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Posted On Friday, November 7, 2014 at
at
11:57 PM
by Alvin
Reaching Ya' An (雅安) in Western Sichuan (川西) was a breeze as our flight from Shenzhen (深圳) touched down in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (成都 雙流國際機場 ) and we caught a direct 2 hours' bus from the airport. Ya' An was a pleasant town with loads of tea houses plying their trade along the misty Qingyi River (青衣江) with its centre of attraction being the Gallery Bridge (廊橋) - currently being restored. We caught a glimpse of the bridge and could imagine that it could be very beautiful when the restoration was finished. Ya' An was a convenient stopover for one night on our way to the main event in this part of Sichuan - Kang Ding (康定) where a single lane B-Road would snake itself precariously along the neck of the Sichuan Basin mountains.
Apart from being a very beautiful town at the confluence of two roaring rivers (雅拉河) and (折多河), the town also had a raw frontier feel to it as Kang Ding was a main stop between the Tibetan highlands and the Sichuan Basin (四川盆地) on the Tea Horse Route (茶馬古道) in ancient times. Kang Ding of course, achieved fame through the widely-known folklore love song (康定情歌 - 跑馬溜溜的山上) which everyone in China knew how to sing since the age of five ! The star attraction in Kang Ding was the beautiful Mugecuo (木格措) National Park which was named after the highland lake of the same name, located about 30 km from the city centre. We took a mini-cab through some remote Han (漢) and Tibetan (藏) villages to find this national park in pristine conditions - about 50 people (initially) in the whole park as it was low season and we experienced all 4 seasons within our 7 hour's stay. Yeh - flurry wintry snow, hot summer sun, spring time breeze and autumnal red and golden leaves; not forgetting, we had to quickly adapt to the highland altitude of exceeding 3,000m ! A most fun (and breathless) day out !
