On Location June 06 – China

Starting in Chengdu, home of the Panda Breeding Research Institute, I travelled west climbing through mountains and mist. Passing through a road tunnel near the mountain's summit the weather suddenly changed: the sun shone through the clouds sending bolts of light below us illuminating the small villages in the valley below.

I descended to the small town of Kanding and continued on to Tagong passing through the town of Luding where the Red Army had chased the Nationalist Kuomintang during the race for power in the 1940s across the swinging chain suspension bridge.

Tagong is delightful. At dawn, looking down from the hotel terrace to the street below, I saw Tibetans walking in all their finery, young girls riding horses to school and a girl holding a flag at the entrance to her school welcoming students for the day's classes. Tagong has both a monastery and on the outskirts a nunnery. The monastery was home to about twenty orphans who were delighted to see themselves featured in the small screen of my digital camera. Their smiles, laughter and looks of astonishment were in stark contrast to their serious faces the following day when I returned to see them all dressed in crimson robes, squatting on the floor, rocking back and forth, chanting from long horizontal parchment scriptures.

Visiting the nunnery, I was lucky enough to come across a nomadic family on the move between pastures - the children were riding two to a horse, followed by the adults on foot and a heavily laden yak carrying their possessions. The hillsides around the nunnery were completely covered in fluttering pink prayer flags, testament to their faith. Fortunately no religious acts were taking place that day and I was allowed to go to the sky burial site. The eagles, however, thought otherwise as they hopped impatiently, clearly unhappy that they had been disturbed.

Litang, a town on the edge of a large flat valley, also has a monastery - religion is a way of life. However, it really comes alive in late July when the horse festival takes places. People come from all over Tibet to take part in the races and buy and sell horses. They set up small encampments and stay for a week or more. This area of Western Sichuan and Northern Yunnan receives relatively few visitors and those that do come usually come for specific events, although this area is fascinating at any time. It is almost more Tibetan than the Tibet that most visitors see.

A two day walk in the Yading National Park was stunning. I walked up to a pass of 4,700m, with snow covered peaks rising up around me and frozen lakes below. The temperature was sub-zero, but this did not seem to bother the pilgrims doing the Kora, a walk around a scared mountain, who were dressed only in robes and doing it in a day!

Travelling out of Sichuan Province meant following the road along the Yangtse River before crossing it and heading upwards yet again to a mountain overlooking the river. Here I had a magnificent view of the first bend of the Yangtse and what an impressive site it is.

In Benzilin, the first Yunnanese town of any significance that I passed through there were the remains of ancient earthen defensive towers. Yet, I was more interested in a more recent legacy - the viniculture left behind by the French who were here in the 1920s and 30s.

There was one more opportunity to do some walking near the town of Dechen, a large town for the region and one that had a distinct Chinese design but was full of local Tibetans. Leaving Dechen behind, I continued to the small village of Minyong, from where I walked to the Minyong Glacier, a journey that can also be made on horse. Standing next to the glacier you can hear the ice cracking and the small pebbles rolling down into the crevices. Every now and again an avalanche would come tumbling down the side of the mountain being channelled into narrow ravines before sliding to a halt on the valley floor.

My journey ended in a town claiming to be the mythical Shangri-la, Zhongdian. Although there is a modern Chinese town, the old Tibetan quarters are a delight to wander around. Old men and ladies dance in the main square. A giant prayer wheel, which takes several people to turn it, dominates the skyline. The major site here is the Monastery which many people say resembles the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Whatever the myth there is a touch of Shangri-la about the place.