A little aside, before we get into the travel stories of the last four weeks: it has been pleasantly mind-blowing to experience the 'gifting culture' in China. We have visited large cities with populations in the millions, small towns and remote villages in this vast country, travelling over snow-covered mountains in Han Chinese, Tibetan, Christian and Muslim areas, diverse in food, culture, religious beliefs and even in the way people look - but one cool thing we have found common to all is spontaneous and frequent gift-giving from people we meet and from complete strangers. We have been given gifts of fruit, cakes, nuts, sweets (on buses, trains and minibuses), pocket tissues in corner stores, extra food (even entire meals), drinks and desserts in restaurants, taxis, buses and trains. And Dave is often offered cigarettes by men (and it's always men) who're very disconcerted when he refuses the gift - men in China smoke like it's 1979.
29 April - 1 May: "Shangri-la, not that much of a Shangri-la anymore, but pleasant enough place to acclimatise to the altitude"
Last year a devastating fire destroyed much of the Shangri-la's old (wooden) town which is now being rebuilt. The Chinese attention to aesthetics in their building facades shows in this rebuilding process so while the new Shangri-la won't have all the charm of old, it should still be beautifully rendered, once complete. Although a pleasant enough place to visit, it is hard to see what the 'Shangri-la' myth is on about - we wouldn't necessarily rate it much above the other sort-of-nice, touristy places to visit like Dali or Yangshuo. Overall it was just a comfortable place, with great Tibetan food, where we could acclimitise to the chilly weather and high altitude and wait for our Chinese friends who were going to be joining us on our big hike around Meili Snow Mountain. Tibetan food is hearty and wholesome, perfect for warding off winter chills. It is largely centred around meat pies (mostly yak meat), dumplings ("momos"), meat broths and noodles and was some of the first rice-free meals we'd had since starting our China travels. Some interesting additions included 'yak yoghurt deep fried in batter'.
2 May - 3 May: "Spectacular sunrise over Meili Snow Mountain in Felai Si"
We headed off towards Meili Snow Mountain with our friends, Monster and Lihaoqi, following behind us on their motorbike. This year is the Chinese Year of the Goat and the year that Tibetans believe the beautiful Meili Mountain was "born", so an important year for Buddhists to make the pilgrimage to circle around it. The circumambulation, known as the Kawa Karpo, crosses six mountain passes, some over 4000m above sea-level, and takes 8-12 days depending on how fast you walk. By doing the Kawa Karpo in the Year of the Goat, Tibetans gain a bonus 12 Kawa Karpo credits - in other words doing it once this year is equal to the spiritual act of doing it 13 times in other years.
The town of Felai Si is a common place for hikers to begin the walk. If you needed any proof of why Meili is considered holy by Buddhists, you only need to see sunrise over its majestic, glacial peaks. Hundreds of people gather every freezing morning, lighting incense and offerings at the temple and stringing long ropes of prayer flags in front of the stupas. Melodic chants waft over the spectators as the sun rises revealing the magnificent, jagged mountains deeply covered in snow and glaciers. To date these peaks have never been summited despite numerous fatal attempts. The Chinese have now banned the climbing of these peaks in deference to Tibetan religious sensibilities.
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| Making dinner with Monster and Lihaoqi |
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| Sunrise over Meili snow mountain |
4 May: "Midnight walk along mountain precipice to Yubeng"
The following day, we were ready to get going with extra fleeces, thermal underwear and a minus 30 degree sleeping bag added to our backpacks. Our friend Monster insisted that the remoteness of the hike required us to carry a tent, two sleeping bags, pots, a cooker, food and cooking fuel for 10 days. Because our internet research found that this was really not necessary, we protested but Monster won the argument and with us being perpetually confused as to how things work, we went along with it. Dave and I would have 13 and 9kgs respectively to carry in our backpacks, on a 12 day walk over mountain passes of more than 4000m above sea-level. It was very, very hard... I now have renewed respect for my own physical ability!
Our walk was to start at midnight climbing to over 3000m above sea-level in moonlight along a path cut into steep mountain precipices. Any potential vertigo was reduced perhaps because we couldn't see the sheer drop down into the Mekong River in the dark! The details of why we started the walk at midnight is a story probably best told once we get home...
