Panda Preserve & Danba

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I spent two trips developing the Ecological Tour itinerary to the remote areas of Sichuan province in China. This area just opened up with hard surface roads about three years ago. The Wolong Panda Preserve is actually the first stop seeing Panda close up and you can even go in and touch and play with some 1 year old Pandas as you can see in my photo. Going over mountains passes up to 15,000 feet across the mountians where many Tibetan people live. You can stay in their homes, see how they live or hike around the villages and stay in the small towns like Danba. There is a wonderful park on this itinerary called Hailougou where you can take a cable car up onto the mountain and across a glacier. About half way down the mountain is a Hot Springs with 7 pools maintained at a small resort that is great to relax in after a day of hiking or sightseeing. The small village at the base of the mountain is call Moxi and I have often been the only western person staying there in a nice hotel called the Long March Hotel named for Mao's Long March across the mountains to the north. If you are looking for an adventure in China that certainly is the place. There is a stop near the 4 Sister Mountain area also where you can take pack horses or yaks back through the valley to the base of the mountains and establish a camp with tents. You can hike up the mountain to the snows or just hike around the valley inhabited by a few Tibetan families who are herders. Take a look at my web site www.interlakechinatours.com and check out the tour named Ecological Tour of China to see the itinerary. I do customized tours geared to people who want something different than just a traditional sightseeing tour although I do those too. I retired when I was 50 so have had the time to go to China almost 50 times and check out each area of the country.

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Photos

Tibetan Home near Danba
Tibetan friend in his home near Danba, Sichuan China.

Hailougou Park
The Hot Springs of Hailougou Park