Wild Wild West

After a week spent in the big city of Chengdu, I now find myself in a small town surrounded by mountains, sitting in a cold little hostel with a Tibetan monastery right next door - I can hear them playing those big horns...

Chendu was good fun and a nice stop for a week. Hanging out with some Chinese friends of my parents' friends (confusing enough?), did wonderful Chinese-style karaoke in a posh little private room until out throats were practically bleeding, went bowling, saw some Sichuanese opera-style show, had tea in teahouses, visited a flower show in the park, looked for plastic dinosaurs in vain, bought some hilarious clothes, had lots of custrad tarts, visited the university, ate hotpot for dinner, walked for hours, saw pandas (both live and stuffed... just to mention some of the things ;)

But now, after an 8-hour bus ride through some amazing mountain/valley/river/gorge scenery and some frighteningly bad roads, the setting for tonight is the small town of Kanding. (Still travelling with Ben, btw.) Supposedly, this is the starting point of the Sichuanese 'Wild West'... And indeed, it is a big change from the modern Chengdu, which could be just about anywhere in China. Here, it's already very much Tibetan influenced, with people with very different facial features from the Han Chinese wearing traditional Tibetan style clothes, Tibetan monasteries and prayer flags around...

We haven't seen much yet, just went for a walk in town to get some gloves and socks, as it is FREEZING. It's funny how different it is from the heat of Wuhan a couple of weeks ago, to this cold, cold mountain climate.

But no complaints, it's gorgeous, the autumn colours look stunning on the mountains. It's somehow also very different from the mountains I saw in Anhui and Zhejiang, this is much more majestetic, and maybe bare somehow. Just bigger. None of that pretty Chinese painting scenery, but just very very impressive, high mountains and deep gorges, with ther rivers rushing past fastfastfast.

Wow :)

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