trip to Meili Snow Mountain in Deqin

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We made decision to do the trip to Yubeng village in Deqin very quickly, so we haven’t any chance or time to prepare do any research for this trip. It ok, because I have been to Deqin area for few times, only Yubeng I did once. It was almost 5 years’ ago,when I was guiding for Lake Head university from Canada. I couldn’t have any good memory besides riding horse on mountains for the day trip to Yubeng.

But I saw many very nice pictures and stories of Yubeng village area from website, so I still eager to go there to spend more time. And I realize this is kind of good chance for me there to visit, we have our own transportation for this trip, Mr. Atian would like charge some money for transportation and bring us to there to visit.

Usually most of people do 6 days’ trip to Yubeng, on the way they stop Tiger Leaping gorge, Zhongdian and some other places. For us, we were familiar with most of places, so we just wanted trying to work out this trip at least in 5 days.


At 08:00 on First Day, after breakfast, we leave for this special trip for Deqin. Why it is so special? Because we have our own private tourism bus, but without any tourists with us. We feel more relax and enjoyable! On the way, we only stop in one small village in Nixi area which is called“Shang Qiaotou”, it is Tibetan village with only about 70 families, all the Tibetan traditional houses look like special hotels. They are a little different from Tibetan houses in other places,whole building looks very simple, just built with wood and bricks. The color of the building is more simple, just with white and nature color of wood

The main house with 3 floors, on the ground(the first floor) is for the animals to live, second for people, third one for crops to dry or store. There is very nice countyard with flowers, even on the wall they put some pots with nice plants and flowers. Maybe because the altitude is very low, just about 1950m, so there are many orange trees with so many bright color and smell very good oranges,look very delicious. We really want to have some of them, but we are very shy to ask any local people to get one, so we take so many pictures of orange. We invited to visit his relatives’s house, sounds they understand us, they are so welcome, they make very hot tea for us and bring many delicious sunflowers seeds, apple and orange for us. Owner of this house also pele off the skin of apples and oranges for us, they are a little shy to talk with us, there are only the women in home, they told us the men go out to work or do business. Because there is not much things to do in village. After we have enough tea and snacks, we leave for one family who is making wood bowls and other things. One old woman leads us to one room with many of their products, we can’t see how they are making them, because today people having village meeting, nobody working now. There are many different kinds, also different color, different designs’ bowl, cup… they are so beautiful and really want to have many of them. But when I ask the price, it is kind of high price for us. But anyway it is impossible for me to stop get some of them, at last I bought some of bowls with nature color of wood. I take many pictues of bowls which we couldn’t buy. She told me they needn’t bring them to outside to sell, many people come here to buy them.By the familes, there is one big bridge where wrote“Hongjun Qiao”. It is also very famouse and important for during Long March time.

After this village, we come to Benzilan which is important location for from ancient time to now. Ancient time is part of important place for Tea Horse Road,now it is still busy with tourists.There are many restaurants, hotels, shops by the both side of street. From Benzilan the road zigzag up the Baima Snow Mountain, the road is much better than before I came, looks already repaired recently. pass through whole area, there are about 20mountains whose altitude is more than 5000m. The main peak of Baimang Snow Mountain is 5430m, the difference of altitude is 3000m

When we almost arrive the top of the snow mountain, it is starting to snow, we are so excited to see the first snow here and shout, our driver stoped for us to take pictures by the signs of altitude( 4293m). I remember the wonderful time with the groups from Canada, we took group pictures from here. I remember there was more snow on the mountains during May, also with some wild flowers on the ground. It is still snowing and fog most of mountains, we take so many pictures of mountains, prey flags…… There is one tourism bus from another side will back to Benzilan, driver tell us: it is very slippery, it’s better to put on the tyre chain,otherwise it is very dangerous. I asked all of them to get off from bus and push it come to here. When I heard about it, I feel a little anxious with that, because I know how the road look like and how dangerious it is. We help the driver to put on the tyre chain and slowly down, the snow is getting stronger and stronger, also the day gets dark very quickly. It is hard to see anything in front of us besides pieces of snow, we can see nothing beside the bus. I feel it is huge mountain and impossible catch up to any villages, we are trying our best to look for light, also eager to see any light. This night, light is kind of savior. Because I know when we see the light, it is meaning we close to Deqin where we will stay for tonight. Finally, around 8:30pm, we saw the very colourful lights of Deqin city. We are so excited to see it and started to sing again, also sigh how beautiful it is! All of us are very hungry, so first to find out some place to have something for dinner, then find guesthouse to sleep

