Chillis left out to dry at Jiuju Village, Danba

Processing corn in Zhonglu Village, Danba

Based on time killer recommendations from Joy from Sim’s Cozy over at Chengdu, I will make a one day stop over at Danba as the only way to get back to Chengdu from Rilong is to go through Xiaojing and Danba. It helps too that there are 2 daily buses (0630 and 0700) from Danba.

Ancient watch tower up close, Zhonglu village

Danba seems to be famous for two things. Everyone says the girls there are beautiful. Even best in china, but I have heard of that before in Suzhou. And as expected its because of the climate that gives them a nice complexion. And everyone here also says that the good looking ones are in Chengdu. Danba is also popular for the couple of tibetan villages around the town. Danba lies at the confluence of rivers, and in a deep valley. Some of the scenic villages are perched high on top of steep mountains. 14 November 2008, Rilong to Danba: It was a 0700 pickup by the same Mr Zhang that brought me to Rilong from Xiaojing. We arranged a trip to Danba for 300 RMB, about 150 km away and a day trip to 3 villages around Danba for an extra 100 RMB. Plus the 150 RMB I owed him from last sunday. While I know the driver normally runs a mien bao car (private hire vans that pick up anyone anywhere between set destinations), I allowed him to pick up 2 ladies to drop near Xiaojing. With the 17 RMB we made, he brought me to the best beef noodle place in Xiaojing. From what I can see, salt, soya sauce, plenty of hand pulled noodles, mountain cow beef, bamboo shoots, coriander and plenty of chilli and you have a serious bowl of best noodles I have tasted in china so far. I have seen many mountain cows in Siguniang and its the first time I have tasted it.

Mountain road on the way to one of the mountain top villages around Danba

After a heavy bowl of beef noodles in Xiaojing it’s time to continue to Danba. I will visit the villages first before buying bus ticket and finding a place to stay in Danba.

Zhonglu Village, Danba

On the way learnt some interesting facts from the driver. First, he confirmed that people get rocks to build houses by creating landslides by roadside. As by the road always means a mountain next to you, the landslides cover half the road breadth. Also learnt that the Dong An brand of chinese mini van is crap and costs only 30k RMB each. His is better and more reliable at 50k RMB. Business is also bad this year for all in the tourism business because of the earthquake. They all hope that it would be better next year when the road reopens. A full section is closed, or better illustration would be the word ‘destroyed’. He also recalled being in his van on May 12, and could see the mountains move and landslides everywhere. Its apparently the first time he has seen one and the previous one was before his time, about the time the red army marched through the valley. Google it up, I don’t have wikipedia when I wrote this so I don’t know when that was, but I’m guessing 50s or 60s.

View of surrounding village from the top of Zhonglu Village

Zhonglu Village (N30.89823, E101.93823): First stop, the village closest to Xiaojing. Ok, so the villages also charges entrance fee for non locals. Not sure what non locals mean. My driver is from the next Aba prefecture but its free for him. Surely I look foreigner so that’s an easy catch. 20 RMB gets you through a dirty old man and he will raise the barrier for you. After that its a full 15 minutes uphill. GPS tells me its below 2000m at entrance and you go up at least 400m in altitude before getting to the village. Zhonglu is perched on top of a mountain, on the way up it is all steep slope but at the top there are just gentle slopes, enough to cultivate plants. I got out of the car next to a primary school and walked a while. Not sure what to see in the village other than the scenery especially the next village just across the valley. There are a couple of those ancient watch towers here. Snap snap a couple of photos and its time to move on. There are animals everywhere so watch out for droppings. Pig droppings you can smell, not cows.

Corns left out to dry in Jiuju Village

Jiuju Village (N30.92061, E101.86818): Next up a ride through Danba across the river twice and its time to go up hill again. If I can explain the scene, valley floor fast flowing rapids, surrounded by 500m high steep mountain cliffs with sparse vegetation and white buildings with pointy corners on its roof top and a few watch towers.

Processing corn in Zhonglu Village, Danba

Jiuju village takes longer to drive up. Possible to get a taxi to bring you up but there doesn’t seem to be taxies up there to bring you back down. This village is famous for its stone tibetan houses, which seems a little more uniform than Zhonglu earlier. Entrance gate is on top just before entrance to the village. Ticket costs 300 RMB and for that you get a ticket with a stamp and postcard all in one. Again, vice vistas but up close the houses are houses, all sorts of things hanging around. Plastics and satellite dishes don’t really spell ancient for me.

Processing corn, to remove the husks from the good stuff. Strangely this is for feeding the pigs!

We made it to a model home (actually it looks like a 20 room hotel) and as thwarted owner and her daughter was crushing corns, we joined them on the rooftop. One thing I noticed here, the houses in this area are all flat and there are always staircases up there. Most houses dry corn cobs up on the roof, and this one seems to remove the skin from the corn but it still remains in the bean shape. My driver tells me that the corns are used to feed pigs. Not easy to see the pigs as they are kept in the house. Follow the smell. There are also chilies being dried. We know that is for humans.

