Tacheng - Deqin

April 16 2013: Along the Mekong to the edge of Tibet

This area is known as the region of the Three Parallel Rivers – they all rise on the Tibetan plateau and flow from there down into this area of Yunnan. The Yangtze then heads southwest to its mouth at Shanghai;  the Mekong meanders down through Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to enter the sea at Ho Chi Minh and the Nu Jiang runs in a more westerly direction through Burma, where it is called the Salween -  a long part of it forms the border between N Thailand and Burma, before discharging its waters into the Andaman Sea.


This day, we were due to cross the mountain range  to the west,  and then head up the Mekong valley to the Tibetan border town of Deqin ( pronounced something like Dechin), then head east again to our next lodge.   However, on rising fairly early we heard that there had been a major landslide on that route, so we had to go up our “return” road, straight (well, no, not straight, but more of that later!) up the Yangtze to just short of Deqin.   All the trade traffic comes down this road, so it is fairly busy. A new, wider highway is currently under construction, linking Lijiang to Lhasa, which will relieve this road so the villages can get their peace back. 

Road Crew

 

The day started pleasantly, with a monkey hunt!  There was an area a few miles from the lodge inhabited by Chinese snub-nose monkeys, so we parked in the village nearby and set off with a local guide to see if we could find them. Because of the recent snow, they were further down than usual – thank goodness, as it was a fair old trek as it was!  But find them we did, and spend a most enjoyable 20 minutes watching them cavort though the trees, which had been laced by the guides with swathes of their favourite treat – a dreepy type of lichen or Spanish moss, that only grows in zero pollution. We took hundreds of pix, but they proved quite camera-shy, even though we could follow them quite plainly with our naked eyes – it’s one of those spots where people with tripods and huge cameras have to wait days to get one good shot! The clean air made a nice change for our HK lungs and we got down the steep path a lot faster than we went up, only to be held up driving down to the main road by all the local farm animals being driven up to pasture – cattle, pigs, goats, you name it!

The mountain scenery is impressive, steep valleys, zig-zagging roads – and quite a Swiss chalet feel to the little town and villages scattered across the slopes. The vegetation is generally sparse, though not entirely barren, with bright green oases of crops and fruit trees around the habitation.  The road surface varies a lot – some parts being quite wide, well finished and with some level of protection on the “down” side – and then there were the narrow, pot-holed, rock-strewn sections, with sheer drops to the river waaaay below.  The slopes themselves are far from stable, being basically loose rock to pebbly scree, with a few parts held together by the scrub foliage in between.  Scary stuff.

At least there was a barrier!

An effective way to cut speeding

And then the fun started, as we climbed higher and higher towards the snow line and the high pass that led to Deqin.  Soon we were in sleet, that turned to snow, but luckily it was warm enough that it didn’t settle on the roads and they stayed reasonably safe to drive.  

The scenery was so spectacular,  with the steep mountain peaks of the Meili range coming into view, though the two main mountain-tops were to prove elusive till we left.  

Road crew shelter = nomads tents

Time for a snowball fight

All the high passes are crowned with white stupas with thousands and thousands of prayer flags old and new flapping in the strong winds to send the prayers up to nirvana/heaven/The Being upstairs as quickly as possible. They make quite a racket, and are a stunning sight, full of tradition and meaning.

Songtsam Style

However, we were not sorry to turn into the next lodge, a few miles south of Deqin, in the sweet little village of Gujiunong, comprising just 5 Tibetan farmsteads.  By this time we were at 3600m, so as mentioned,  no booze that evening to relax the drivers! We were all conscious of having to move more slowly that usual, but luckily no-one really suffered from altitude problems, as we had journeyed up gradually, acclimatizing as we went.  Our delightful rooms had a super view of the mountains, though the high peaks remained in the clouds the whole time we were there. However, it was quite chilly, so it was nice to have the wood stove lit before we went to bed!

Scary roads from the comfort of our room

Put another log on the fire.....