Mysterious trip through Lancan(Mekong River) and YangtZe -River

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The First Day: Lijiang---Stone Drum Town---Weixi

November 28, 2013. We drove about 6 hours to Weixi, which is 180 km from Lijiang. Because we took lots of photos, we spent a long time on the journey. Weixi County is the national unique Lisu Autonomous County and is located in the southwest of Diqing, which is 237 km from Shangri-la.

On the way, we stopped in Stone Drum Town and had lunch. We got a nice view of the first bend of theYangtze-river from the top of the mountain and walked around the village. After that, we went to visit the“Red Army Long March History Museum”. As the Yangtze approaches Stone Drum Town, it takes a nearly 180-degree turn from south to north. The Yangtze River is the longest river in China, the third longest in the word. It is about 3219 km wide from east to west, and about 966km from north to south. Stone Drum Town is a historically famous and important military site. In 1253A.D, Zhu-Ge Liang crossed the river here; Kublai Khan( the grandson of Genghis Khan) crossed the river using bags made from sheep-skin filled with air, and he fought here too; Also, the approximately 18.000-man Red Army, led by He Long crossed here during the Long March of 1936. On the top of the hill, overlooking Stone Drum Town is a memorial known as the Red Army Ferry Crossed Memorial. Because there is a broad river and is suitable for the ferry, it is always a piece of treasured place.

This bend is considered the most important bend in the river. Because it was believed that this bend keeps the water of the Yangtze River from flowing out of China.

Stone Drum Town got its name from a large marble tablet that the shaped like a drum. The drum is an engraved memorial that Headman Mu Gong, established to honor his victory over the Northern Tufan army (which was founded as the first regime in the 7^th -9^th century ancient Tibetan regime located in the ancient kingdom of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau more than 200 years ago) in 1548.The other side of the stone drum was carved by Mu Gao, the son of Mu Gong, in 1561.The carving is called “Anthem for Peace”. The stone drum tablet has a crack across it .The local people believe that the crack existed ever since the stone was formed and during periods of war, the crack has would open up. Then during peaceful times the crack would close.

After that, we continued to drive to Weixi and stayed one night in there. The second day, we got up early. Even though we stayed inside, but we also felt very cold after getting up.



The Second day；Weixi---Tongle Village---Cizhong

We drove about 4 hours (around 150 km) to Cizhong village, and along the way, we went to visit a traditional local village called Tongle Village with Lisu people. We hiked to this small village located on a hill. The village’s people live in inactive Lisu style of house. That is a wooden structure with four sides formed with 12-foot-long pieces of timber. The roofs formed by wooden planks that look like a wooden case. We climbed to the top of village where a few people live. Sometimes, we met some villagers, but they could not speak good Chinese. So it was a kind of difficult for us to communicate. We took a walk around the village. We met a man who could speak a little bit of Chinese. He took us to visit the Lisu Ethnic Customs Exhibition which we need to pay to view. We followed the man to visit a traditional wooden house. That displays some Lisu costumes, ancient hunting tools, articles for daily use, and information about the Lisu culture, including its origin, texts and language. Later, we followed Lily to visit the family. We had just met the man, who said his wife had gone outside to feed horses. As typical for Lisu homes, their house had two levels. The first floor was used for livestock, and the second floor was where people lived. Because the threshold of the door to the home was higher, we had to bend over to enter. The grandpa of the family was very excited to entertain us, and he was also very patient with us while talking about changes in the village. We felt that we did not have enough time spend with them, so we were very reluctant to leave.

For another 3 hours (56 km from Tongle Village), we drove along the Lancang River to Cizhong and took lots of nice photos. We arrived at Cizhong at 5pm. There were around 200 families living in this village representing approximately 7 minorities, such as Lisi, Naxi,Tibet, Bai, Nu and Han. This location is famous for the “Cizhong Catholic Church”. All of the Cizhong residents believe in Buddhism, Catholicism or Christianity. Despite this diverse religious mix. The citizens harmoniously get along. This village get also has a reputation as being a ‘Little Shangri-la’become it is a remote paradise.

The owner helped us prepare dinner, and we also drank some of her homemade wine. It tasted very good. After we had dinner, we retired to go to sleep. The owner told us that, we could go to visit the old church, which we definitely wanted to go. When we got there, we found that some workers were rebuilding the house, and the area was quite disorderly. We entered the church. It appeared that only old people came here for praying. In here, we saw introductory information and old pictures for the church. It was built in 1921 by French missionaries, who began construction in 1905 and it took about 12 years to finish the church.

Many people regard the Catholic Church as a mystery. Because in this area, many of the peopel are holly Buddhists who make religion an important part of their life. During the 8^th century, the French Catholic priests entered Diqing. They tried to push their ideas in Tibet. As they built the church, they preached everywhere and attempted to develop some believers. The local people could not bear Catholic priest missionary activities and caused some incidents. In 1905, crowds of angry people burned about 10 small churches along of the Lancang and Nu Jiang Rivers and also killed the French missionaries. The Qing government sent the troops to suppress those people. At last, the church received a huge reparation; and built the “Cizhong Catholic Church” in this village. In the “Cultural Revolution”(1966-1967), the church was spared from destruction because it was used as a primary school.

