{"id":37612,"date":"2025-12-15T23:05:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=37612"},"modified":"2026-03-10T14:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:27:17","slug":"day-11-sichuan-china-national-highway-318","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2025\/12\/15\/day-11-sichuan-china-national-highway-318\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 11 @ Sichuan – China National Highway 318"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 the country’s longest highway that stretches 5,476km from Shanghai to the Nepal border; and it was only starting yesterday when we began traveling on G318’s most famous segment: the Sichuan and into western Tibet segment, and the landscape \u2014 especially from an aerial view \u2014 is vast. Large sections of it are desolate aside from the occasional passing vehicles. The altitude of this segment is routinely between 3,500m to 4,100m.<\/span><\/p>\n

We had four stops in today’s journey, a couple of which I can’t quite figure out the names of: but one is the Nimagong Service Area, and another at the Balang Sightseeing Platform that provides a clear view of Balang Snow Mountain. Sadly, the aerial videos of the mountain were lost: I did an 8 minute video but for some reason it didn’t successfully get recorded onto the MicroSD card. Gaaah.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n