Day 10 - Straight on through to Pomi

After our uneventful evening in Dzogang, and after reading nothing special about Rawok (the planned next stop on our itinerary), we decided to make a change of plans, and go through Rawok, and spend the evening in Pomi (also spelled Bomi) instead. In retrospect, I’m glad we did!Today the landscape started out vast and frozen, before we headed over another high pass, at 4618 meters.



We stopped in Pasho for lunch, which was a cute little town, a welcome change after Dzogang. It was relatively clean and we met some very friendly and curious teenagers.



After Pasho, we saw some pilgrims on the road. They had sold all of their wordly possessions, and had already been prostrating (touching head, mouth, heart, and then spreading prone on the ground, after every single step) for 7 months, starting near Sichuan province!

They have over a year left to go to get to Lhasa. They were super friendly, and we felt a tremendous amount of respect and awe towards them.



We then passed through Rawok (the town we were originally going to stay in). Not much going on there - although there was a pool table!

We passed Ngan-tso lake, a holy lake with beautiful blue waters, and met some friendly kids.

We finally arrived in Pomi. This is a fine place to spend the evening, with a lot of restaurants (Chinese and Tibetan), bars, and even 2 internet cafes, in a beautiful setting tucked between snow capped peaks. We spent the evening in “Bar”, drinking beers by the 55-gallon drum turned into a wood stove, and watched VCD music videos.

Day 9 - Yanjing to Dzogang

Today was a long driving day - from Yanjing to Dzogang. There was a lot of construction, so the going was really slow. We had to move some rocks from a landslide out of the way ourselves at one point.
Both local Tibetan villagers and Han Chinese help build the road - they work 7 days a week, from sunrise to sunset, and its dangerous work. Apparently it pays better than farming, however.
We stopped in Markham for lunch, a rather quiet larger town. It was cold and rainy, and a few of us were feeling sick, so we had some soup and hit to road again.

We passed many quaint Tibetan villages and farmland, and the landscape turned more red and dusty.



We stopped in a few villages to chat with the local kids, who were as everywhere, super friendly and curious.

We crossed Dongda Pass, the highest pass yet on this try - 5008 meters!

We finally arrived in Dzogang just before dark. Not really much good to say about Dzogang - it was a Chinese military town, and had a very tense vibe. That was the only town where the police thoroughly checked our passports; and there were police and military everywhere. It was also cold and rainy that day, which didn’t help the atmosphere. We had some dinner, stocked up on some thermal underwear, and called it an evening.

Day 8 - Yanjing

Today was a drive along very twisty, narrow dirt roads, perched on the edge of thousand foot cliffs. For someone freaked out by heights, this drive is probably not for them! Fortunately our experienced drivers did an excellent job of navigating the sketchy terrain.

We stopped by some small towns and passes along the way, marveled at the landscape, and participated in the traditional rituals.



We arrived in Yanjing - the first town we were to stay in officially in the Tibet Autonomous Region!! We first filled up on jaja noodles, which literally means “add add”. For a few Yuan, the server puts a small amount of yummy, hot fresh noodles into your bowl. As soon as you finish them, she immediately runs over and fills it with another batch. Our guides said you’re supposed to eat 40 bowls! After about 15 bowls, I tried to make them stop, but the woman kept on refilling and refilling the bowl. Our driver even stuck out his hand, and the server went underneath to fill the bowl!

One interesting thing about Yanjing, is that they have the one and only Catholic Church in Tibet. It was started by French missionaries in the late 1800’s, and much of Yanjing still practice.





Another interesting thing about Yanjing is their source of income - salt production. There are a few wells near the river, fed by a hotspring. For centuries, people in the village have built small ponds on the cliffside out of wood and clay, and they pour the well water into these ponds. The clay filters out the water and by products - and they’re left with salt!

We asked a woman working there how long the village has been using that particular well - she laughed, and said “Well, about 800 - 1000 years” (!)

One positive aspect of the Chinese invasion in 1950 may be education. Even in this small village, all of the children are sent to school, and educated in Mandarin and Tibetan (although unfortunately to a lesser degree). These kids were hitching a ride from their village up the hill, so we gave them a ride.

We had dinner in town, where it’s typical for you to go into the kitchen, and pick out the food you want from what’s on display:

Yanjing is a small quiet town, so we rested up and prepared for the next part of our adventure - to Dzogang!

Day 7 - Zhongdian to Dechen

The next day, we met our new Tibetan local guide, Pempa - and our 4-Runner drivers, Tenzin and Pu-pu. Our destination was Dechen (Diqing), China. On the way, we stopped by 2 relatively unvisisted monasteries.