French missionaries were generous and brought the brewed wine vessels and brewing technology to teach the local religious believers. We were able to see grapes everywhere. Nowadays, every family can make tasty red wine in this village. The natives were hospitable and entertained us with homemade wine.

After we visited, we were tired from the long drive earlier in the day and went to bed.

The Third day: Cizhong---Deqin---Mingyong

In the morning, we had breakfast of buckwheat bread and yak butter tea in our guesthouse. We then continued on to drive to Deqin 85 km from Cizhong. It was not too long distant, but we took our time along the way taking photos. Three hours later, we arrived in Deqin and had lunch there. At first, we entered new town, which looked new and rich. With resent improvements in living standards, many people are building new houses and big buildings. After we had lunch, we drive to Mingyong directly to visit the glacier. We enjoyed seeing the Meili Snow Mountain along the way. It was sunny. And the Snow Mountain was very shiny and bright-looking. Yunnan is mountainous place, so the road is windy. We brought tickets along the way, which was not cheap. It was 36 km from Deqin to the glacier. We arrived there at almost 3 pm, which was a bit too late to hike. Mingyong Glacier is the lowest altitude glacier in China and its altitude is 2700 m. The source of ice in Mingyong Glacier is from the snow of Meili Snow Mountain, and the elevation of Kawagebo Peak is 6,740 m. The glacier is regarded as sacred by local people.

Meili Snow Mountain is which worshipped as a holy mountain by local Tibetan. It has 27 mountain peaks at an elevation greater than 4000m, 200 peaks above 5000m, and 6 peaks above 6,000m. The Kawagebo and other surrounding peaks are jointly called as “13 peaks”. Kawagebo is a Tibetan word meaning“White Snow Mountain”. It is a Holy Land for Tibetan Buddhists and is regarded as the snow mountain god. From late autumn to early winter each year, Tibetan from Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces come here to worship the holy mountain.

We hiked around 3 hours to the top. We met some tourists on their way down, who told us that we needed to keep going quickly; otherwise it would be dark when we got down. And we were the last group up. We were not worried about it was dark or not, because we well-prepared. We already get ready early. We saw many prayer flags hanging from trees. There was a temple called “Taizi Miao” at the foot of the glacier. there was a “Lotus Temple” far away from Taizi Miao, almost 20km. We heard that Tibetans believe that if they do not worship at Meili Snow Mountain at some point in their life, they will not meet a good end. It is no wonder that Tibetans make pilgrimages trekking around the holy mountain to pray for good fortune, and thousands of Tibetans often come to these temples on the Meili Snow Mountain. Outside the temple, we can see there are several huge Mani Mounds with colorful religious inscription. When Tibetan pilgrims come here, they always walk clockwise around these mounds. The stones are not regular stones. Inscribed on the stone tablets and printed on the prayer flags is the six word prayer “om ma pad me hom.”Chanting the prayer is said to help a person obtain a favorable reincarnation. Because we did not have enough time, we did not go this temple. For Tibetans, when they hike to the holly glacier after visiting the small temple, they see it as a good omen. There is a monk always living there. Sometimes, he could talk with us. Sometimes, he just smiles. Because we arrived up very late, the temple was closed. We continued go on to visit the glacier, it is very nice. But the upper glacier is white and bright, and the lower part is grey and dark. Maybe geology caused this difference. There was no doubt that if we sat down for a while, it would get dark.

When we got down the hill, we could not find any restaurant to cook dinner for us. It was the low season, so all of the restaurants had closed early. We found a hotel and prepared to buy some instant noodles for dinner. Otherwise we had no other choice. We were very lucky to meet a nice shop owner. She helped us to cook the noodles. Maybe because we walked for a long time today; we felt taht the noodles were more delicious than before. After dinner, all of us went to bed.



The Forth Day: Mingyong---Xidang----Yubeng

We trekked to Yubeng. After breakfast, we drove about 40 minutes to Xidang, the first village passed while trekking to Yubeng. We needed to start from this village. There was a hot spring in this village. It was popular for local people to come here and enjoy whole day. Lily told us, that we would trek the peak called “Yakou”, were the elevation is 3700m, that is to say we needed to climb around 1000m high from here. And the descend 600m to Yubeng Village. When we started out from the small village, we started hiking with a happy mood. Along the way, we met some hikers. We did not know each other, but we also gave some encouragement to each other, sometimes talking together. Our team had a total of fore person. Lily and I, we often trek, so the trek was no any problem for us. It was a little difficult for the other two friends to trek. Before I had seen a list of the “the top ten hiking routes in China”, but it included “Tiger Leaping Gorge”,but it is without “Yubeng”. I do not know why?

