Bumpy Road to Rilong

Treacherous mountain roads!
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21 July 2007

Departed from the west of Chengdu on a 6 day tour into the Ganzi and Aba Tibetan areas of Northern Sichuan which is home to the Gyarong and Khampa Tibetan ethnicities.

"Are we there yet?"

After an early start, the "road" led to Wolong Nature Reserve, home to the Aba Pandas. Leaving the city behind, it was 6 hours on unsealed roads which initially followed the course of the Min River. For the most part, the road was undulating and narrow, pot-holed, muddied by recent rains, and undergoing construction. In addition, the bus had to negotiate with on-coming traffic, ranging from trucks to motorbikes, broken down vehicles to flashy BMW's.

Mt Siguniang Lookout. Andrew is not pregnant!
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Wolong Nature Reserve, one of a few remaining panda preserves, did not live up to its namesake. The elusive panda was just that – elusive. Although, there WERE panda sightings elsewhere - on road-signs, buses and buildings! The reserve was wet, dense forest and remote. We had a quick lunch at a roadside "diner" in the reserve.

The road then climbed, and with it, our anxiety. Our bus narrowly avoided veering off the edge and tumbling into the river far below, as we were forced to the verge to allow oncoming vehicles to pass. The highest pass, at Mount Balang (4328m), was shrouded in mist, obscuring any view of the mountain range or valleys below. Our anxiety wasn’t the only thing that rose on the mountain. The price of admission to the dank toilets reeking of stale urine rose from 0.5 to 1RMB.

The third of the four girls of Mt Siguniang shows herself.
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The road soon began to descend and to our relief was paved, though still pot-holed, cracked, narrow and wet. Mount Siguniang (Mt. "Four Girls") in the Qionglai Mountain Range loomed directly ahead and the Tibetan village of Rilong was visible below and to our left.

Rilong at dusk was a small collection of lodgings for tourists that are as elusive as the Wolong Reserve pandas. It's a friendly, quaint village nestled at the foot of Mt. Siguniang, retaining its Tibetan agricultural roots. We enjoyed eating out at a family-run restaurant down the road from our hotel, the Xin Hong Hotel, buying freshly picked fruit from vendors and being "hello-ed" at by the locals. Very chilly for a summer's night. We snacked on Tibetan flat bread at "Grasslands", a single-shop front replete with dry meat hanging on the wall, gas stove bubbling Tibetan tea, antiquated yak-butter churner and grain grinder, and everything hand-made by the friendly owner/cook.

Grace was warned against flying on the mountain due to poor visibility. Rilong is in the distance.
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22 July 2007

We woke early to the sound of rushing water in the river that courses through the town and breakfasted at "Grasslands", sampling a sweet variety of Tibetan bread.

We paid 100RMB each for the short bus-trip to start the walk in the Changpinggou Valley, with Mount Siguniang looming in the distance. The highest of the "4 girls", was 6200m - but we could only visualize the "3rd girl", the rest being obscured by mist and cloud. The beginning of the trail was marked by a Tibetan Lamasary, in addition to numerous vendors encouraging us to hire gumboots (for the mud) and horses (for the mud).

Alpine scenery from our walk in a valley of the Qionglai Mountain Range.
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A river ran through the valley, with waterfalls on either side of the mountains that form the Changpinggou Valley. It was a pleasant stroll on a wooden board-walk (and not too crowded!!!) through a forest. But after 3.5km, we were again inundated by over-enthusiastic Tibetan hawkers marketing pearls, gumboots and horses (again, and again, and again!!)

Then we realized why the hard-sell ... the board-walk ended abruptly, the path becoming a quagmire of almost-ankle-deep mud. We were told there was "wonderful" scenery of Siguniang's grasslands after 10km ... but since we were going to the Tagong Grasslands in a few days' time we headed back to Rilong.

Rainforest scenery from our walk in a valley of the Qionglai Mountain Range.
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Rilong by day is quiet and sprawling down one main road away from Mt. Siguniang. The backstreet where villagers dwell in shacks is contrasted with the "main street” of stately but empty hotels. Several hotels were still under construction. We encountered many aspects of village life: Tibetans sitting outside their shops waiting for business (that didn't seem to be coming), mini-vans hooting past asking "Foreigner, want a ride to Danba?", old women lugging heavy loads of wood, grass or vegetables on their backs in baskets, people tilling their fields, little kids calling out "hello" as we stroll by, children playing with gravel, a young girl reading on a hillside, mangy dogs barking ominously, and people preparing their dinners over coal fires. If it weren't for the hotels and the tourists, we wonder if this town would exist at all.

Kids in "Lower Rilong"
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A relaxing day. Creatures of habit we ate dinner at the same place as last night.