Escape from Shangrila

I am going to write a travelogue of on a Autumn trip from Chengdu to Daocheng-Yading. This idea of the trip is initialized by my girl friend. She read about Daocheng on the net and decided to go to the last Shangri-la. It turned out to be one of the best decisions we have ever made. The trip itself is an adventure, let along the beautiful scenes we saw in the Tibetan area. I didn’t thought about recording the jorney, until I read Chan Joon Yee‘s Almost Shangrila. Given I am very busy at day time and seldom can I find some time to sit down to write, the progress may be slow, and some times I may pause, but I will have a try.

Before I begin, I quote my email to one of my friends here. You may get some idea about trip in advance.

We were thinking about go to Jiu Zai Gou, but due to the national holiday, we decided to go further so it will not be so crowded.

Daocheng is very far from Chengdu. We took 3 days + almost two nights to get there. Sometimes we arrive the place we live (no hotel there) after 2:00 AM, sometime we need to start as early as 5:00 AM. Four-ladies Mountain is on the way of our first day trip. It looks very nice. I have decided to separately go there someday.

We stayed the first night at Xin Du Qiao and arrived in Daocheng the second night. The village of Yading, where the snow mountain pictures were taken, is another 110 KM from Daocheng. The road condition is terrible, the maximum speed for the bus is about 20-30 KM/hour.

Even Yading is not the end of the journey. The next morning, we rode horses to march toward the top of the mountain. It is the first time I ride a horse for the whole day.

Compared with Jiu Zai Gou, the area is completely undeveloped. There are no roads, no water, no electricity power, no house, and no food. We use horses as transportation tools, we used candles, we lived in tents and we brought rice, oil and vegetables from Daocheng county to the place we stayed. Beside the unbelievable beautiful scene, it is an unforgettable journey itself.

5 thoughts on “Escape from Shangrila

  1. What a great site! I really enjoyed your photographs of Daocheng. If I may express my self in Chinglish, you are a Lao Shi photographer. Was that understandable? =)

    I’ll come back and explore more another time.

    Zaijen!

  2. Mark, thanks for your good comments. Daocheng definitely worth a try. The holy mountains are splendid, as you can see from the pictures.

    May I correct your Chinese PinYin spellding.

    1. Lao Shi Photographer is understandable. It may mean master photographer. However, we don’t say it that way. It will be “Dao Shi” photographer, which means master. “Lao Shi” means mentor.

    2. Not sure if you mean Zaijian by Zaijen – “good bye”? There is no word like Jen in Chinese.

    Hope it helps.

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