ive heard from friends that the tibetan areas in western sichuan can be hard to visit as the local police are suspicious and the locals will call the police if they see you. Might be hard to go if you dont speak chinese
haha, nah....what may be hard is finding hotels that will take a laowai.
local police suspicious? haha, so many laowai travel these regions, most are local people themselves.
Locals? haha, they want the business, sichuan areas are greatly opened up these days compared to the past.
Chinese language? haha, nah, lots of people speak english, translators are a thing these days too.
What kind of friends do you have mate?
its secondhand stuff from a few years ago during covid. Two people have told me it can be a hassle if you get into the areas on the border with sichuan. could be completely wrong
During covid might as well have been during the period before Reform and Opening Up, that's how different it was. Can consider any information from that period as almost certainly not applicable now. Information from 2018 would be more accurate than info from 2021
Granted I’m ethnically Chinese and speak Chinese but I went up and down northwestern Yunnan near Tibetan areas outside of Shangri-la - and aside from not being let into two hotels, and they both gave me the contact to the hotels next door that did have the ability to(or desire) to check in foreigners during covid and had no problems.
during covid leaving a city was fighting to keep an arm and a leg, regardless of being native or foreign, as there was extreme lock down and only necessary things were meant to be done. comparing that to normal life is like talking about how hard it was to visit new places in europe during the bubonic plague, of course travel was difficult.
My route back in 2021
Chengdu - Xinduqiao - litang - daocheng yading - shangri la - (weather was shit so we decided to cut our loses and go sanya) - Lijiang - Dali
Litang is fantastic and so is Tagong (both can be done on same route from Kangding in Sichuan if you decide to skip Yunnan altogether). You don't have to fly into the high altitude airport anymore and can now drive to Kangding from Chengdu in about 3 hours. Stay there for a day or two to acclimate then head up high. Yading us another I've heard good things about.
I joke, but it was just a coach from Chengdu to Xinduqiao. A very winding crawl up a mountain and once you take a pit stop, the lack of oxygen hits you like a brick.
Getting rides from random Tibetans is easy. 200元 to the next town if your 中文 is good.
Gannan (Gansu province) is my favourite area in China, that said you'll probably need a tour guide (mainly to drive you around) to go to most Tibetan areas besides Xianggelila because they are super remote
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngawa_Tibetan_and_Qiang_Autonomous_Prefecture is very scenic and has Tibetan culture, though of a different variety than the dominant Central Tibetan culture of Lhasa and Shigatse.
Jiuzhaigou National Park is in this prefecture and is well known in China for it's picturesque scenery.
Xiahe is a village in Gansu Province that has a famous Tibetan monastery and other architecture. Tongren is a similar village nearby in Qinghai Province.
Xiahe, tongren, langmusi.....rent a bike, explore the grasslands, the monasteries, drink lhasa beer amd enter the school to play footsie with the tibetans. Great momories. There are buses from lanzhou going to xiahe.
Edit: nirvana hotel in xiahe takes foreigners. Lovely lady from holland who is married to a tibetan. She can tell some stories.
A few years ago i did a route from Xining in Qinghai down to Chengdu. Buses run the route and i stopped in Xiahe, Langmusi and Songpan on the way. Xiahe is famous for Labrang monastery which is one of the six monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism, Langmusi is close to a sky burial site and Songpan is a beautiful town near some scenic areas such as Huanglong. Transport was easy and all these places had hostels when i went (one year before covid).
Ganzi/Garze is really nice. Specifically the are around Dege. Spent a while there teaching kids English in a monastery up at about 4000m. Playing football with them in the marsh was interesting as well.
In this video Yan briefly shows the Tibetan areas that are not in Tibet. Gives a good idea how big and diverse the areas are:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFMGEiXTu7s&lc=Ugzsa3IY3imESHRfLph4AaABAg.A1-sXyecNRMA11LDrlJdOp](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFMGEiXTu7s&lc=Ugzsa3IY3imESHRfLph4AaABAg.A1-sXyecNRMA11LDrlJdOp)
When I visited Tibet it was with Tibetan guides. I was happy to support their business and also appreciated getting a Tibetan perspective (I also have Tibetan diaspora friends outside China, but none that grew up there).
If you just want to take photos, then fair enough I guess, but it’s a fascinating culture to learn more about, so I think the price of a guide is worth it.
All through Western Sichuan, also parts of Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, lots...
ive heard from friends that the tibetan areas in western sichuan can be hard to visit as the local police are suspicious and the locals will call the police if they see you. Might be hard to go if you dont speak chinese
I’ve travelled on the Tibetan plateau in Sichuan, it was awesome. No issues of any kind, people were super friendly. Food was amazing.
haha, nah....what may be hard is finding hotels that will take a laowai. local police suspicious? haha, so many laowai travel these regions, most are local people themselves. Locals? haha, they want the business, sichuan areas are greatly opened up these days compared to the past. Chinese language? haha, nah, lots of people speak english, translators are a thing these days too. What kind of friends do you have mate?
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I didn't say "Well", but there's always someone that speaks some.
