Client Photo: Rob Baars

Tangjiahe – not much change except the price of accommodation has rocketed at the hotel – without discount now going up to around 700CNY/night. We got Tawny Fish Owl on all the 2023/24 trips. Motianlin still has photographable Tragopan – Przewalski’s  Parrotbill still accessible with paying for a permit and hiring local park guides – but expensive and if done at a normal pace, a day’s tough hike up and a day to find the bird and  hike down. Expensive, time consuming/exhausting and sometimes complicated to sort the permits and permissions - now new possibilities for the parrotbill at other sites – with easier less complicated access. Zappey’s Flycatcher breeds close to the hotel – listen for loud and distinctive song.

The big change has occurred outside the park – in the construction of new motorway routes that now bring Chengdu that much closer – now only a 4.5-hour drive from the airports