Musings

We’re finally coming to an end of the Western Sichuan segment of our trip. We said goodbye to Danba River Valley early morning and drove in an easterly direction the 112km to the Mt. Siguniang Scenic Area, where we’d be

We continued towards Danba county after leaving Tagong Grassland, and the two hour drive from there took us on roads through tight valleys with towering mountains on both sides. We reached Danba just after noon, and were treated to a

Day 12: We left Xinduqiao this morning and continued driving northwards another 150km to Danba County, an area deep in Tibetan valleys. Early on though, we stopped by Tagong Grassland, a vast high-altitude plateau known for its stunning natural beauty

Day 11: we checked out of our Litang accommodation early morning and started on another long drive of 200km towards Xinduqiao. We’d already been traveling on the famed China National Highway 318, or G318, for several days now. G318 is

Day 10: we had a major change in our itinerary: after the physically exhausting trek through Yading Nature Reserve yesterday where the wife and son really struggled along the trail at 4,000m altitude, we dropped the second day visit to

We stayed at the Daocheng Jifeng Hot Springs Resort Hotel from Days 08 to 10: our fourth hotel so far this trip, and also the only one so far that has all the trappings of a modern 4 star establishment.

Day 09 turned out to be the most physically strenuous day so far in this trip: our planned itinerary allocated 1.5 days to Yading Nature Reserve, a Tibetan plateau sanctuary in Sichuan. You know the area itself is huge when

One request we had with our tour planner months ago was to minimize — as far as possible — the number of times we’d be changing accommodations. That was a pretty tall request given that the two provinces we’re touring

Day 08: we checked out of our accommodation in Dukezong Town early morning and left Yunnan for Sichuan province. This was going to be a long butt-hurting 8-hour/320km drive northwards. Our local driver was super skilled as he took us

The short version: if you only had a day to spend in Shangri-La, visit Balagezong National Park first. And if you have a second free day, allocate it to Tiger Leaping Gorge, horse riding at Napa Lake — and squeeze

Our heads still bopping a bit from riding on horses, we next continued onto Pudacuo National Park. This park is famous for its two high-altitude lakes: Shudu Lake and Bita Lake. I didn’t take many pictures inside the park itself,

We had just two activities for Day 06 in Shangri-La county today: visiting Napa Lake (also known as Napahai Nature Reserve) in the morning, and Pudacuo National Park in the afternoon. Napa Lake is a vast grassland surrounded by mountains.