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| Hiking to Yubeng |
5 May - 6 May: "Yubeng village, surrounded by holy snow mountains and glaciers"
The eight hour grueling hike up to Yubeng ended as we emerged from the forest to the sight of a paradisical village at the foot of a looming snow-covered mountain. Throngs of Buddhists pilgrims pass through the village throughout the summer to pay homage to the holy waterfall further up the valley.
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| Path to Yubeng |
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| Yubeng |
7 May: "Family meal and overnight rest at Ninong"
After recovering from the walk up to Yubeng village and enjoying some walks around the area to pretty waterfalls and grand ice glaciers (albeit in a mild hail storm), all adorned in Buddhist prayer flags, we headed back down the mountain to carry on the walk around Meili. We said goodbye to Lihaoqi who was returning to university and we slept the night in a homestay in the pretty village called Ninong nestled above the Mekong river.
8 - 9 May: "Waiting for a Buddhist sister to start the Kawa Karpo Holy Walk in Yuling"
Our next stop was at the end of a relatively easy 5 hour walk to Yuling town where we waited for a new friend - Fiona, a Buddhist 'sister' also doing the the Kawa Karpo pilgrimage - to join us. Because of the significance of this Year of the Goat, thousands of (mostly Tibetan)worshippers will make the pilgrimage this year, some kowtowing and completely prostrating themselves on the ground literally at every second step they take over the 150km hike (really, we're not kidding). Yuling was only remarkable in that our hotel had satellite TV but no toilet - one had to walk 5 min down the road to use the disgusting public toilets...
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| Epic Chinese road-building |
10 May: "First day of Kawa Karpo hike"
The walks we'd done in the past few days, while spectacular, were not normally considered part of the Kawa Karpo pilgrimage and so this was to be our first proper day of the holy walk. The four of us (including Fiona and Monster) headed into the remote forested and mountaineous terrain that is the homeland of the hardy Tibetan people. The walk on this day was easier than the hike to Yubeng but would by no means be called considered 'easy'. We camped in tents in a little, nondescript village, in an open field where a few cows munched solemnly on their dinner and an icy river wooshed nearby.
11 May: "Walk to Doker La base"
The following morning, we were feeling strong... muscles a little sore but we were managing well. The walk started in thick, fragrant forests through which we climbed to the base of the infamous Doker La mountain pass. We camped amongst nomadic yak herds, bathed in glacial river water, enjoyed the open-air 'toilet' vistas, and huddled around a fire while eating a dinner of whatever meat and rice Monster managed to hussle off the local Tibetans. It was blissful.
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| Filtering water en route |
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| Camp at base of Doker La pass |
12 May: "Over Doker La pass, deep snow, icy mountain precipice and hanging on for dear life"
Although the altitude and the weight of our backpacks were starting to take their toll, we set off like troopers to take on the Doker La mountain pass. By lunchtime we were panting up the steep forest climb, our lungs moaning in the thin, oxygenless air. We had expected to come to the top of the mountain pass after about four hours, however, what awaited us in the forest clearing at this false zenith was instead a spectacular view of the actual mountain pass looming straight ahead! The main path up Doker La was inaccessible due to deep snow so we had to make our own path up rocky ridges, steep scree slopes and snow covered paths that climbed to 4478m above sea level. We contemplated the two hours of our lives that lay ahead of us, chewing on life-giving Snickers bars (for some reason this is the only brand of chocolate in China), and watched a column of Tibetan pilgrims steadily snaking its way up the mountain, usefully marking out a new route we could take.
We swung our heavy backpacks back on and headed onwards and upwards. After a difficult couple of hours up precipitous, pathless rock slopes we neared the prayer-flag-decorated summit only to find that we had to trudge through knee deep snow in wholly inadequate shoes... but at least we'd reached the top - we'd beaten Doker La ...or so we thought...
The exhilaration that is the hiker's reward at the summit of a steep climb rapidly evaporated as we looked on, ashen-faced, teeth chattering, snow falling steadily... at the steep snow and ice covered slopes that we now had to descend on the other side of Doker La... Ironically, 'Doker La' means 'Stone steps to heaven' - but passing through these pearly gates was certainly not looking like a particularly inviting prospect... But there was no turning back, no hailing a cab and no way out but to haul @ss.