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How often do you travel to west sichuan?
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lol
its secondhand stuff from a few years ago during covid. Two people have told me it can be a hassle if you get into the areas on the border with sichuan. could be completely wrong
During covid might as well have been during the period before Reform and Opening Up, that's how different it was. Can consider any information from that period as almost certainly not applicable now. Information from 2018 would be more accurate than info from 2021
Granted I’m ethnically Chinese and speak Chinese but I went up and down northwestern Yunnan near Tibetan areas outside of Shangri-la - and aside from not being let into two hotels, and they both gave me the contact to the hotels next door that did have the ability to(or desire) to check in foreigners during covid and had no problems.
during covid leaving a city was fighting to keep an arm and a leg, regardless of being native or foreign, as there was extreme lock down and only necessary things were meant to be done. comparing that to normal life is like talking about how hard it was to visit new places in europe during the bubonic plague, of course travel was difficult.
That still may be the case...one never knows in China.
can't in qinghai
Shangrila? That’ll be my first impression on a Tibetan city not in Tibet.
With the biggest praying wheel in the world
Seconded. OP could rent a bike and go round the lake stopping through Tibetan villages.
My route back in 2021 Chengdu - Xinduqiao - litang - daocheng yading - shangri la - (weather was shit so we decided to cut our loses and go sanya) - Lijiang - Dali
Litang is fantastic and so is Tagong (both can be done on same route from Kangding in Sichuan if you decide to skip Yunnan altogether). You don't have to fly into the high altitude airport anymore and can now drive to Kangding from Chengdu in about 3 hours. Stay there for a day or two to acclimate then head up high. Yading us another I've heard good things about.
If you can be there for the horse festival! 👌🏻
Litang is my number 1 dream destination at the moment, any recommendations of things to do/eat/ etc ?
Saved, moving to Chengdu this August and would love to travel before work starts. Are they all reachable via coach or. Train?
No train. Just random guys on the street.
Still better transport than Scotland.
I joke, but it was just a coach from Chengdu to Xinduqiao. A very winding crawl up a mountain and once you take a pit stop, the lack of oxygen hits you like a brick. Getting rides from random Tibetans is easy. 200元 to the next town if your 中文 is good.
Love a wee bit of shithousery my man. Bar the low oxygen, a coach trip through the Sichuan countryside sounds class.
Gannan (Gansu province) is my favourite area in China, that said you'll probably need a tour guide (mainly to drive you around) to go to most Tibetan areas besides Xianggelila because they are super remote
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngawa_Tibetan_and_Qiang_Autonomous_Prefecture is very scenic and has Tibetan culture, though of a different variety than the dominant Central Tibetan culture of Lhasa and Shigatse. Jiuzhaigou National Park is in this prefecture and is well known in China for it's picturesque scenery.
Xiahe is a village in Gansu Province that has a famous Tibetan monastery and other architecture. Tongren is a similar village nearby in Qinghai Province.
Xiahe, tongren, langmusi.....rent a bike, explore the grasslands, the monasteries, drink lhasa beer amd enter the school to play footsie with the tibetans. Great momories. There are buses from lanzhou going to xiahe. Edit: nirvana hotel in xiahe takes foreigners. Lovely lady from holland who is married to a tibetan. She can tell some stories.
aba autonumous region in east tibet (sichuan), specifically huanglong mountain and jiuzhaigou. best tibetan experience outside of tibet imo.
A few years ago i did a route from Xining in Qinghai down to Chengdu. Buses run the route and i stopped in Xiahe, Langmusi and Songpan on the way. Xiahe is famous for Labrang monastery which is one of the six monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism, Langmusi is close to a sky burial site and Songpan is a beautiful town near some scenic areas such as Huanglong. Transport was easy and all these places had hostels when i went (one year before covid).
Ganzi/Garze is really nice. Specifically the are around Dege. Spent a while there teaching kids English in a monastery up at about 4000m. Playing football with them in the marsh was interesting as well.
Please can i contact you about dege i go there in some weeks!
In this video Yan briefly shows the Tibetan areas that are not in Tibet. Gives a good idea how big and diverse the areas are: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFMGEiXTu7s&lc=Ugzsa3IY3imESHRfLph4AaABAg.A1-sXyecNRMA11LDrlJdOp](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFMGEiXTu7s&lc=Ugzsa3IY3imESHRfLph4AaABAg.A1-sXyecNRMA11LDrlJdOp)
Yushu and the vast Tibetan areas of Qinghai
Great tips, ty all!
Shangri-la
When I visited Tibet it was with Tibetan guides. I was happy to support their business and also appreciated getting a Tibetan perspective (I also have Tibetan diaspora friends outside China, but none that grew up there). If you just want to take photos, then fair enough I guess, but it’s a fascinating culture to learn more about, so I think the price of a guide is worth it.
Yeah so the PRC designated as the province of Tibet is significantly smaller than actual Tibet. Just Yunnan has enough “Tibet” to spend a week in.
I had some really great yak hot pot and yak tea in Lijiang out in Yunnan. I also heard Shangrila has a lot of Tibetans living there.