After, its time for one last village.

Suopo Village with watch towers extending to the top of the mountain

Suopo Village (N30.85032, E101.92859): Village could be seen last sunday as I was coming to Xiaojing. Since I’m not in the mood to pay for more entrance fee, and the villages look better from far, I told the driver to drop me off on the highway for a wide angle shoot. When we got there, there were construction on top of the mountain above where we were about to park the car, and having been scared after the 2008 earthquake, my driver told me he will park 100m away in case rocks fall.

Up close view of the watchtowers at Suopo Village

Suopo is also perched on top of a mountain, but the slope is gentler, and rises at least 400m to the top. There are many old towers here, all the way from the bottom to the top of the mountain. They look at least 5 storeys tall and look like factory chimneys. Driver says they’re not used anymore. Amazing sight. 12mpixels on my dslr caught them all with enough details. Danba Town: Time to drive into Danba. He dropped me off at the bridge and I caught a taxi down to the other end of the town to the bus station. Normal fare is 10 RMB but I only had 5 loose change and he took it anyway. No sour face neither. Nice chatty fella.

Suopo Village from the highway

More mountain top road

Bus ticket cost me 117 RMB from Danba to Chengdu at 0630 hrs tomorrow. The bus station also houses a hotel, and I took a room for 80 RMB. They asked if i wanted single room or standard room, I asked what the difference is, and he said its the same, so I said give me standard then. This is a typical chinese government hotel. Reception has a burning coal pot as there are no central heating. Toilet is a squatting type. Comes with towels. Floors are never swept. And you are kept warm with electric blankets. Sounds of tractors permeates from outside narrow streets, and occasionally chinese Jingbei motorcycles go past playing tacky chinese techno. Naturally riding with helmets are frowned upon here.

After 1 hr snooze after wondering why my leica M6 wouldn’t meter today (dead CR1/3 battery), I went out for a walk around town.

For dinner, walked into a small 5 table restaurant and naturally went for the yak dish with extra mini celery and a bowl of soup with eggs, tomatoes and vegetables. Very nice dish and cost me 32 RMB. I am now a convert to yak.

Downtown Danba is a narrow place. This is because the town at the bottom of the vallew with fast flowing river on one side, and a mountain on the other

The trip back was in a rickety bus, probably not too old but daily 12hrs trip made it rattle a lot. Joining me are 23 other smoking and chicken feet eating locals including 2 ladies in traditional costumes.

It has been a long week, battling issues associated with high altitude. Resting back at the hotel after dinner watching chinese TV. Tomorrow morning I will return to Chengdu and to the north thereafter.

This western trip has been interesting. A whole region with towns and villages built either in deep valleys or high in the mountains. The steepness of which made it easier for me to understand why the earthquake this year was so devastating. It takes almost nothing to cause huge landslides here, and there are mountains everywhere.

Signing off for part 3. Next: part 4 Jiuzhaigou National Park

Chengdu Airport Bus queue

8 November 2008, Shanghai to Chengdu: From the airport, bus 303 seems to go to Chengdu city. Was reading about bus 300 but I did not see it. Bus trip cost 12 RMB and comes with insurance, although it seems lost in my mind how we will claim our own insurance should something untowardly happens along the way. As with any bus in china, this bus even comes with its own tour guide. In my half baked putong hua, sounds like its 30 minutes away. Good. Nap time.

Spent the afternoon walking around Chengdu and there is a nice street where everything is old and has a market. Naturally my leica came out to play there. Chengdu definitely looks more refined than other cities in China, other than Shanghai and Beijing of course. Its quite obvious this is not a poor place.

Transporting items by bicycle is common in the backstreets of Chengdu

Everywhere you go in Chengdu there are hotpot restaurant. I’m tempted to try them but I travelled alone so it will be wasteful to gobble down a whole load of soup with floating chilies. But I promised myself I need to try it or I have never been to Sichuan.

Waiting for the bus, China style...

Language: I swear I don’t have too much of an issue with the local Sichuanese dialect, at least I understand it as much as I do putonghua, which is not too bad, but people I meet here sometimes tell me its difficult to understand locals. The dialect sounds like a bastardized version of putonghua in a song singing way.

These two kittens at Sim

Staying at Sim’s Cozy Hostel in the north of Chengdu. Corny name but met Mr Sim himself and a very helpful guy. Had a chat with him to find out the best itinerary for my next week in Sichuan. So the plan now seems to be 4 days in Rilong around siguniang shan and a day in Danba, before returning here for a night and then the long bus trip to Jiuzhaigou National Park. His place can book bus tickets for 20 RMB commission and I’m sure for many other things in this area. Good to not have to run around to get tickets. 

