Monday, April 28, 2014
It was a cold night as our hotel room did not have any central heating and the outside temperature must have been around 5ºC (40F), or maybe even lower. Fortunately our beds had electric blankets, which meant we were warm during the night. It has been many decades since we have slept with an electric blanket. For breakfast we headed directly to Khampa Cafe for a lovely morning latte before hitting the road to Danba. We had a short driving day and it was nice to have a later start (9 am).
The road to Dānbā was still at elevation and the terrain was high alpine with little trees and bleak grassy hills. The hills were covered with a dusting of snow. This really is a harsh land and it is hard to imagine what it would be like in winter. The roads are so steep around these parts that many of the trucks have sprinklers fitted over the wheel hubs to keep them cool by spraying water as they descend. It seems they spray water even when the outside temperature is near freezing point. This practice meant we were extra concerned that the roads might be icy, and took it very easy on the way down. Once we started to descend the temperature started to rise and the sun made an appearance and we had a very nice mornings drive.
Just after 12 noon we got to Dānbā and the Jiaju village, which is billed as the ‘prettiest Tibetan village in all of China’. As with most steep and winding roads in China, the road to Jiaju village was under construction. We crept our way up the hillside and were rewarded with lovely views of the village and the surrounding valley. We did a little wandering around so we felt like we had got our money’s worth. Entrance fee was ¥30 per person (USD$ 5). Our short visit did mean we could have lunch at a reasonable time back in Danba proper.
After lunch we headed to Xiǎojīn via the Qiang towers. These watch towers were built between 700 and 1200 years ago and served several purposes including the signaling of would-be-attackers. We took some happy snaps from a distance before we continued the last 50kms to Xiaojin. And what a magnificent 50kms they were. Without exception, the scenery was the best we had seen. We hugged a river as it cut its way down the mountain. On each side were towering cliffs and lush green forest trees. It was raining a little and the mountain tops were covered in mist, all of which gave the entire scene a mystical magical fairy-tale feeling. The road down the gorge was in excellent shape, except for one very well hidden and brutally effective car stopping speed bump, that we and the others all hit at speed. Sterlin, Ivor and Kuipwagen fortunately all survived the encounter.
Xiǎojīn for some strange reason was not on our GPS map. Strange because it is quite a sizable town (population 58,000). Lun had not stopped here before, so it took a few attempts before we found hotel that fit our needs. The internet in our hotel was a challenge to catch and involved wandering the halls in search of a signal. So, email and blog updates were delayed. And although China is very modern, it turned out that it has been the hardest place of all the countries we have visited so far to get internet.
Dinner was Sichuan noodles which are typically quite spicy, but the restaurant gave us a break and we had the “no spicy” version as we are tourists. Just as well really. It turned out to be quite a long day, but quite enjoyable nonetheless.