We pulled on whatever layers we could find in our backpacks - extra socks, hats and gloves. The two hours that followed proved the most physically challenging ordeal we'd ever encountered - bar none! Every step had to be gingerly tested for slippery-ness of the ice or depth of the snow that could, in a misstep, mean a deadly tumble down the mountain. After 30 minutes and really at the end of our energy reserves, we found some ropes hanging from embedded rocks intended for pilgrims to use and we started to bounce down, commando-style: backpack on, one hand on the rope, sliding down the ice and snow, trying our best to grip the roaps with frost-bitten hands. It was hell. Below the snow-covered part of the mountain side, the slope turned to icy, slippery scree, no less daunting but at least the slope was gradually becoming less steep.
Finally, after a total of 10 hours hiking, we reached the bottom: the guys looked flushed, on an adrenaline high while the two girls burst into tears. Monster gave Dave a puzzled look: "What dis?", referring to the tears. The girls just sobbed that they were tears of joy at having survived. "Man, woman different", Monster muttered, shaking his head incomprehensibly.'Well, you need both...", said Dave.
We had some more Snickers bars to celebrate our survival and then, utterly exhausted and frozen, we wobbled the last hour or so into the camp. When we arrived, we were aghast to find a number of little old Tibetan ladies, some bent over from osteoporosis, who looked at least 70 (in the shade) and who had formed part of the party of pilgrims we had seen ahead of us going over the mountain pass earlier in the day. They were cheerfully soaking their feet in buckets of hot water, looking bright eyed and bushy tailed and making room at the fire for us bedraggled lot ... Geez, Tibetans really must be the most hard-core people on earth. We would have kowtowed at their feet in appreciation of what the human body can achieve in its advanced years, if they did not already look confused and a little alarmed at our very presence in this remote place through which there is no way in or out, except by hazardous foot paths. Since they are traditional Tibetan mountain people, on their first Kawa Karpo, it is probable that our sorry mugs were the first foreign ones they have ever seen.
By crossing Doker La we had left Yunnan province and were now officially in Tibet... without the required special government permit that is impossible to get... more about that to come...
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| Oxygen was lacking at this altitude |
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| All day hiking straight up into the snow line |
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| On top of Doker La pass |
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| The danger zone, one slip on the ice = death |
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| We made it! The route we climbed down from Doker La in the background |
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| The old Tibetan ladies who climbed down the same route |
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| View from our night camp |
13 May: "Beautiful forest walk"
The next day was mercifully easier as we hiked through lush, scented forests over a low pass and then down to the pilgrim's camp along a gushing river. At this point we began asking about how we could get around the police checkpoints coming up in the next days. As mentioned before we were in Tibet without a permit. Some people suggested the possibility of paying someone to take us by motorbike at night to avoid the checkpoints... so we slept that night pondering the next move...One thing we knew was that we would not return to Yunnan province over Doker La!
14 May: "Overnight stay in Abing, a little Tibetan village"
The next day was another huge hike with a solid 6 hours straight up through forest where we summitted to breath-taking 360 degree views of snow mountains surrounding us. Then it was another 3 hours of toe-bruising downhills to the beautiful village of Abing.
On the outskirts of the village we negotiated with some rough Tibetan lads to take us by motorbikes that night around the police checkpoints. The price was high and as we investigated further we found that there were now additional checkpoints that would be difficult to bypass and so we decided to take our chances and hand ourselves over to the police to see what they had to say...
We walked into Abing, a lovely Tibetan village on the edge of high cliffs surrounded by 'Highland Barley' fields. While we toasted our hiking accomplishments with hot tea and the first meal that did not consist of instant pot noodles, an excited posse of policeman arrived - the news that a couple of foreigners were roaming around Tibet having reached them. We assured them that we were happy to move on in the opposite direction by vehicular transport (!) back to anywhere in Yunnan province that did not involve walking back over Doker La. They were somewhat consoled by this and instructed us to appear at the police station the next day and so we carried on with our meal. After a welcome wash-up in the modest facilities of our guest house we got ready for bed when another party of excited polidcemen burst in, obviously not having heard from their colleagues who had visited us earlier and we had to go through the whole confused discussion again, (which carried on in loud Chinese that we didn't understand) with Monster stoutly protecting us and explaining that we would be trying to head back to Yunnan province in the morning.
