Zhongdian to Feilaisi

This is the first post in a series of 4. Mum and I hired a 4wd for a four day journey from Zhongdian (I refuse to call it Shangri la now I think I've seen the 'real' Shangri la...see day two for that!) in a loop to Lijiang. This route is undoable by public transport, and goes through remote valleys.

So on the first day we drove north to Feilaisi, which is near Deqin. Our driver, a Naxi lady from near Zhongdian was great! We were glad to have a woman, who drove at a perfectly safe 30km per hour (not too slow on those roads!), and took all the bends very carefully! We were driving over a mountain pass, (Baima Xueshan), which was at 4000+ meters, but the altitude was fine as we came back down at the other side.

At first we were going along the 'Golden Sands river' Jinsha jiang, which is the beginning of the Yangze river. We saw a boat or two, strapped into the middle of the river (which is unnavigable up there as it flows too fast and has rapids) panning for gold. The water was this amazing bright blue green colour.

We stopped for lunch in Benzilan, a Tibetan town by the river and ate Yangze river fish, I had the unhappy pleasure of picking which fish would be our lunch! The one the guy wanted us to have was way too big for us to eat! In Benzilan they were growing grapes in the little arable land they had terraced- the French were up here in the 1800's and taught the locals to make wine and now they make it all over this Tibetan region.

The mountains we went through were amazing- snowy and beautiful, and high! We weren't really cold either, as the sun was shining brightly. Got a bit sunburnt on my face as the UV level was high up there. Passed lots of chortens along the way and prayer flags.

The most amazing mountains were the ones we didn't pass through, but could see just across the valley from the village we stayed in at night. ..Which incidently had a power-out the whole time we were there, so no electric blankets for us, (there wasn't any heating anyway). The village had an amazing panorama of the Tibetan holy mountain Kawa Karpo, which has never been climbed (19 people died on an attempt in 1994), the mountain of the female spirit Miaciamu (or Shen nu in Chinese), and dozens of other peaks going all the way across the horizon. The other side of the mountains is Tibet, and to circumnambulate the mountains you have to get Tibet permits. It takes 12 days, and would be an amazing walk.

The evening we arrived we just sat there staring at the mountains, till it got dark and cold and we went inside and slept in all our clothes under three blankets.

We had amazing luck with the weather, as the mountains are often shrouded in cloud, but we got amazing vistas. Sunrise onto the mountains was beautiful- the clouds played games with us, giving us glimpses of these snowy peaks behind. There were tibetans burning juniper bush to the mountains, a couple of Chinese photographers and us- definitly the low season, due to the cold- but winter skies tend to be clearer.

As it got warmer and the sun came up, the clouds cleared completely and we had complete views over the mountains. We went for a walk, and then drove to some other view spots, but eventually we had to leave the mountains behind. I felt quite sad to leave the mountains behind. But it was a bit cold to stay longer up there, especially as the electricity showed no sign on coming back on! (At least everyone had gas cookers!).