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Published: November 15th 2005
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Stairs up to the Monastry in Zhongdian..
.. you really don't need a climb like this such a high when you're already a bit breathless!! Zhongdian - Xiancheng - Litang - Kangding - Chengdu
Our next planned stop after Zhongdian was to be Chengdu, a sizeable Chinese city in Sichuan where you can visit a panda breeding centre!
Our travel options from Zhongdian were a) to backtrack our steps to Kunming and get a train, which would take about 2 days b) to fly, which would take about an hour, or c) to travel by bus through small towns near the Tibet border and then east through Sichuan along mountain roads described as 'the worst in China' and 'an arduous journey at very high altitudes...which will take 5 or 6 days'.
Guess which one Will wanted to do!?!
After a little persuasion we set off to the bus station in Zhongdian at a very cold 6.30am to purchase 2 tickets for the first leg of our journey to Xiancheng, some 9 hours away. We had prepared well for the journey with 18 layers of clothing and a ridiculous amount snacks but no amount of preparation was helping my belief that the bus would tumble down a mountain into the valley below. Indeed, the more I had read about the trip the more
scared I became!! I'd found some pictures online of the road that frightened the life out of me so decided to stop researching completely and just keep my eyes closed until the journey was over!
As it turned out, I needn't have worried. The road was narrow and high but not half as bad as I had been led to believe, and the drivers (particularly the one who resembled a chubby, Indian Worzel Gummage) were very careful. All in all it was nothing compared to some of the bus journeys we took in Vietnam and the first day of travel was supposed to be the worst! Luckily the weather was good (cold but sunny and more importantly dry! I wouldn't have fancied it much if it was icy.
The main reason for taking this route though is the scenery and it really was very beautiful. Although it's difficult to take pictures from a bumpy bus you can see what I mean below..
Xiancheng, our first overnight stop is a horrible place full of dirt and rubble. The hotel we stayed at wasn't that nice and we were served up chickens head soup in a local cafe. Basically
the less said about it the better. I was glad to leave the next morning and was happily out of the door by 7am for the short 5 hour hop to Litang.
Litang is set at an altitude of 4014m, which means the air is pretty thin - though luckily my fears about getting altitude sickness all came to nothing! It has a stunning setting amongst miles of open grassland backed by snow-capped mountains. Unfortunately I found the town itself to be quite ugly, saved only by the interesting characters walking around (tibetans and many different chinese minority groups I'm afraid I couldn't name, dressed in full tribal gear. Quite unlike any place I had been before!) We accidently ate some yak meat (mmm!)and then took a walk around the town and then a little further afield to get a good view of the mountains, that is until a giant vulcher started circling overhead and we thought it best not to go too much further! In the evening we found ourselves at the local hot springs which was lovely as it's quite chilly this high up!
We only stayed a night in Litang, eager to continue our journey
(and very eager to find a room with an ensuite hot shower!) so the next morning it was another early 7.00am bus to Kangding, 8 hours east of Litang. In contrast to Litang, Kangding is noticeably much more Chinese than Tibetan - although it is possible to get butter tea and momo and they sell yaks skulls in the street so it's not exactly Beijing!
It wasn't an inspiring place, although once again the scenery surrounding the city was nice. It was in the evening though that we found out the best reason for coming to Kangding. To begin with, as we wandered back to our guesthouse for a quick bite to eat, we passed through the square in the center of town only to find about 300 locals dancing to blaring chinese music - all doing exactly the same moves! It was a strange sight to behold and we watched a couple of dances before moving on. After a quick dinner we went to the nearest Tibetan dance hall to see some traditional singing and dancing and it was fantastic! This was what we had been hoping for, but hadn't really found, when we went to the theatre
in Lijiang. The singing was good but the dancing was absolutely superb, and afterwards all the regulars got up on to the stage with the dancers and joined in! If only we had known the moves we would have been right up there of course 😊
Our last part of the adventure was the 8 hour bus journey to Chengdu, that actually turned out to be just 6 hours. This time the roads were even better - turning into highway as we drew closer to the city. It was with some anticipation that we neared Chengdu, the thought of being in a city again where we could find decent accomodation, food and amenities was very alluring. As we drove thorugh the busy streets into the center though all we could see was dull grey buildings set against a dull grey sky. The traffic was slow and noisy and we had left the fresh mountain air far far behind us. Of course, this was all put into perspective after a lovely hot shower and slap up meal!!
So now we are in Chengdu, looking forward to seeing the pandas and some famous Sichuanese Opera (and sampling the delicious food!)
Having a few computer issues, more photos to follow!
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Lisa
non-member comment
Still wow!
Hi kate! I can still only manage wow really to sum up when i read your entires and see the photos! Hope you enjoyed the pandas, and the opera. Seems like you may be bringing back a few furry animals on the plane home hey?! Still great to hear all that you are up to. Chicken head soup though?! I mean, food is food to me, all gratefully recieved and all, but even i stop at chicken heads, and was glad to read you did too! Keep on enjoying! (the travelling, not the dodgy soups) xxxxx