Anyway, in the end it was fine: they put it down to confused foreigners not knowing any better. The following morning all was well and we were treated like special guests by the cops: they helped us take farewell pictures with Fiona and Monster (who would be carrying on through Tibet to complete the Kawa Karpo), treated us to lunch and arranged a 4x4 private vehicle (at no cost to us) to escort us out of Tibet (there is no public transport in this remote area), which was really what their main concern was, and at the end of it all we were treated to drinks and a mutton hotpot dinner by our escort.
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| Typical Tibetan home, Abing |
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| Abing village |
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| Typical Tibetan home, Abing |
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| Abing village |
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| Abing village |
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| Some of our fellow hikers on pilgrimage |
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| Hanging with the police while being evicted from Tibet |
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| Having lunch with the guy who gave us a ride out of Tibet |
15 - 16 May: "Recovering in Bingzhonglou"
The escort back to Yunnan province was no hardship - we got to see the spectacular, lush Nujiang Valley and were able to recover from the gruelling hike in the pleasant farming town of Bingzhonglou.
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| Bingzhonglou |
17 May: "Starting the 2-day mission back to Felia Si to get our stuff - overnight stay in Dali"
18 May: "16 hour overnight bus to Felai Si",
19 May: "Reconnecting with Fiona in Felai Si - at the end of her Kawa Karpo"
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| Final view of the epic Meili Snow Mountain |
20 May: "Passing through Shangri-la, Tibetan food and live music and then back on our way"
After the sojourn in Bingzhonglou, we now had to double back to Felia Si, where we had started the hike to retrieve the stuff we had left behind to lighten our hiking backpacks. Because we couldn't go through Tibet to retrace the 150km route back, we had to take a long, circuitous route around the myriad of mountains in this region which entailed two full days of continuous overnight busses, mini-busses and taxis. But at the end of it all, we had a happy reunion with our hiking buddy, Fiona, who was glowing with the achievement of having completed the Kawa Karpo. To celebrate we met up with some of her friends in Shangri-la who treated us to a feast of Tibetan food and traditional live music.
21 May: "Xiangcheng, a modern Tibetan town"
It was time to leave Yunnan province where we'd spent the last 6 weeks and head on to new frontiers. We were ultimately heading north and west towards Central Asia, but we still had a long way to go so we couldn't mess about too much. The following 10 days were a hard but fascinating travel through the Tibetan wild west of dusty trading posts, modern towns (a city-planners dream) nomad camps, and villages with stately farming homes. Our first bus took us into Sichuan province past more magnificent mountains into the neat, comfortable town of Xiangcheng. There we spent the evening hours people-watching in the town square where dozens of people were doing the synchronised dancing that can be found in every Chinese city.
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| The backroad from Yunnan to Sichuan |
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| Xiangcheng |
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| Enormous traditional Tibetan houses |
22 - 23 May: "Litang, trading caterpillar fungus in a Wild West Tibetan market town"
The next day was another long bus trip across more 4000+m passes into the frontier town of Litang. This is a dusty traditional trading town, where Tibetan nomads come to stock up on supplies in the summer months and sell their collections of 'Catepillar Fungus.' We'd heard about the phenomenon from an Indian friend years ago and had seen a TV documentary mentioning it but were not prepared for the size of the impact it has had on nomadic and farming societies in the region. The fungus, which is an expensive Chinese and Japanese medicine, is found only at altitudes above 4000m, in areas that belong to the nomads, and can be sold for anything from R40 - R1000 per gram, depending on quality. It grows wild and the picking is a free-for-all, causing many to abandon farming and the activities of a nomadic way of life for the easier living afforded by picking these mushrooms. No-one could tell us what it is used for but everyone's in on it...the market areas teem with wild west Tibetan cowboys, fresh off the mountain, their long hair rolled up in weird and wonderful hairstyles, carrying woven baskets filled with the fungus.