Yubeng is a fascinating place. There is a village located behind Meili Snow Mountain called “Yubeng Village”. That is divided into upper and lower villages. We were surprised to meet a crowd of local elderly folks flowing us, and ask them , “where they were going”? They were very friendly and answered us that they were going to pick through the garbage thrown out by people. Most of them were over 50 years old. They also told us that they can get some money from the government every year. Although their age was old, they climbed faster than us. The more we walked, the closer we got to the snow mountain. We trekked around five hours to Yubeng Village, which has a waterfall that is especially spectacular in summer; this waterfall is recognized as a sacred waterfall, and a pilgrimage to this site is believed to cleanse pilgrims of their sins. Moreover, it was believed that the waterfall has the power to foretell a pilgrim’s fortune. According to local people, if a pious but unfortunate person goes near the waterfall to pray, the waterfall will stop flowing, or the flow will turn into a trickles. However when a fortunate pilgrim goes near it, the people will get drenched. I was not sure, whether to believe it or not.

After we stopped walking and stayed at our guesthouse, we felt colder. The owner prepared dinner for us. Here is a strange phenomenon; vegetable are more expensive than meat. Due to bad weather conditions, it is hard to grow vegetable here. When the sunsets, the Snow Mountain changes to a golden color, and it is a wonderful experience to view this in action.

After we had dinner, we went back to our rooms. All of us were excited by the sky full of stars. We had a good sleep that night after enjoying the amazing sky.

The Fifth Day: Yubeng---Ninong

Today, we got up early to enjoy the sunrise. After we had breakfast, we kept moving, this time another direction. So that we would not need to return back the same way as we had walked yesterday. The owner guided us along part of road, for about 30 minutes and showed us the road to take, so that we could avoid getting lost. Today was mostly downhill, so it was easier for us. The owner had told us, we just needed to pass one bridge, and then walked along the river to arrive at Ninong Village. However when we trekked by ourselves, we made a mistake and actually passed two bridges. We walked around 1 hour could not find any road. We had to go back to the second bridge, and successfully crossed to the other side. We went through a canyon called “Ninong Canyon”. We saw many fallen rocks on the way; I thought it is most dangerous when trekkers came in rainy months. Today was a long trekking, almost 8 hours. We took a mini van 35 km back to hotel. Because we consumed a lot of energy, we felt tired and hungry when we got back to the hotel. We enjoyed a nice hot pot meal at night, and then we went to bed.

The Sixth Day: Deqin---Shangri-la---Lijiang

Today was the last day in Deqin. We had to get up early, because we needed to go back to Lijiang today. It was also a long drive of about 10 hours and about 370 km.

In the morning, we went to view the sunrise from a viewing platform. It was very mysterious. We also met many traditional believers coming here for worships; they walked around the white pagodas and prayed to the Meili Snow Mountain. After we finished, we drove to Shangri-la directly. It was 186 km from Deqin to Shangri-la. We drove around 4 hours to get there. On the way, we passed by the “Baimang Snow Mountain”, which some people also call “Baima Snow Mountain”, it has an altitude of 5430m. There are lots of rare animals and plants in this area, which is an intact primeval forest. Actually, there are many snows--clad mountains and vast expanses of land, known as auspicious land as in this territory. There are over ten mountains over 5,000m in elevation, such as Meili, Baimang, Haba and so-on. In their territory, there are two rivers the Langcan and Yangt-ze Rivers, running from the north to the south in the ridges of Meili,Biluo Snow Mountain and Yunling Snow Mountain.

Then, we went to visit “Gadan Dongzhu Lin Temple”. It is located in Benzilan Township of Deqin County; it is 105 km from Shangri-la. The temple was built in the early Qing dynasty in 1667. Due to the long history, there are numerous treasures in this temple. It belonged to the important protection of the earliest cradle of Tibetan Buddhism. There are more than 300 monks living here. During the Culture Revolution, the temple was destroyed in July 1985. And then the government of Shangri-la funded for rebuilding it, in October 1986. Nowadays, there are many precious culture relics collected in Dongzhu Lin temple. Such as gold-plated dharma wheel Maitreya Buddha, eighteen Arhats, Panchen Lama, and thangka(religious scroll painting) ,Blue and White Taras for painting and so-on. Because we have no enough time, so we just walk around flowing one of a monk in this temple.

And then we went to visit Shangri-la Old Town, we walked around. When we entered old town, we felt the town is very peaceful. Few tourists came here. Maybe it was during winter time. Shangri-la Old Town is not as big as the Lijiang Old Town. Each has its own style, traditional buildings, special decorations, minority culture etc. Many people have said that Shangri-la is a mysterious land. The scenery was mystic and colorful; James Hilton, a British writer, published a novel about area survivors’ intriguing experiences. According to Tibetan phonetics, this area was called Shangri-la. Moreover, Diqing is pronounced similarly to Shangri-la. Finally, people come to the conclusion that Shangri-la is in China: Zhongdian County of Diqing Prefecture. The State Council of China changed the name of Zhongdian County to Shangri-la.

When we arrived in Lijiang, it was already 7 pm. After we arrived home, we exhausted, we were left with a wonderful memory of our amazing trip.

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Comments

[Yijia Tang]

Amazing trip
It was an amazing and unforgettable trip for me with Lily.