It was interested to see that in the first monastery, one of the temples had a picture of the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso! It was my understanding that pictures of the 14th were banned; however, our guide explained that in Yunnan province, pictures of the 14th Dalai Lama are tolerated.
The other monastery we visisted, Tundrup Ling, was set high upon the edge of a cliff on the way to Dechen. The setting was gorgeous. This monastery was clearly rarely visited by westerners, and we got some surprised looks. Actually there weren’t many monks here, apparently they were on holiday (and indeed, we did see some monks in their crimson robes shooting pool the next town up).

On the way to Decen, we climbed over our first 16,000+ foot pass. We could definitely feel the altitude.

The pass, as many others we were to see, was covered in lovely prayer flags. According to Tibetans, if you put the flags at the highest pass you can find, the wind will flutter the flags harder, and the more the flags flutter, the more your prayers will be heard.





Another distinctive feature of Tibet we began to see as we got closer were the many stupas throughout the countryside. They are a symbolic, holy symbol, and Tibetans burn incense in them and pray.

We finally arrived in Dechen, and very small trading and agricultural town in a pretty setting. We relaxed the evening away playing pool - the locals were laughing at how poorly we goofy foreigners were playing!

Day 6 - Tiger Leaping Gorge to Zhongdian

Those of us not too tired from the previous days hike (I won’t name names)  spent a few hours in the morning, hiking from Tina’s Guest House down to Tiger Leaping Rock.This was another beautiful hike - on average, I’d have to say the scenery was even better than a lot of the previous days hike, because it covered more vertical terrain in a shorter distance.







A few hours later by minivan, we arrived in Zhongdian. This town was actually renamed to “Shangri-La” by the Chinese, presumably in attempt to bring in some more tourism dollars. It is indeed a pretty town, but I’m not quite sure that it lives up to the name Shangri-La. I was told, however, that in May/June the flowers cover the mountains and it’s much more beautiful.
Zhongdian does have a nice Old City area, with a lot of restuarants, shops, and nightlife. This was the first town where we encountered the strong Tibetan culture, with giant prayer wheels, and, every evening in the town square, a dance takes place.





The Tibetan dance is particularly intriguing. It takes place in every downtown square, every evening. Every walk of life participates - young, old, male, female, professional, farmers, etc. The picture below is the evening dance from the newer part of the city - there were absolutely no tourists here, and they were surprised to see me there - but as in every part of Tibet we visited, everyone was extremely friendly.

Day 5 - Tiger Leaping Gorge

We departed Lijiang well fed and rested, prepared for a nice long hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge. The scenery from Lijiang to the gorge was beautiful - snow-capped peaks set against the lush green farmland of the Naxi people.

Having backpacked in the Sierras and Northern California, I thought it would be a walk through the park - it was actually a bit more challenging than I anticipated, and would have been much more challenging if we did the entire length in 1 day! (we opted to cut it short by a few miles because it was getting dark).



Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the world’s deepest gorges. Our hike was along an upper trail, and was pretty much the entire day - there were a few hours of climbing, then mostly up and down. Just the right amount of physical activity to be challenged but not exhausted. The views were beyond compare - to see from the river to the top of 18,000+ foot mountains surrounding us was stunning.



We spent the evening at Tina’s Guest House - an perfect place to spend the evening, a few thousand feet up, right in the gorge - and excellent food with a sweet back porch with rocking chairs. We spent the evening drinking beers, and Karsten found a guitar and strummed song after song as we tried to “name that tune”.

Day 4 - Lijiang

The Old Town of Lijiang is a World Heritage Site, and one can understand why after wandering around the streets. The city has a history going back more than 800 years. Early in the morning is the best time to explore - wandering around the quiet cobblestone streets, you can really appreciate the centuries old architecture.


The twisty streets climb up the hill, where there are some great views of the tiled rooftops, and one of the many bed and breakfasts on the hill would be a great place to spend the night or watch the sunrise.

After a morning of exploring the Old Town, we walked a few minutes down the road to Black Dragon Pool Park. This was a lovely park in a beautiful setting. Harry and John got blessed by the Naxi monks who live in the park, and they had some interesting Dongba artifacts and art in the museum. We spent a couple hours just wandering around the lake, and found a nice teahouse next to the lake to enjoy some tea and cold beer!



We wandered around the newer part of the city a bit, and then later that even, we caught a Naxi musical performance. The Naxi are an ethnic minority in China, and you can see a lot of their influence in Lijiang area, with their unique dress, language, temples, and art.
Naxi music is over 500 years old, and we were told that there are (3) reasons people like Naxi music: the age of the instruments; the age of the musicians; and the unique style of the instruments. Note that love of the music is not one of the reasons!  Not exactly my style of music, but it was an interesting show to give a listen.

We finally returned to our hotel (San He Old City Hotel, pictured below) ready for our journey to Tiger Leaping Gorge the next day.