Chengdu Chadianzi Bus Station waiting room

9 November 2008, Chengdu to Rilong: Awake early in the morning at 5:30 am and before long, left my main backpack at the hostel and made it to Chadianzi bus station to Siguniang Shan. Taxi driver was a local with bad teeth and cab smelling of strong local cigarette smoke. Very chatty but seems to be honest. Chadianzi is quite a distance outside Chengdu to the north west of the city. By the time I got there, there is a sizeable crowd outside the station before 6 am. Looks like the waiting hall opens only after 6. Anyway, will continue this post on the dedicated Siguniang post. 

Continued in Part 2…

15-16 November 2008: Arrived in Chengdu from Danba in another bus station. This is a small little one south of Chadianzi and west of town inside the ring road. Never bothered to do any research on its name.

It was time to stop a taxi and go to the hostel and make myself comfortable and pick up the ticket I ordered for tomorrow’s trip to Jiuzhaigou. The night of the 15th was the time to pamper myself and go have some full texmex dinner. There is one recommended by Sim’s cozy at the west gate of Sichuan university.

Finally getting free Wifi, it was time to send out all my phone pictures onto flickr while eating.

After an evening recalling my trip to the coordinator who recommended me the trip to Siguniang, it was time to repack clean clothes and get a hot shower before heading out the door at 7 am to Chengdu’s xinnanmen station to Jiuzhaigou on the 8am bus at the tourist bus station. Sounds corny but its just like any other bus station and the bus looks the same as well.

19 November 2008: Back in Chengdu from Jiuzhaigou. Got off the bus in the north of Chengdu, and fired up my GPS and realised the hostel is only 2 km away. A short walk and half hour later I’m back. Am too tired after the 10hrs bus ride where I went thru 7 hours of War and Peace on audiobook so had a simple dinner at the hostel and started preparing for the day trip in Chengdu tomorrow. I admit I didn’t spend too much time in Chengdu proper, and it is just like any other large Chinese cities except this one is cleaner and doesn’t look as cramped.

Panda and breakfast

20 November 2008: My last day in Chengdu and it is time to visit the Giant Panda Research Center, something not to be missed by anyone coming here. How can you not see Pandas here? The day tour is arranged courtesy of the hostel using their own car. For 80RMB, I get entrance fee included and a guide plus transport to the park. It should be possible to get a taxi there or bus, but considering the getting on and off, I think 80RMB is quite worth it.

Morning is the best time to go, 9 am is feeding time. For pandas that means they get to spend their energy in the morning crawling to the bamboo and actually eating them. There are 3-4 pandas to enclosure and obviously plenty of foreigners there with cameras. Usually I only get to see 1 or 2 in action, either wrestling or eating bamboo, and the rest would be sleeping. Being the famous sloths that they are, their sleeping style are quite interesting. Sometimes perched on a tree branch, or lying spread eagle on the ground. Interesting creature. Very high on the cute factor. In a while the Cantonese tourists would arrive and scare the pandas to sleep with their loud conversations.

Then its time to move on to the baby panda station. Photos are not allowed but with my leica M6, I snapped anyway masking the shutter sound with coughs. It was a cold morning! On 2 joined cots, about 8 baby pandas with coats of fur already grown, sized like a medium sized fat dog would be sleeping, reminding me of the panda mascot on some of the current ANA aeroplanes… Like in a flying panda position. For little girls this would be the best place to work in the whole world, job being to pick up the baby panda one by one, stroking them and cuddle them for the tourists to see behind glass. There’s even an armchair to sit down while stroking the animal.

Red Panda at Sichuan Panda Research Center

Next would be the red panda enclosure. it was difficult to get a good picture of them as we had a large group of rowdy chinese school students coming through, the panda looking confused with all the commotion. One of the guy in my group always wanted to hold one, so a ‘donation’ of 200 RMB gets it done. I volunteered to man his dslr while he gets to feet the red panda apples while cuddling it. Apparently not too far from 200 RMB will get you a photo op with a giant panda and the baby pandas will cost a little more, 400 or upwards. They will make you don a surgical suit and latex glove before touching them.

Then there’s a video presentation and a museum, but hey, its not a tourist center till you see those isn’t it? I breeze through then as soon as possible. Started at 830am and by 1130am the trip was over, happy to have seen my first live panda. And finally those animals will two repeating single syllable names are no longer foreign to me.

Gaudy looking Russian themed karaoke bar in Chengdu

Back in Chengdu its time to burn some time in the afternoon. As I have not taken breakfast nor lunch, I grabbed bus number 1 across to the other side of the ring road to the south and found a restaurant where I ordered dry chilli noodles. As it was not enough, a second bowl of spicy beef noodles was in order. With a bowl of sweet dumplings the total cost was only 17 RMB. Cheap.

Next was time to go to the only computer center in Chengdu, not to look for computers of course but to look for some LR44 batteries for my leica M6 meter. 4 of those made locally cost 8 RMB. Now I have juice for the meter before my next leg of the journey.

I confess I do not plan to spend too much time in Chengdu. It was never in the plan. Man made modern things do not interest me. Nor is the largest buddha statue in the world and so on. Only pandas are in the plan for this trip and at 7 pm I will be on my way out, flying off to Guilin.

Move on to part 2 of this article…