Keshik Adventures

 ★ In to the Nomadic culture - west Sichuan 9 days

Difficulty: Moderate

Before the first empire, there was a huge nomadic group herding on the western highland of China called Qiang. During the long history of fighting and communicating, Qiang people were separated into different parts; Some of them mixed with Hua people and Chu people and formed the major group of China: the Han. Some of them moved south along the great rivers like Mekong, Yangtze, Salween, and mixed with local groups and formed vast minorities; Some of them stayed in the mountains and kept their faith and legend, and are nowadays called Qiang; Most of them are still herding on these grasslands, called the Amdo Tibetan. They are the most heroic people in western China…

This trip starts from Chengdu, then heads north along the Ming river. We will visit the present-day Qiang, Gyarong Tibetan, and Amdo Tibetan. Late June may be the best time to go as it has the best colors, the best flowering season, and the chance to experience traditional ceremonies.

Here is the day by day itinerary:

D1, Group meet in Chengdu

We will cycle in Chengdu, and relax in a traditional tea house.

D2, Chengdu—Gu’er

We will drive out of the heavy traffic section all the way to Wenchuan (140KM), start cycling along a tributary of Ming river, and visit a Qiang village called Taopin. Taopin has some amazing stone watch towers that have been standing for thousands of years. They were built up to provide defence from their enemy  known as the north nomadic cavalry. We will keep on cycling to Gu’er, and stay in a hot springs hotel.

D3, Gu’er—Hongyuan

The valley is still beautiful today, but it will end very soon as we cycle into grassland after crossing a 4KM long tunnel. We will see nomadic tents everywhere, nomads herding their yaks and sheep, as well as flowers blooming. It’s a great view when we cycle up to the watershed of Yangtze and Yellow river, but you need to be careful as dogs may attack you at any time. Hongyuan means “red land” because the Red Army had crossed the grassland, and also because of thousands of soldiers dying there during the Long March. “Their blood made the land red”.

D4, Hongyuan—Tangke

On the way to Tangke, we will cycle the major road to visit a big monastery of the Red sect. It’s a huge one with lots of big stupa. Tangke is on a big bend of the Yellow river. It used to be a very famous grassland which had the best destrier. Nomads that live here are very proud of their horses.

D5, Tangke—Aba

We will take a dusty back road deep into the grassland and visit the most traditional nomads tents. People seldom speak Han Chinese but they are very friendly. We are welcome to be their guests. Aba is a religion center of the Amdo nomads. There are 52 important monasteries in this county. We will visit a couple of them, and we will have the chance to be guests of a living Buddha.

D6, Aba—Rangtang

It’s a long riding day but the landscape is very amazing. We will climb up to the first mountain pass in the morning so that we could see the whole holy town in the golden sunshine. Wild animals might cross the road at time because they have no sense of traffic rules. The road keeps going with the head water of Dadu river. People live along the river make a living by part herding, part farming and part gold mining. They believe a very old branch of Tibetan Buddhism calledJolang sect.

D7, Rangtang—Markang

We will cycle out of Rangtang where there is a unique Jolang sect monastery. There are four square towers standing around the prayer hall. Monks built the towers for storing Buddhism sutra. You can’t see towers like this in any other monasteries in the Great Tibet. Markang was the base of a Tibetan warlord. From the vestige of his palace you can tell how powerful he used to be.

D8, Markang—Chengdu

   Markang is the end of the nomadic culture. We will drive back to Chengdu today. In the evening we will go and enjoy the Sichuan Opera called Face Changing.

D9, The trip ends, departure, and fly back

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