If your primary task is to heal your soul, this route is absolutely a good choice for you to heal yourself. It spans for 3306km via train or 2078km for a straight drive journey, so you can relax your senses in right under a week (taking halts, if you do have time). If you feel you can’t wait to enjoy the beauty of the 318 southern route, you would better choose the road trip, as it only takes 43 hours.
When you pass by the cities around Sichuan-Tibet highway southern route, you can see the most beautiful and hidden part of the route. Tourists are attracted by the scenic beauty and they go to visit various elixirs of soul such as: Danba, Tagong Temple, Xindu Qiao (photographers paradise), Ranwu Lake, Bomi,Nyingchi and of course the land of amazing beauty - Lhasa.
Prayer flags might often be seen all the way on the road when you travel. It is not true to believe that these prayer flags enchant the prayer to the almighty. That’s not the significance of the flags. It’s believed that the goodwill and compassion from the prayers and mantras will be spread into all the creatures in the space by being carried by the wind, so as to bring blessings to every being. With this piece of information, now let’s have a look at the highlights of this journey:
You may think it’s an unattractive riverside town in the bottom of a deep valley at first, but once you walk down the road, you can see Jiaju Village. Standing on the viewing platforms and seeing all around the place, your senses will be unlocked by enjoying the beauty of pleasant natural landscapes that you have never seen. When you peep through the walnut trees leaves, which opens out to a beautiful architecture, you can see an amazing glimpse of attractive Tibetan houses. It is worthwhile to walk for a couple of hours amidst the loosely scattered houses straight uphill. It is believed that the descendants of Genghis Khan live in the village. The best time to visit this place is during summer months.
Danba county is about 340km from Chengdu which takes 6 hours and 45 minutes by car or 4 days’ trek. S211 and S303 are the two provincial roads passing Danba county. Besides them, there are many routes that can get to Danba. You can choose either Chengdu Danba route via Jiaju Tibetan village or if you want to trek or stay at Dangling or Mosika, you can choose another lengthy route. If you are photographers, a beautiful route is reserved for you via Jinchuan and Zhonglu village.
There’s a Danba village called Suopo Village. It has towers of stunning shapes and people there live a farm life. Suopo Township is around 5 km southeast of Danba. It comprises of some villages standing on the slopes of the mountain with a face towards west adjacent to Dadu River Valley. Natural Bonsai of Danba East valley is famous for the scenic irregularity of hues. The hues merge and contrast the snow which covers hills and can be seen from the valley amidst. Numerous brooks are formed from stream of waterfall, which has a beauty unseen and a sooth to eyes of the beholder. As the water here is very clean and pure, one can see their hands through the water even if put their hands in the lowest regions of the flow.
Mo’erduo Mountains of the Danba Valley is the place where you can feel a full sense of peace. When you notice the mountains surrounded with clouds, they seem to transcend themselves slowly as if blessing and wrapping around the population with some undefined infinity of solace. The monasteries here have numerous metal prayer wheels, on which there are some Tibetan prayer lines. It is believed that rolling around the metal prayer wheels in a slower pace is very auspicious, because people can feel the irregularities of the carved notions that has some deep religious implications (Most of them being golden in color) when they are rolling around the wheels. The place also has various “stupas” with golden top that adds beauty to the sculpture.
The Tagong Temple or Lhagang Gompa is a typical Tibetan monastery with incense sticks’ smells within. Thangkas and monks in the monastery always dress in carmine robes. Painted walls and statues in it are marvellous, from which you can feel and see the spirituality of Tibetan people. This monastery has an extremely rich history. There are series of concentric rings in the temple, and the outermost part of them faces the Chinese Tang Dynasty's Empire, from which Princess Wencheng (Songtsen Gampo's bride) is believed to be welcome by Tibetan people. The distance between Danba and Tagong Temple is around 110km, which is a 2 hours’ journey via Bamei.
There was a larger geomantic architectural scheme meant to physically define place energy of the metaphorical body of the Tibetan plateau, and theses temples were part of it. People can see the statue when they enter the monastery and they can also see hundreds of people make pilgrimages to it during the winter months.
During the winters, tourists travel on the road from Xinduqiao to Tagong can see people making pilgrimages with their full body prostrating the entire way up, which attracts a lot of people who are interested in history. If you want to see relics, you can look upon the monastery from any hilltop over the city, then you can see a lot of interesting stupas housing relics in the back courtyard. This route remains its beauty throughout the whole year.
Xinduqiao is at an altitude of over 3000 meters, where quiet stream runs gently over the grassland. It is 33km away from Tagong and people can get there via the provincial highway S303. In the backdrop of winding ranges of snow-capped mountains, the pagodas and temples stand still there. The view that fields of corps and herd of Tibetan buffaloes stand beside the Tibetan style houses and enjoy the abundant grasses is as beautiful as a fairy tale.
