the East Alps, located in east longitude 102.9 degrees, 31.1 degrees north latitude, is located in the middle of Qionglai mountains,小金县and Wenchuan County at the junction Department, is the highest peak Qionglai mountains. Yao-mei-feng adjoining the south side ... read more