On Second Day, we driving about 2 hours to leave for Xidang village where is for starting hiking to Yubeng village. On the way we pass by the Feilai Temple area where is kind of best place to view the Meili Snow Mountains, the border of Tibet, some Tibetan villages where are making grapes wine, also cross the Lancang river. It is very dissapointed with the place to view the Meili mountain, the government in order to charge some money from tourists, they made a big white wall by the road to stop the people to get nice views of snow mountain.We also stop by the border to take picture just same as before we did for other groups. Because it bring very good memories back for me! Remind me to remember the wonderful people.

When we arrive the Xidang Hot Spring place, it is already 12:30. the local people says it is too later to hike up to Yubeng village.But we think we are ok, so we start the trip, On the way we meet some tourists back from Yubeng, they also very strange to ask us“will you be Yubeng today? Don’t think it is too later?” I couldn’t rememeber how many hours we did for last trip to Yubeng by horseriding, I only remember it is long way. Doesn’t matter what other people say, we believe we could do it! Almost all the way is very steep, but with very nice views of trees, mountains, valleys, villages……, we through the different types of vegetation forests with different altitude, also we can feel the difference of altitude, especially when we almost come to the top of the mountains with altitude(3750m). there are many colorful prey flags hanging around on the trees, this let us feel so heavenly.when we enjoy seeing the flags and have a rest, there are some people who wears Tibetan and monk’s dress come over from opposite.

When they see us, they are smiling and say“Za xi de le” to us in very polite, we say same words to them. We want to take pictures with them and talk to them, but looks they couldn’t understand us. When I am so anxious, there is one younger man comes too, he trys his best to helps us to contact with them and we take one pictoure with them, the younger man tells us: they are from Tibet area, only speaks Tibetan language, their languageeven different from Deqin area, so it is hard to communicate. All the way to top, we meet many of Tibetan people who looks come here to worship the Meili Snow Mountain. Everyone says“ZaXi De le” to us since we meet them. Finally we come to the top where is border of Yubeng and Xidang, from here we just need directly down to Yubeng village. There are some simple wood tents for people to rest or have some food, from the tents, you can see the peaks of part Meili Snow Mountain, they are Shennv peak, Jiangjun Peak and others, but we can’t see the Kawa ge bo peak which is highest one. Because the altitude of Yubeng also very lower, so we can’t see it. Untill we most close to the villages, we see some white houses at the foot of snow mountains, all the way down, we meet many yaks and donkeys are grazing by themselves. When we almost down to one of family, there are two yaks in front of us, one is mother, another is baby. When the baby sees us, looks a little scare from us and runs away. Mother looks getting angry, stop to eat and stare at us with unhappy face.

We can’t speak Tibetan language, so we run away at once and wait for them to leave. About 20minutes’ later, yaks let us go. When we come to first family(also kind of guesthouse), they are so welcome and ask to have a rest, also ask us whether we made reservation in any guesthouses, we told them we have been booked in Tubu Zhe Zhi lv. So they show us and explain us how to get there, also there is old grandmother leading us go ahead. On the way we meet another lady, they talk to each other in Tibetan language, then another lady leads us to guesthouse. It is also Tibetan traditional buildings, but looks there were many guests stayed there, there are many flags hanging on the building. After 4 hours’ up and 1.5hours down, we feel very tried and almost to die.

The owner leads us to check in room, they arranged one three beds room for us, from the window we can see the snow mountains very clearly. After check we go to kitchen to have a look and try to order something for dinner, last time I came here, there was no any chooses for food. So even this time, we didn’t expect any good food to eat. When we into there, it is so strange for me to see so many different kinds of vegetables, so we are so excited to order some dishes for dinner. We feel they are so delicious and finish eating all the food, maybe we are too hungry or they are so delicous. After dinner, we sit by the fire stove to get warm and talk to other people(family members and some tourists).There is one little boy sings song and dance for all of us, he looks like very professional and not shy. Outside is very quiet and cold, but we can see so many bright stars on the sky. Even in my bed, from window I can see stars.


