Thursday, October 04, 2007

Deqing: The other Shangri-la

Andrea and I left Zhongdian and are now in Deqin. Its a smaller town in Northwest Yunnan Province as close to Tibet as Andrea and I could afford to be. You need to get a permit to travel in Tibet and it costs several hundred dollars, so this is good enough for us. Since the whole county has been named Shangri-la, the small towns in this area have all been claiming to be the actual Shangri-la. Though I really like this town, it’s a bit too small without all the amenities that I was getting pampered with down in Zhongdian, so I can’t quite put the name of Shangri-la on this town. But of course the whole reason for coming here was to avoid the potential crowds that we’d encounter at every other major tourist attraction because of Golden Week. This is one of three week-long holiday given to the Chinese in the year. This one is for National Day, commemorating the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1 1949.

Fei Lai Si

We stayed at Tashi Lodge, which was located about 6 km from the main part of town. At first I was concerned that we would be so far away from the center of town, but when we arrived in Deqin, I was very happy to not have to stay there. The place looked more like a truck stop town and reminded me of Mairana, the town I lived in for 2 years in Bolivia. I’m sure this town has some character, but its a bit it’s not exactly the character that I was looking for on this trip.

We managed to squeeze in a hike to a nearby glacier. I’m sure it was the altitude and not that I’m out of shape that made me lose my breath and struggle to make it up to the top. The hike was just a bunch of switchbacks heading straight up the mountain. I was passed by a number of people on horses that are rented out for the less than fit and I have to admit that I was tempted to jump on one. But we pushed on and enjoyed the view then had to try to keep our knees from giving out on us as we hiked all the way back down.

Hiking in Deqin to Mingyong Glacier

Hiking in Deqin to Mingyong Glacier



As a treat for finishing this grueling hike, I got to break out the Mexican chocolate that I had been traveling with. I had originally wanted to get up early one morning and milk a yak and use that for the chocolate. But had we done that, Andrea and I wouldn’t even have been able to make one cup of chocolate. So we split the cost of two liters of regular cow’s milk with our fellow guests and indulged in the delicacy of Mexican Chocolate….mmmm so tasty.

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