Hiking 318 | Walking to Tibet DAY19: Litang County-229 Road Class

2021.04.07

Yesterday I took a day off in Litang, because it was expected to take 6 days to get to the next county (Batang), so I went to replenish some dry food and medicine, and my backpack suddenly gained a few kilograms more.

Today’s destination is Route 229, with a total distance of 27 kilometers. Along National Highway 318, shortly after exiting the west gate of the county, you will see a fork in the road between Batang and Cunge. There are many hot springs and places to stay in Chaka Village, Cunge Township. If you want to have an extra day of rest in Litang, you can also choose to stay here for one night.

There are two intersections to Cunge. Choose the second intersection, which is much closer.

Hot spring 20 yuan/person, accommodation 60 yuan/person

"Little Potala Palace" in Hot Spring Village

I saw many animals on the way today. In addition to yaks, I also saw horses, eagles, magpies, wild ducks and marmots. It turned out that it was because we had entered the Wulianghe Internationally Important Wetland.

Wulianghe

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Walking along the Wuliang River, except for the mountains on both sides and the road in the middle, there are basically no villages or homes. After passing a sand mining factory, I saw a two-story house on the roadside. It turned out to be Class 229.

The house number says "Peace Taoist Class"

The person in charge of reception in this Taoist class is called Tang Ge, who is from Mianyang, Sichuan. I saw that he was wearing work clothes with the words "Ganzi Highway" printed on them, so I asked him where this place was?

He said: Daoban is where the people responsible for road maintenance work and live (there were no people in the 112th and 119th roads that I passed before. I thought Daoban was just a place name). There are currently 4 people working here.

He also said that many Dao Bans now have no staff, and the houses are managed by local villagers. This is the case for 119 Dao Bans.

In addition to me staying here today, there are also several workers responsible for the Sichuan-Tibet Railway (high-speed rail) survey who came to stay here. One of the masters asked me: Why are you hiking? For fun? It doesn’t look like much fun to me! Another master jokingly said: They should have money to burn.

I said: No, I don’t have much money, otherwise I wouldn’t live here.

High-speed rail survey worker

This is not a place specifically designed to receive tourists. On a road with no accommodation for dozens of kilometers, it is actually quite good to have such a place to stay. I looked at several other rooms. The railway workers all slept on the floor. The room Brother Tang arranged for me also had a bed. It was already a "luxury suite" in this Taoist class. It is rare to live in a Taoist class, and it is a different life experience. Thinking that there may be worse conditions than this in the future, it feels very good.

Double suite with a 4-person bunk outside

In the evening, Brother Tang steamed a bowl of steamed pork tamales for me. After eating, I chatted with him for a while. Brother Tang is a very talkative person. I showed him a photo of a yak carcass I took on the roadside and asked him if there were wolves nearby? Then he went on and on about everything from how to choose a place to pitch a tent to the tragic story of how the local military and civilians joined forces to strangle wolves.

Yak carcass

The nights in the mountains are still very cold. Today I not only used Uncle Ren’s sleeping bag (covered with a quilt), but also wore a hooded down jacket when sleeping. The effect was still very good, just like getting into a down sleeping bag. Because I was so tired, I fell asleep before I finished processing the pictures for the day.