Trip to Kangding

Kangding is situated at 2600 m (about 8500 feet) above sea level in a narrow valley at the confluence of the Zhedu and Yala Rivers. It's a small city of 82,000 population, really a small town by China standards, although it's the political center for the Ganzi-Tibet Autonomous region as well as being the local county seat. The mountains rise incredibly steeply, and we keep seeing peaks above the ones we thought were the tallest as we look around more and when the clouds recede. There's one of over 7000 m elevation around here, although I don't think we've seen that yet. After enjoying a few days at our very comfortable accomodations 4 km north of town, we moved to a room across from the bus station in preparation for our 6 AM departure for Garzi and even higher elevations tomorrow. Lynn and Jamie returned to Chengdu today, and we will miss having them as travelling companions.

We hiked a ways up the Paoma Shan (running horse mountain) where we learned the procedure for visiting a Tibetan Buddhist temple, greeting the Buddha, circling the temple three times clockwise, and placing the incense. We also threw prayer papers off the mountain,

They were blowing the big horns and beating the drum which was kind of a kick. We also found the Anjue and Nanwu temples south of town, two centuries-old lamasaries that require finding steep side roads off the main highway and walking through alleys past houses with large Tibetan dogs (fortunately the active ones have all been chained up, so far). The efforts were well worth it. At the latter, the monks were rehersing for some kind of performance accompanied by drumming and blowing of the big horns. At the latter, inside one of the temples, we got to watch about a dozen monks executing a sand painting.

Our culinary adventures continued in the form of being treated to dinner at another local Tibetan restaurant by Lynn's uncle. Here we got to eat excellent yogurt, true butter tea, and yak meat right off the bone by hand. The dinner also, of course, included many toasts with the local barley liquor. It turns out that each restaurant, and home, makes their own, so it tastes different everywhere, and we won't be able to buy a bottle to take home.

We also spent one evening with Lynn's friends at a Tibetan dance hall in town. It is impossible to describe this in terms of anything within my experience. Lonely Planet says "Traditional Tibetan and Chinese songs, including the famous Kangding love song, are performed to ear-splitting techno beats and appreciative audiences." That's part of it. Jacob and I were persuaded to go only because we were assured there would be beer to drink. There was one beer choice -- Budweiser -- and this was warm. You drink the beer in small glasses with toasts for the guests, the hosts, friendship, love, and whatever else was being said. Our hosts purchased a song dedication to us, and so, at one point, the Chinese and Tibetan scroll above the huge video screen turned into English, for us, and said "Welcome to Kangding."

The Kangding market is in stalls along the river. One interesting item is big hunks of yak from which they slice whatever piece the customer wants. For some reason, each of these has a mass of hide, witht he thick yak fur, attached. There is also a section featuring the many kinds of mushrooms that people collect in the mountains around town. Tomorrow we leave at 6 AM for what we were told will be a 12-hour bus ride.