Xinduqiao is not only a good spot where you can get to all sort of directions by using different modes of transportation, it is also a famous shopping place where you can buy delicious food and beautiful clothes. Villages and landscapes can be seen in all the four directions when you move out the town. That’s why it was given the name "photographers’ paradise". The best time to visit this place is from May to November. If you stand far away from a pile of cypress poplar, you can see the eye-catching dazzling sunsets are very attractive. After passing through the grove, there’s a river trail. The sky darkened, but with cattle grazing around, the scenery is still extremely impressive.
Keep travelling ahead for a while, what you can see is a cesspool. But with a small mangrove, the whole scene is unexpectedly beautiful. Standing on the platforms, photographers use lenses to reveal the mysterious scene far away. Across the hills there are yak herders. Wild yaks are weirdly finding their own survival. Maybe it is because there is no sunshine or something else that strange smell from the yaks gets thicker and thicker, which haven’t been discovered yet.
It would be better to go to Ranwu lake at night. Visitors can enjoy the beauty of the moon and numerous shining stars, feel the majesty of the snow-capped mountains and the buried impulse of silence all the way on the road. Ranwu lake is known for being located not far away from the Sichuan-Tibet highway. As the trip there can be best enjoyed only at night, people should stay nearby Ranwu Lake during the daytime.
It would be an exhausting journey to travel from Xinduqiao to Ranwu Lake, as the distance between them is a lengthy 937km, which is about 20 hours’ drive. The lake, the mountains, the peaks that shine, and the small village on the lakeside as well as the Tibetan who believe in hard work are epitome of the indispensable beauty there. Go and live there for a while, you will not be regretful for it. If you want to do so, autumn is the best time for you to come.
he distance between Ranwu to Bomi county is 127km. Visitors can get to Bomi from Ranwu via the national highway 318. The most pleasant time to visit Bomi is summer. As travelling is an important part of the history that unfold the mystery of the land of China, Bomi is believed to be the “seat of quasi-independent kingdom” since early 20th century.
As tribes in acient times wanted to extend the boundaries of Bomi county, people in Yarlung Valley, Beyul and Padma bkod have all experienced the struggle of living. And finally Beyul (hidden lands) was acquired in the prophecy of a historian named “Guru Rinpoche”. The “klo pa” tribes were successful in extending their powers to Doshong La pass and Padma bkod (Lotus array, a neighboring region of the north Eastern Province of Upper Siang, Arunachal Pradesh, India).
If you still can’t make a summary from all sorts of undulating geographical places that you’ve travelled, Nyingchi in Tibet (China) may be a good choice for you. The magnificent snow-covered sunrises there can turn the peaks of NamchaBarwa Peak into a glistening unusual golden colour. The sharp edgy rocks of YarlungTsangpo Grand Canyon open the door for studying the mystery of mother earth’s variations over the world. It not only attracts a significant group of visitors, making great contribution to the local tourism, but also reveals itself to the researchers and students who study geo-science as well as biology of the area.
Basumtso lake is the alpine that stands approximately 90 kilometers west to Gongbo’gyamda County. The distance between Bomi to Nyingchi is 157 km. It is the Sichuan-Tibet highway that connects the two places. The Nyang River is another must-to-see attraction in Nyingcchi, because visitors can see all kinds of wild animals are living there. No matter whatever has satisfied your searching for natural beauty on travelling, you can never get enough natural beauty from Nyingchi.
You can see a more beautiful Tibet during spring. When you go to visit Nyingchi this time of the year, you will feel you are embraced by peach flowers in the place. Therefore, Nyingchi Peach Blossom Festival is held to celebrate the gift of nature. Tourists can enjoy the peach blossoms, experience the horsemanship and taste local cuisines during the festival. If you want to join and celebrate the festival, you can come here between March 15 to April 20.
The distance between Nyingchi to Lhasa is 399km, which is about 7 hours’ drive. Tourists can also go to Lhasa by Tibet train from Nyingchi. Peak tourist season in Lhasa is from May to September. One of the most significant place to visit in Lhasa is definitely the Jokhang Temple, which is next to Potala Palace. It is at the centre of the old town and a mass of pilgrims are constantly moving around the temple, so this region is specially monitored. Jokhang Temple is the oldest monastery in Lhasa and it has three floors. The first floor consists of the oldest buildings, the main assembly hall, a courtyard and the kitchen. The assembly hall as well as the main central part is fascinating because of the rooms with their own unique aura and followers.
The Barkhor Street area is the last sanctuary to the Tibetans in Lhasa. Traditional souvenirs and Tibetan crafts are displayed in the shops in the Barkhor street. When tourists were wearing short sleeved shirts, those who are twirling prayer wheels at a clockwise direction around the monastery were wearing several layers of clothing, which is too much.
Visitors can be happy when they stand on Barkhor street, which has free entry all around. Beautiful shops are everywhere on the street, selling beautiful jewelry especially stone jewelry which attract the shoppers. There is a temple in the very centre of the street, attracting lots of visitors all the time. Visitors can also buy drinks and food everywhere in the street.
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