The top toursist sites in Tibetan Sichuan - also see related article Sichuan Tibetan Culture
The western half of Sichuan lies on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. High in altitude, often extremely scenic with craggy mountain ranges, meandering rivers, rolling yak grazed grasslands, the architecture and people found in this landscape give a fascinating "time has stopped" glimpse into Tibetan culture. The major Sichuan Tibetan tourist sites are shown on the map - they are marked up in green. Wolong represents the eastern edge of Sichuan Tibet, here the people are Tibetan in origin and the drive that takes you westwards over Balang Mountain will quickly bring you to towns and villages typical of the Tibetan Danba area. From Chengdu, using newly built motorway connections it will take around a four-hour drive to reach Kangding, so a trip involving an overnight stay would give plenty of time to explore many of the sites. The other sites involve longer journeys and more nights of accommodation but the further west you go the increasingly remote, beautiful and exciting the trip.
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Dege and Further West
The further west from Kangding and the more your travel takes you off the beaten tourist trail. This route is known as the Northern Sichuan-Tibet Highway – Chengdu to Lhasa – and Dege (sometimes called Derge) is close to the Sichuan border where the Tibetan Autonomous Region starts. Before you reach Dege the road winds up the Cho La pass, which, at over 4,900 m, used to be the highest point of the journey. However, a newly built vehicle tunnel – at 4,378 m, one of the world’s highest - now means a quicker, safer but, unfortunately, slightly less scenic journey.
Being so remote the area has been able to avoid Han influence and preserve more of a genuine Tibetan feel with traditionally built farmsteads, plentiful monasteries and most of the people still wearing traditional costume. Sights to see on the journey include the wonderful Xinlu Lake – or in Tibetan Yihun Lhatso – a glacial lake just 10km south from the junction town of Manigango. Regarded as a holy lake there are many mantras carved into rocks and boulders, and the surrounding mountains make this an exceptionally scenic site. Dusty, dirty with the feel of a frontier town, Manigango is not a pretty place, but is a fascinating site for people watching – local herders and farmers who trade in the stores and whole variety of other plateau travellers. At Manigango you can chose to keep travelling the Lhasa route or take the road NW towards Serxu and over the Qinghai border towards Yushu.
Dege town has a long history of political and religious importance for the region. It has a large printing workshop where religious scriptures are hand printed using an archaic system of carved wooden printing blocks, inkpots and brushes and muscle power. Apparently, the collection of 217,000 printing blocks contained in this building represent around seventy percent of Tibetan literature.
Litang
The drive heading west from Kangding can follow an alternative historic route towards Lhasa, known as the Southern Sichuan-Tibet Highway. This road, now called the G318, goes through the town of Litang. Historically important as a religious and political centre the area has produced two Dalai Lamas and boasts an important monastery - Ganden Thubchen Choekhorling. However, today the town is best known for its annual horse festival – an incredibly colourful meeting of tradition, athletic skill, ethnic pride, sporting excitement and religious fervour. Grasslanders congregate both to participate in religious ceremony and watch (and often place wagers on) racing events that call for the riders not only to race but also display horseback skills such as shooting bows and picking up ribbons from the ground. Long haired riders, often looking like members of a heavy metal band, on wild looking, prancing, ribbon decorated Tibetan Ponies mixed into a canvas of religious banners, red-robbed monks, Tibetan woman in their finest, Khampha men proudly dressed in traditional regalia – a magnificent visual event. The excitement and competitiveness generated by the events sometimes leads to scuffles and argument over results, and the gatherings have also been the scene for political rallies – troubles during 2006 and 2007 led to a long official ban but in recent years officially sanctioned races have again started. Today’s event maybe a little more institutionalized and scripted than the more traditional version of just 15 years ago – but at their heart, the colour, excitement and ethnic pride of riders and spectators, still represent the true grassland spirit of the Kham.
The races are held during the first week of August and other, unofficially organised, races maybe be found at nearby grassland locations.
At 4,000 m in altitude, 350 m higher than Lhasa, Litang ranks as one of the highest towns in the world and it’s important that a road journey from Chengdu allow for a sensible acclimatization process. A couple of day’s stay at lower sites such as Luding (1,600 m) and Kangding (2,600 m) are a good solution. Once you driven west from Kangding,, over Zhedou Mountain, you will be on the plateau and remain at altitudes over the 3,000 m mark and, for most people, already past the comfortable acclimatization point.
Daocheng Yading
Yading is a nature reserve and tourist park set in an area of outstanding alpine scenery – forest, snow topped mountains with peaks reaching the 6,000 m mark, flower pastures, glacial lakes – where all can be explored through a network of walking trails. Daocheng, 80 km away, is the nearest town, containing hotels and other tourist services, and is the usual port of entry for those making a trip to the area. There is also accommodation at Yading village, from where a park bus transports you to the trail heads. The park is at elevations around 4,000 m, which means that visitors, especially those considering hiking, should be aware of potential altitude problems. Appropriate acclimatization is recommended. Forty km outside Daocheng is Daocheng Airport, which gives the quickest access from Chengdu. However, flying into Daocheng, which is 3,750 m in altitude, gives no chance for acclimatization and for some visitors can lead to initial discomforts – usually in the form of headache and nausea.
