Songpan 松潘

on the way
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After four days' horse riding, I'm really exhausted especially around my ass. Actually I had been to Songpan 松潘 while visiting Jiu Zhai Gou 九寨沟10 years ago. This time I come to Songpan purely for horse riding as recommended by my friend.

There are several routes starting from Songpan ranging from 2 to 10 days depending on your needs. I chose the 4 days tour to the Ice Mountains 雪宝顶 with two young Dutch couple as there is no entrance fee required. There were three horse guides came with us, so altogether our group had 6 horses, 3 guides and 3 tourists. They carried all the tents, sleeping bags, food, cups and cooking utensils etc and did all the set up and cooking. We had nothing to do except riding the horse, talking with each other and sightseeing. We always camped near the river with beautiful nature surrounded. The food, though simple, was often more than enough. We set fire at night to keep warm, talking and drinking the "Horse Tea". Our guides were friendly men who liked singing to entertain themselves and their guests.

We had nothing to do except riding the horse, talking with each other and sightseeing.

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On the second day, we had rode only three hours so we had plenty of time to enjoy the sunny afternoon in the grassland around our camp site. I had met some Tibetan kids in the grassland. I tried to talk with them but they were very shy at first. When I showed the pictures to them with my DC and gave them some snacks, they became very friendly to me. They took me to the top of a waterfall nearby and we took so many pictures together.

On the third day, we went up a plateau at 4300m surrounded by the snow capped “Ice Mountains”. Our group stopped at the plateau and I continued to trek to a frozen lake at 4600m. Of course, my effort was not wasted. The view up there was even more breathtaking. I was the only visitor of the lake at that time and it was so quiet that I could even hear the sound of ice falling down from the mountain.

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The weather was changing so fast. Sometimes sunny, sometimes raining, sometimes even snowing! On our way back this morning, it's snowing heavily so that the whole mountain was soon covered with white snow. We put on the thick Tibetan overcoats and riding the horse thro the forest, streams, villages and valleys. At that time, the scenery was just resemble the background of a Chinese martial art novel 雪山飞弧.

I enjoyed very much with the four days' horse riding. General speaking, the horses are tame but it can also be dangerous especially when going down hill where one side is a deep valley. My horse riding technique has certainly improved after these four days' training.

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Well, my solo traveling has come to an end (temporarily) as I'll meet CM in Chengdu tomorrow and start our Sichuan-Tibet journey. I didn't have a shower for 4 days, so I have to take a hot shower in the hotel (provided they haven't lied to me). Good bye!