Third Day
I get up around 07:20, in order to see the snow mountain with the sunlight when the sun rises up.It is so beautiful, snow mountain with golden color of the sunlight. I take so many pictures of it. After breakfast, we leave for Shenpu where is at the foot of snow mountain. The loacal people told us at least need hiking about 5 and half hours, so we prepare for these. When we from our guesthouse walk down for lower village, there are bits of sunlights come to put of village and let us feel so nice and warm. End of the lower village, there is one big and nice building looks like temple reflected on small pool, around the temple there are many colorful prey flags. Follow the river, we go more further. All the way there are also many different kinds of trees by the river, also with many prey flags and rock(Ma ni Dui). We didn’t feel we hike a lot, we already come to foot of snow mountains, also by the Shenpu.But in fact, we can’t see the waterfall, looks it is freeze, so we only can see the shape of the waterfall. But we can see all the peaks of snow mountains very clearly, there isn’t any cloud on the mountains. After we take many pictures, it is only almost 12:00, it is still early, looks we still have time back to Deqin or Xidang.For us to back, we think we only need about 1 hour, on the way back, we make one “Ma ni Dui” by the road.

When we back to guesthouse, it is only 13:10,so we ask them to make some food us for lunch. Around 14:30, we start hiking for Xidang. It is very strange for us, we only hiked for 2 hours for up to the top. From the top, we only need down, it will be more faster than up. At last we only did 1.5hours down to Xidang where our bus stop. We directly drive back to Deqin to have dinner and sleep.


Last day
We get up only around 8:30, after breakfast then leave for Lijiang.Today we are so lucky it is very sunny and no any clouds in sky. We can see all the peaks of the Meili snow mountain, on the way, it is hard to stop me to take pictures of meili snow mountain. The driver stop by the Yingbin Tai for us to take pictures. When we come to Shusong village, there are some nuns want to get a lift. we stop for them and ask them where they will go, they tell us they will go Benzi Lan, it is on our way back, so we let them come with us. On the way they tell us: there are more than 130nuns in Shusong nunnery, all of they are Tibetans from around these area. Every year they will have 2 times for them go home to visit. Looks they can understand us, but they can’t speak much Chinese, so it is hard communicate. Then they sing several songs for us, their voice is so nice. We also sing Naxi songs to them, we have great time on the way to Benzi Lan, after they get off from there, we continue our trip, on the way we visit the Nixi potteries and buy some staffs for family to use. There are many different kinds of potteries with different kinds of designs.

For this trip, we are kind of very rush to do this trip. But in fact, we had great time together to do this trip to Yubeng where we eagered to visit.












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Photos

Yubeng village
Yubeng where is at the foot of Meili snow Mountain, in the morning, the sun light comes to the village

Happy village
Happy village belows Nixi area, lies on the way to Deqin

Red Army Bridge
it is on Gangqu River, during ancient time, on the Long March, Red army cross the Yangt-Ze river from the bridge

Baimang Snow Mountain
Baimang snow Mountain is Nature reserve area

road to Xidang
this is the road from Feilai Temple to Xidang by the Lancang river

hike path
We hike up to Yubeng from Xidang, by the path there is a lot of pray flags

Pilgrimage
on the way we meet some Tibetan women who come to pilgrimage to Meili snow Mountain

hike to top
hike to top of Mountain where is between Yubeng and Xidang, you can get nice views of Meili snow mountain

Meili snow Mountain
the first light of sun comes to the Meili snow mountain, make the snow is becautiful.

Mani Dui
there is a lot of small rocks get together called Mani dui. it means when you put one small rock here, you left your tired and worried here.

Woman God Peak
it is one of beautiful peak of Meili snow Mountain

Ni xi Pottery
There is a Tibetan village just a little outside of Shangri-La, they are making the very nice pottery from village.

Comments

[Regina]

Meili snow mountain or kawa karpo
Anyone interested in going to meili snow mountain or Kawa Karpo. In the year of the horse it is extra special to do the kora of 180 km. I am joining a group organised by whistling arrow in hong kong. I am gong end of sptember 2014.