Despite continuing rainy weather, we are back in Chengdu getting ready to board the train tonight for Turpan, Urumqi, and the Uyghur areas in and around the Taklimakan Desert. Litang to Kangding was another eventful 9-hour bus ride on the Sichuan-Tibet highway. The elevation profile doesn't reflect all the ups and downs, at least four passes over 4200m, the vegetation changes with all the elevation changes, and all the amazing scenery. The drop from into the Yalong River canyon at Yajiang followed by the climb back up was incredible. The heights on both sides were well above tree line, but in the middle the woods were thick and corn and many other crops were growing. The canyon was also still impressive down there as it was many km upriver when we traveled through it on the ... read more

Every day seems to bring something new, unexpected, amazing, and wonderful. Today brought these things in abundance as we travelled over the provinicial highway in a chartered van on the provincial road south to Litang. All in all we gained 2000 feet in elevation, moving from an agriculturally-oriented Tibetan region to one that typifies the wide-open spaces and nomadic herding way of life. On the way, we discovered an incredible canyon that looks like it would provide 200 km of great white water kayaking or rafting, had an encounter with Chinese police, we passed through remote villages some of which were empty because their inhabitats were apparently away tending the yak and sheep, entered the treeless nomadic herding country over two high mountain passes, and finally reached Litang at over 13,000 ft elevation where we are ... read more

Most buses to anywhere out of Kangding leave at 6 AM so that they can maxmize the probability of completing the trip in daylight. So the bus station was very busy Sunday morning when we crossed the street to find ours to Ganzi. No buses were headed back to Chendu, over the route we had travelled just a few days ago, due to landslide-caused road closures. But, we were told that the bus to Ganzi was running. We decided to go onward, further into the mountains. We figured that we'd find a way back to Chengdu when that time came, and for now we'd push on. So we left in the dark with a caravan of other buses, immediately climbing on switchbacks out of Kangding. Pretty soon it got light, the trees got shorter and then ... read more

Our couple of days in Chongqing and Chengdu served the purpose of a brief acclimation to being back in China. Now we are at 8,500 feet above sea level in Kangding for a few days to acclimate to the altitude, the Himalayas and the Tibetan regions. Tuesday we took the fast train to Chengdu and spent the night in the apratment of Lynn's cousin. His parents are out of the country running an export business in Uganda, a trade relationship that the Chinese government is appaently promoting. So, he has the apartment, and this is the young person's hangout in Chengdu where Jacob has been spending some time. It was very nice of Jamie, the name by which her cousin is known to us, and all of them, to let us stay there. That evening we ... read more

We leave Seattle for Beijing on August 7 and return September 9. The map shows where we are planning to go in China. The trip will be a total of 5 weeks. We fly non-stop Seattle-Beijing on Hainan Airlines (11 hours), then 2 hours more to Chongqing (that's the green point on the map, the start of the trip). In Chongqing we will meet Lynn's parents and Lynn (Lynn is the name that Jacob's girlfriend, who is Chinese and from Chongqing, used when she was in the US and how she is known to us). Then we will take the train to Chengdu, bus to Kangding and begin our adventure in Kham, a part of the original country of Tibet that is now mainly in Sichuan province. This part of the trip involves bus travel over ... read more