Riding on the longest cable car in Asia

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The main attraction on the 2 day tour to Shangri-La is Shikar Snowy Mountain 石卡雪山, 4500m elevation. Here’s the longest cable car in Asia, a total of 2kms. The cable car was a bit scary, built against the wall of the mountain. Looking out from the other side of the cable car, it’s easily 50-100m higher than the valley below. The wind was starting to gather speed. Remembering what the cable car girl said at the bottom station, if it became windy or snowy, they might stop the cable car until it’s settled down, I started to worry about the success of the cable car ride. However, one side of the mountain distracted me - it’s a sea of azalea trees. Many trees had azalea in blossom, different shades of pink jumping out of the green forest. The trees were much taller than the azalea shrubs we usually saw. These were high altitude azalea plants, each tree almost the same size as the pines surrounding it. I could just imagine when all the flowers were in blossom, what a sight this would be.

Someone from our group had a digital watch with altitude signals. We watched as we climbed from 3500 to 4000m, then higher again… The clouds and mists from the rain then snow hid the higher cables and tracks from our view. One side of the mountain looked like one giant piece of rock, with snow dotted on it. The other side was a complete void, shrouded in mists. It looked like we were climbing through a heavenly gate, not knowing what lay beyond. In the distance, the whole scene became a familiar Chinese black and white painting, abstract yet very real. People who had not seen much snow before started to sigh in amazement. It was after all, a surreal scene.

At the top station, the snow was like a blizzard, and visibility was only a few meters. Even with a rented long water proof coat, I still felt the chill. Excited tourists played snow balls, took photos without much views. On a clear day, on top of the Shikar mountain one can see the most number of snowy mountains “in the world” according to the tour brochure. Not today.

I was afraid they’d stop the cable car due to the snow and wind and we’d be stuck on top. But thank heavens we made it back down!

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