14Days Sichuan-Yunnan Overland Tour with Litang Tibetan Horse Racing Festival

Arrive in Chengdu.

Today you will first have a visit to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, where you can explore the daily life of the cute pandas, and get close to the lovely creatures.
After happy hours with pandas, drive to Wenshu Temple, a typical ancient monastery of Qing Dynasty in downtown Chengdu, where you can see local prayers worshiping and lighting incense.

After lunch, you will visit Renmin Park to experience the most authentic Chengdu local life. Having a cup of tea in a traditional teahouse, watching the local old couples dancing, joining in the locals to play mahjong or cards in a teahouse…You will enjoy typical leisurely lifestyle of Chengdu.

At the late afternoon, you will move on to Jinli Old Street, one of the oldest streets to appreciate the local snacks and artifacts. For photographers, visit here in the evening will be the best time to get better photos with all the red lanterns lit up in the dusk.

Drive from Chengdu to Danba via Wolong [4 hours]. Visit the Panda Natural Reserve area in Wolong [see the note at the bottom]. Wolong Panda Natural Reserve Area is 120 km north of Chengdu. It holds about 50 giant pandas there, here is the biggest panda breeding base and the semi-natural environment for training the wild life of the pandas in China.After lunch at Wolong, drive to cross the foggy Balang Mountain (4,523 meters) and reach Rilong Town which is located at the foot of the Siguniangshan Mountain. If it is clear, far view the four peaks of the Siguniang Shan Mountain, the highest one Forth-Girl Peak of which is acclaimed as the “queen of mountains in Sichuan” with an altitude of 6250 m. Via Xiaojin County, head for Danba County (1900 m.) The local people are called Jiarong Tibetans. It is said that they are the descendants of the people of the ancient Xixia Kingdom, who merged with the local people after they fled from Gansu and settled here. Danba has long been acclaimed as the Kingdom of Thousands of Ancient Blockhouses.

Drive from Danba to Xinduqiao via Bamei [6 hours]. Visit Ancient block towers in Suopo,Jiaju Tibetan Hamlet and Lhagang Monastery of Sakya Sect. Ancient block towers in Suopo were made of clay and block and look fine from outside with solid thick walls.Jiajv, 10 kilometers away from the county, is one of the rare places in China that has preserved complete Tibetan style residences. More than one hundred buildings keep the same architectural style with a complete and unique character of Jiarong Tibetan residences. Under the blue sky, the Tibetan residences decorated in red, white and black are strewed at random but also in order from the bottom to the middle slope of the valley.Lhagang Monastery of Sakya Sect is surrounded by three hills symbolizing three Budhisattvas. It is said that the blessing of a reserved Jowo Shakyamuni image left by Wencheng Princess in this monastery to the pilgrims resembles that of seeing the Lhasa Jowo Shakyamuni image itself.

Drive from Xinduqiao to Litang via Yajiang [4 hours].Litang is a very important birth place of Tibetan Buddhism. One of the highest city of the world (4014 meters), home to the Kham Tibetan, major area for the Tibetan people in Sichuan province, and  main course of the ‘8.1 International Horse Racing Festival’
, held in Aaugust 1st and lasts for a week each year. Here we will visit Litang MonasteryLitang Monastery, also called Changqingchunker in Tibetan meaning Maitreya-Holy Wheel Temple in Chinese. As the most important temple of Gelug Sect in the south of the Kham region, it was originally under the control of the Bon religion but converted into a Gelug Sect monastery in 1580 in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) by the third Dalai Lama.

Enjoying Litang Horse Racing Festival. Among all the traditional Tibetan festivals, horseracing is almost a must. It is common to select the group leader by means of horseracing and martial arts competition in ancient times when fights were frequent. The Litang Horseracing Festival is held on the first of August and lasts about 7 days. Currently the traditional festival has further developed. Besides the traditional horseracing, other activities like horsemanship, singing, dancing, national costume show, etc. have become part of the grand festival. Large-scale material exchange also takes place during the festival. During the two days we will take part in the festival.

Litang Horse Racing Festival

Drive from Litang to Daocheng [3 hours]. Visit Haizishan Nature Reserve, situated on about 4500m to 5000 m high above sea level, the most valuable thing to see is the site of the Ancient Glacier and Daocheng ancient ice cap. Then we will visit Red Grass in Daocheng.

