-Dawn in the Himalayas
The day after our night of food and fun in Chengdu most of our motley group got on a bus to head to Kangding. Kangding is seven hours west of Chengdu and rests at 2,616 meters above sea level (much higher than Chengdu, which is 500 meters above sea level). The city is the capital of the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a huge swath of mountainous land that makes up most of western Sichuan and is the eastern section of the Himalayan mountains. Before the People’s Republic of China made Tibet part of China in 1950 the area was called Kham by the Tibetans. The Kham Tibetans are well known for their skillful use of horses and fighting spirit. Today Kangding feels Tibetan, but just barely. It is the jumping off point for the region and being so close to Chengdu it attracts large groups of Han Chinese tourists. Kangding also holds many many many Han Chinese soldiers, who I’m sure are there to just help the Tibetans enjoy their freedoms in their “autonomous” Prefecture. Never mind that though, let me return to my journey.
The bus ride to Kangding takes you through deep green gorges and then climbs and climbs up to Himalayan mountains. We arrived in the late afternoon under an overcast sky that obscured the imposing mountains that surround the city. I got us to the comfy hostel I had used two years ago when I visited Kangding. Then we followed the suggestion of a woman at our hostel and went to a Tibetan restaurant downtown for dinner. The food was FANTASTIC and the room we ate in was beautifully decorated.
