Glimpse of Ganzi, Sichuan

[lestwe4get]

Traveled to Ganzi in May 2002 and 2005. Ganzi is rich in Tibetan culture and is the gateway to Tibet (several entry points) and also, to Yunnan on the south.

The first trip mainly covered Xinduqiao, Daocheng and Yading while the second trip covered Xinduqiao and Jiulong. Getting there on backpacking basis is not difficult at all. For instance, take a bus from Chengdu to Kangding and from there, travel arrangements can be made easily; IE get a 4W drive with driver, or take a bus to the respective places or making combination of both.
Xinduqiao
#1 & 2

#3 & 4

[lestwe4get]

#5 & 6

#7 & 8 (Daocheng)

[lestwe4get]

#9 & 10

#11 & 12

#13

[Ecclesiasm]

Beautiful captures!

#6 and #13 are my favourites!

[asterixsg]

bro,
you seem to have done a fair deal of backpacking to a number of places that i hope to travel to

nice photos. my favourites are #6, #9 and #13.

[lestwe4get]

Thank you Ecclesiasm and asterixsg for comments.

Yes, it's look like we all have the same interest and loved to backpack and rough it out.

Yading
#14 & 15

#16 & 17

[johnmaeda]

Really nice place. I too hope to go to such places.

But the colour of the grass in #10,11,12 seems over satuarated???

[lestwe4get]

Originally Posted by johnmaeda Really nice place. I too hope to go to such places. But the colour of the grass in #10,11,12 seems over satuarated???

Thank you for comment. Perhaps you are right. I am not sure about it too. The photos were taken on film and scanned by the photo processing shop. In those days, they were quite expensive and the results were not that good by today's standard. Apart from that, I did some minor adjustment and could have overdone it.

[zoossh]

Originally Posted by asterixsg bro, you seem to have done a fair deal of backpacking to a number of places that i hope to travel to nice photos. my favourites are #6, #9 and #13.

at some point of time, i think we can try to travel there together. i'm interested in szechuan, which seems more enticing in terms of landscape as compared to yunnan. this place are so beautifully done by lest and the photographic yield seems great. plus the point of easy backpacking and seemingly less touristy are just right for me.

lest, it is may and there are still snow on the mountains. how's the temperature at that time where you shoot?

[zoossh]

Originally Posted by lestwe4get Thank you for comment. Perhaps you are right. I am not sure about it too. The photos were taken on film and scanned by the photo processing shop. In those days, they were quite expensive and the results were not that good by today's standard. Apart from that, I did some minor adjustment and could have overdone it.

i think it is more true for #13. the mountain grey-brown are really hazy but the crops are lush green, so discrepancy is kind of more obvious.

[lestwe4get]

Thank you zoossh.

Sichuan still have a lot of places to explore. For instance, Ganzi's DaoFu (道浮), for scenery and rich Tibetan culture. Also, BaZhong's 光雾山, famed for autumn. Do a search and check it out there. These are my wish "visit-list", apart from Fujian's 霞浦.

Back to the temperature, reckoned it was +10 (+/-3) with the sun, otherwise, it was probably sub zero on nightfall. Daocheng and Xinduqiao is just below 3,000m altitude while the Yading's base camp is 4200m with the mountains ranging well over 6000m. During late spring (early May), there will be some occasional rain and when it happens, it will be snowing on higher altitude area. At around 4000m, the snow will stay a day or two then start to melt away. Much depends on the altitude and snow-line level which differs between region. In Europe, all year round snow can be seen at 3000m but this is not the case in this part of China.

Expect a tough full day journey to get to Daocheng and also, have to cope with altitude changes, as it climbs up and down through the mountain range. The rewards - very scenic/rugged mountain view along the way. It takes another 4-5 hour to get to Yading and accommodation is local Tibetan guest house. From base camp, hired a horse (with the owner pulling/guiding the horse) to get to the "milk" lake at 4800m. Get back to Daocheng and enjoy the only one shower facility available which is the public hot spring "house". Things must surely improve by now as during my second trip, I was approached by the locals providing transportation service in the town street of Kangding and Xinduqiao.

Daocheng ....
#16

#17

#18 & 19

[lestwe4get]

These film photos were processed/scanned by a lab in Chengdu.
Xinduqiao (May 2005)
#20 & 21

#22 & 23

#25