Drive from Daocheng to Yading Nature Reserve [2 hours]. Horse riding or trekking up from Yading Village to Chonggusi Monastery. Golf Cart drive from Chonggusi Monastery to Luorong Cattle farmland. Yading Nature Reserve, the Shangri-la like place was first discovered and introduced to the public by Dr. Joseph Rock, a column writer for the National Geographic, It owns endless forest, all different color of flowers blooming, crystal clear streams flows, some small monastery with friendly monks hiding among the mountain, and most important, till you get to Luorong Cattle Farmland, you will find that this is a beautiful grassland that surrounded by 3 holy snow capped Mountains: Xianuoduoji, Yangmaiyong, Xiannairi, which are the holy mountain for the Tibetan people and also been considered to be the 3 bodhisattva’s incarnation. If time permitted, you can trek further from the Luorong farmland to seek the legendary milky white lake, pearl lake and 5 color lake in the deep point of the mountain.

Drive from Yading to Xiangcheng via Daocheng [5 hours]. Pass Maxionggou Mountain [4800 m]. Enjoy the view on the road: Snow Mountain, Tibetan Village. On the way, you will first pass the Maxionggou Mountain, which is averagely 4700m high above sea level, stop and take a walk, to feel the less oxygen. Then, the second highest point for this day is Yuangenshan Mountain [3818 m]. after that, you will get to Sangdui, which is a typical, peaceful Tibetan style town, for the purpose of further understanding of the Tibetans, you will never regret to make some walk in this town.

Drive from Xiangcheng to Shangri-la County [4 hours] via Derong.Visit the Moon-shaped Bend of Jinsha River (upper part of Yangtze) on the way. It has been recognized as one of the 40 most spectacular view of China. Then arrive at Shangri-la, Situated in the northwest Yunnan Hengduan Mountains on the southern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, 709 kilometers from Kunming, Shangri-la means ‘the sun and the moon in the heart’ in Tibetan, referring to a place of idyllic beauty. As a loanword it appeared first in 1933 in the novel ‘The Lost Horizon’ by a British writer, James Hilton. The book sold very well after its publication. It was especially popular after the Hollywood shot a film of it, whose popular theme song ‘This Beautiful place Shangri-la’ helped ‘Shangri-la’ become better known. Within Shangri-la, there are magnificent sights such as: Three Parallelly Flowing Rivers, the world-famous Gorge, the highest peak in Yunnan, Buddhist Temples and lamaseries, the birthplace of Dongba culture, and many other wonderful scenes. There are also a national nature reserve, three provincial reserves, and a historic and cultural relic under national protection. For the people who have sought for Shangri-la tens of years, the good news is at present most sights open to tourists. But they are mainly within Diqing Tibet Autonomous Prefecture.

Drive from Shangri-la to Lijiang [3 hours]. Visit Tiger Leaping Gorge, Stone Drum Town [Shigu] and first bend of Yangtze on the way. Tiger Leaping Gorge(HuTiaoXia) is the most famous and spectacular gorge in Yunnan, it is about 60 km north from Lijiang, where is also considered to be the border of Lijiang and Shangri-la. This gorge is formed by two mountains—the Jade Dragon Snow mountain and the Haba Snow mountain, with the river flowing in between called the Golden Sand River. This gorge is about 3700m from the top of the mountain to the water surface, and about 15 km in length. It is said that once, in order to escape from the chasing of a hunter, the tiger has to leaping from this side to the other side of the river, the rock that the tiger used now is become the core of this gorge—the ‘tiger leaping stone’ also called the ‘upper tiger leaping gorge’, which is only 30 meters in between the two sides of the river. There are normally 2 trails to visit tiger leaping gorge, one is for the regular bus drive tour, it is the lower trail, the other one is called the upper trail, where is one of the most famous trekking route in the world.Stone Drum Town is the best place to see the first bend of Yangtze River.

Visit Dayan Old Town of Lijiang, Visit Black Dragon Pond and Dongba Museum. DaYan Old town is  is a UNESCO Heritage Site.The town has a history going back more than 800 years and was once a confluence for trade along the old tea horse road. The Lijiang old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges. The old town of Lijiang differs from other ancient Chinese cities in architecture, history and the culture of its traditional residents the Naxi people.Black Dragon Pond (HeiLongTan) is located in the north of the old town about 1.5 km, which is a very beautiful and big park, where the source of the water flowing though the old town, with the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain as the background, Black dragon pond is really a picturesque place in Lijiang. The Dongba Museum in the park is the best place for one who wants to have a deep understand of the local shaman religion—Dongba Religion.

Departure from Lijiang