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| Tibetan nomads with their caterpillar fungus |
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| Caterpillar fungus negotiations |
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| Litang town |
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| Funny translated shop names in Litang |
24 - 25 May: "Bus rides you don't want to end, on the way to the Kangding Festival"
The rest of the onward journey was just beautiful, mountain passes with nomads grazing their bountiful yak herds on the steppe below. The antics of these long-haired, frizzy-permed bovines-with-dreadlocks, bounding up and down steep scree slopes can certainly give their slow, blank-faced, glassy eyed cow-cousins back home something to ruminate about. Yaks prance around energetically, making the most of their few summer grazing months with their fluffy babies in tow. Some of the newborns have warm blankets strapped around them to protect them from the chilly morning and evening air. While some Tibetans are nomads, many are also sedentary farmers, who grow mostly 'Highland Barley'. The homes these farmers build are just awesome; villages that lined our bus journey were a riot of intricate wood carving and delicious Hansel and Gretel coloured mansions. You just didn't want these bus rides to end, they were so beautiful.
When travelling by bus around Western China one cannot help but be blown away by the achievements of the Chinese road-builders who have constructed tens of thousands of kilometres of perfect four lane highways on icy cliffs and tunnelled through endless mountains. Cape Town's much heralded Chapmans Peak Drive and Hugenot Tunnel are embarrassingly modest in comparison.
We spent two nights in the valley city of Kangding where we attended the annual Kangding festival and then we headed off again to Seda, to see the largest religious institution in the world.
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| Cultural festival, Kangding |
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| Audience at festival, Kangding |
26 May: "First-hand experience of the Chinese infrastructure boom in a 6 hour stop-go roadbuilding wait on the way to Seda"
The bus ride was tough, on bad roads and with a six hour stop-go road-building wait after which we wondered whether the monastery we were going to see would be worth it... (we have already seen many monasteries and temples elsewhere). This area had been recommended to us by some Chinese backpacker friends so we were off the guide book routes again and had no idea what the accommodation and transport options around the area would be.
We arrived in Seda late, hungry, exhausted and had to spend (not a small amount of) time looking for reasonably priced accommodation that was open to foreigners and hoping we would still find a restaurant open in the little town at close to midnight. Anyway, we managed to figure it all out and crashed out for the night. In a few, random Chinese towns an old law that requires foreigners to stay in only specially registered hotels is still enforced. This leads to a rather frustrating search for a hotel which will accept Laowais (foreigners) - with no apparent pattern as to why this law is still enforced as their is no noticeable difference in quality of the permissable hotels. Fortunately, some hotels just accept you (and your cash) and ignore the law...
27 May:"Surreal Monastery town of 20,000 Buddhist monks and nuns at Larung Gar"
The next morning, after some confusion of course, we made it to the monastery town of Larung Gar - and boy was it trippy! The town is made up of 20,000 Buddhist monks and nuns who live there permanently to learn scripture and worship at the temples, making it the largest religious institution in the world. Everything moves at a surreal pace with round-chinned, chubby monks and smiling shaven-headed nuns floating about in their maroon and mustard flowing robes. Buddhist chants piped through load speakers waft all day over their little make-shift dwellings, which seem to have no other earthly requirements except for being painted maroon too.
After a simple lunch of noodle soup surrounded by novice monks we headed off to try and find the Sky Burial site which was about an hour's walk around the other side of the mountain. To find the site, we followed the flight path of the vultures overhead. What a thing to witness... hundreds of fat vultures covered the hillside overlooking the burial rites: human bodies offered to the sky, to become one with these majestic creatures and soar away over the mountain tops. After the birds have fed, efficacious monks chop up the human skeletons and make sure all the bits are consumed. At the site there are statues celebrating the importance of the mountains, birds, wolves and snakes in the religion's burial rituals and a temple lined with human skulls is open for worshippers to pay their respects.
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| Larung Gar monastery |
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| Tibetan sky burial |
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| Tibetan sky burial |
Larung Gar monastery - view from above
28 May - 29 May: "Big bus, taxi, mini-bus mission to Yushu, a city completely rebuilt in 4 years"
After Larung Gar, we kept moving north and east along hair-raising roads cut into steep cliffs and over yet more snow-covered mountain passes until after 14 hours in four different vehicles we reached the province of Qinghai (where the current Dalai Lama was born). What many people don't realise is that the majority of Tibetans don't live in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) but in fact, since ancient times, live in the neighbouring provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and Qinghai. This is mainly due to the very difficult living conditions in the TAR due to extreme cold and altitude.
We stayed in the city of Yushu, fascinating for its recent history. In 2010, Yushu was completely flattened by a devastating earthquake. Four years later, it is completely rebuilt as a modern city sporting a huge town square and a massive statue of the mystical King Gesar. All buildings - homes and businesses - were rebuilt by the government free of charge.
