Blogs from Songpan, Sichuan, China, Asia

Don't even want to know what possible nutritional value these have, but I guess they are popular as after we went back a couple of hours later they had gone. Picture was taken in Songpan a small backwater town with a population of 72,500 which is tiny in Cninese city terms. Hope it hasn't put you off your dinners!... read more

This is an old entry I forgot to publish, it follows my visit to Jiuzhaiguo National Park in Sichuan. It was an early start that day which involved jogging on the spot outside the reception in the dark and cold for some time. The 24 hour reception service they advertise seemingly only operates when there is something good on TV. Eventually I checked out, and Sam and I rushed off to the bus stop for a 6 hour bus to the next chosen destination, Songpan. Sichuan was the victim to the deadly earhquakes that were mainstream news in 2008. The bus to Songpan was on a mountain trail, and I think the evidence of earthquake damage was still pretty visible. The earthquakes claimed alot of lives as many buildings such as schools were secretly built with ... read more

Just got back from a 3 day horse trek out of Songpan. There were some high highs and low lows. I'm sure stephanie will cover the lows in her blog, so I'll summarize them quickly: back and butt pain from riding horses 6 hours a day, crappy food, extremely uncomfortable beds, not-so-hospitibal Tibetan hosts, COLD mornings, the ride home. As for the highs: the scenery was amazing. Riding along rivers, through forests, with waterfalls, snowcapped mountains - it was awesome. We first heard about the horse trek thing from the hostel in Jiuzhaigou. It sounded fun, and it was in Songpan which is part of the way to Chengdu, where we were headed anyway. In the Lonely Planet, the horse trek to Ice mountain was recommended. According to our 2009 lonely planet it should cost 350 ... read more

Now, this is our final blog for our first around the world trip, and I have been putting off this for ages, cause it was a real roller coaster of a place and at times horrible!!! So here it is, our final blog that took place around Mid May, while we were still in China. We rose early that morning to catch our bus journey to Songpan. 13 months ago It would have taken 8 hours to reach Songpan, but due to the horrific earthquake in Sichuan last May, we have a huge detour to make, which made the journey 12 hours!!!! The Earthquake last year, was over 8 on the richter scale, the 15th largest in the world ever. It killed 69,000 and a further 11 million were made homeless, the Chinese govt response to ... read more

In the morning we had cooked breakfast - on the gas cooker ...as it was not only warm but it was a means of getting our hands defrosted. Next step was to meet the horses, Reni's first reaction was a poor horse carrying my ass up the hills with another heavy load on his back already. The road to the Tibetan village was interesting at least to say, have you ever seen horse ice scatting... neither did we until this day. Accept it was not us much fun as we were on the back's of the horses and the winding path was again interesting especially when you looked down the hill and imagined yourself ling down the dig with horse on you, actually Reni said she would kill the horse if it failed down. We have ... read more

We took the early early bus to Langmusi, and were pleasantly surprised that it took only 4 hours instead of the expected 6. The scenery along the way is amazing - climbing through the mountainous edge of the Tibetan Plateau that is southern Gansu. The public bus even made one stop for photos, but the wind across the plains was murderously cold, so I just poked my camera out the door... Langmusi is a tiny town, in the flavour of Xiahe but nestled into the convergence of three valleys, abounding in spectacular views and bounded in the north by red cliffs. The main street is paved, and swept early every morning by Tibetan women with long soft brooms made of straw. Tibetan men with their heads wrapped in scarves roam the streets or dodge pedestrians on ... read more

www.diariodeunviaje.com (todo en nuestra pagina web) SONGPAN (29/7-1/8) En Langmusi no hay estacion de autobuses, paran en la calle principal y montan un escandalo por las mañanas con las bocinas que no veas. A las 7:00 sale el autobus a Zoige (20¥/p) y tienes que comprar el billete en el mismo autobus , menos mal que bajamos antes (6:25h) porque el bus salio a las 6:35h. En China muchas veces los autobuses salen en cuanto se llenan, aunque no sea la hora. Llegamos a Zoige y en principio el autobus a Songpan no sale hasta el dia siguiente por la mañana, pero al final junto con 3 chinos y 2 ingleses (Colin y Emily) alquilamos una minivan que nos llevara a Songpan (500¥/7pers). Desayunamos con los chinos (nos invitaron) y a las 10:30 cogemos la minivan ... read more