While in Yushu we visited the Jiana Mani mound which is a collection of 2.5 BILLION Mani prayer stones - apparently the biggest collection of human anythings anywhere...
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| Yushu |
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| Memorial to Yushu earth quake victims |
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| Jiana Mani mound |
Before leaving the Tibetan heartlands, we forged on into the remote county of Nancheng, where few foreigners explore. The main town is nothing to write home about and its hotels are noteworthy only in that virtually none of them (except for one or two expensive ones) have showers or baths of any sort(!). The surrounding areas were breathtaking though and took us into beautiful, traditional villages. Communication was even more complicated than usual: in remote Tibetan areas, people speak very little Mandarin and since we don't speak any Tibetan at all and they don't speak any English at all, communication consisted of our broken Mandarin with their broken Mandarin(!)...sometimes with rather jumbled results. We did a daytrip to Juela Si - a paradisical village in a remote mountain valley.
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| road to Juela Si |
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| road to Juela Si |
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| Juela Si |
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| Tibetan dogs - beware! |
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| Juela Si |
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| Yaks |
31 May - 2 June: "Overnight bus to another pleasant Chinese city, Xining"
The next stage of the trip on our northerly route was to the provincial capital of Xining, another comfortable Chinese city. We village dwellers really like the cities in China! They are well-organised, clean, have fantastic public transport systems, families are out in the squares dancing, eating and socialising well into the night, and the abundance of good food was a feast after our long, hard travels. Xining is a melting pot of Tibetans, Muslims and Han Chinese which unlocked new, delicious food options - especially meat pastries and wraps as well as home-made yoghurt. We also got our first taste of the legendary sweet melons from the deserts of Xinjiang.
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| Xining - a pretty, well-organised city |
3 June: "Train stations that look like airports and the high speed train, due west, out of the snow and into the desert in Urumqi"
After Xining, it was onto our first high-speed, bullet train experience, away from the Buddhists and due west into the desert and largely Muslim, Uighur province of Xinjiang. On the way we passed thousands and thousands of giant wind turbines and solar farms.
In 2014 alone, China installed 20 GW of wind turbines (for South Africans that is four Medupis or equal to half of South Africa's total energy production from all sources) and 10GW of Solar (two Medupis). This, along with the output of the incredible Three Gourges Hydro-electric scheme, resulted in China's CO2 emissions actually falling in 2014. The significance of this achievement in the battle against climate change cannot be overstated: previously it had been expected that China's emissions would only begin falling in 2030. If China can stabilise their emissions at current levels they will have set a new benchmark for the world in terms of emissions per capita while still maintaining a middle class standard of living for its citizens.
China has a number of Muslim ethinic groups - up until now we have met mostly Hui Muslims who are an ancient Chinese-looking group who are spread out throughout much of China and who are fully integrated into Chinese culture. The Uighers, on the other hand, are mostly located in Xinjiang province and look more like their neighbours the Central Asians. Xinjiang has had political instability in recent times with separatist terrorists attacking Chinese people both in Xinjiang and famously in a brutal mass knife attack in Kunming train station a few years ago. As a result,the police and army presence in Urumqi and surrounding cities is quite high with lots of security checking of passports and scanning of luggage when using buses.
The BRT bus system in Urumqi is incredibly efficient - if only South Africa's BRT ran like this!
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| Xining train station - like an airport |
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| Inside the bullet train |
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| View from the bullet train |
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| Thousands if wind turbines in the Xinjiang desert |
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| Urumqi |
In Urumqi we are attempting to organise the notoriously complicated Central Asian visas for Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. So far, after 3 rounds it is:
Visa Demons 3 : 0 Dave & Rejane ...but we're not defeated yet! ...that's visas for you...
While fighting the notorious Central Asian bureaucracies we are enjoying delicious Uigher food which involves lots of lamb pastries, Pilau rice and BBQ'd meats. We're also enjoying the long days... a funny Chinese quirk intended to emphasise to the restive Uighers and Tibetans that this is one country is that there is only one timezone in China when there should in fact be five timezones... So long lazy evenings until 10pm to recover from fruitless hours spent in visa queues.
Next stop Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan or Kazakhstan or whoever the hell will give us a visa!!
