Ah Hao insisted that he had high reflex symptoms. After descending from the observation deck of more than 4,000 meters, he reached the top, and by the way, my head hurt. In order to resist the headache caused by hypoxia, I slept the longest since I joined the company in July and had many hard and sad dreams. When I woke up, all the symptoms had dissipated along with the emotions in the dreams. .
The weather is worse than yesterday. The clouds and fog have descended to Camp No. 3, which is 2,900 meters above sea level. The fog is so clear in the hotel yard that the tall metasequoia trees across the street can't even be seen clearly. The man in the dispatch room told me with a thick accent that the shuttle bus going down the mountain would be coming soon, and it would take 40 minutes to wait for another one. I was anxious, leaving Ah Hao where he was to relieve his lingering headache. I ran up to the room on the second floor of the hotel, carrying a 28-inch suitcase and two camera bags, and rushed to check out, and then went bus station. I was so brave that the bus driver kept telling me to slow down. When I sat on an empty bus, I took a long breath through my mask. The lenses of my glasses were instantly covered by fog, like the bus windows.
Today seems to be much colder than yesterday.
The bus drove all the way down the mountain in the clouds and mist. Every few minutes, it would miss a fully loaded bus going up the mountain. I don’t know how the tourists who went up the mountain under the clouds and mist felt, whether they were lucky or just let it happen. The moment they passed each other, I couldn’t see their expressions.
The number on the altitude meter dropped rapidly. At about 2,300 meters, Ah Hao, who was sitting in the front row of me, suddenly turned around and said to me, "Hey, I'm fine."
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There is a unique color stone in the Garze area, with a bright red surface, like a poisonous mushroom. It is said that this is an algae that can only grow above an altitude of 2,000 meters and requires pure air to survive. This kind of algae adheres to stones in large areas, bringing a unique scenery to many places in Ganzi: red stone beach.
You don't have to be in a certain scenic spot to see Red Rock Beach, although they did build a park for this purpose - the conscience is that they only built a gate and there is no charge. In areas where the altitude and air quality of Ganzi meet the conditions, such as in Hailuogou or on the tidal flats on the roadside, it is not difficult to see this kind of red stone. With the photographer's post-processing filters, the red color becomes bright and charming. To the naked eye when the sun is not bright, it looks a bit like an abandoned construction site with many broken red bricks. The scene cannot be said to be too fascinating.
However, the Ganzi region has a very mature marketing method for the scenery created under the premise of "the only one in the world", and people are happy to keep an open mind about this. It doesn't matter whether you can understand what you see. A better example is the Moshi Park in Ganzi, which will naturally be discussed in detail later in the story.
Let’s say that Red Rock Park is on the only way we leave from Hailuogou and go to Kangding. After bypassing several mountain ridges on the winding mountain road, we entered the park. It just circled the mountain road and built several observation decks where you can see the red rock beach. However, the clouds and fog are too thick today. It is completely impossible to overlook the red rocks clearly from the viewing platform as usual. . Fortunately, we had already seen the Red Rock Beach in Hailuogou in the rain the day before. After coming down from the top of the mountain, we endured the headache from high altitude and took a detour to see the "Chengmendong Glacier". There is something breathtaking here. Red Rock Beach - So I am full of Buddhist thoughts about whether I can see red rocks along the road again.
The road was gradually shrouded in thick clouds. When it came to driving in the clouds, Ah Hao had rich experience. The first time I had a similar experience was in Jordan on the mountain road to Petra. The road was suddenly shrouded in clouds and fog, and the visibility was less than two meters. We were almost moving at a speed of less than 10 miles. We could not see the cars in front or behind us, pedestrians, oncoming cars, or road signs. We would be nervous because of the sudden appearance of headlights in front of us. . The clouds and mists will suddenly disappear and appear suddenly, which is very mysterious. The second time was on the mountains of the Norwegian fjords. The thickness and visibility of the clouds and mist were about the same as today. The surrounding desolation and silence were even more intense under the gray clouds. The only creatures that turned a blind eye to this were the livestock grazing on the roadside.
The romantic way is to open the car windows and let the clouds pass through the car and be wrapped in the fine and moist air. I remembered that a friend of mine once told me that she was very lonely when she was studying abroad alone. When she couldn't read anymore, she would lie on the floor of her room and look at the sky outside the window. She said that she heard the sound of clouds fluttering. When she said this, I nodded and thought how could it be possible, but now, I seem to have heard it too.
When we climbed over the top of Yagageng Mountain, the altitude reached 3,900 meters. Hao stopped the car and said that his head and joints ached so much. So during this self-driving trip, it was me who was driving for the first time. The way down the mountain was extremely smooth, and the clouds seemed to be blocked at the top of the mountain. When we went down the mountain, the surroundings were refreshing and quiet, which was an ideal and pleasant scene for self-driving in the mountains.
On the way, we met local people driving their horse teams up the mountain. I wonder if their destination was to cross the mountain. If so, looking back on our flat but long drive, coupled with the physical discomfort caused by the plateau, it will not be an easy journey. Do they often drive their horses over mountains like this? Suddenly a huge curiosity arose in my heart. In a place far away from my life, there are people living in a way that I have never imagined. These are all my humble opinions.
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As the car drove into the urban area of Kangding, we decided to go to KFC in the city center to reminisce about the long-lost human fast food civilization. A fast-flowing river runs through the most important arterial road in the city. The lanes are on both sides. The facades of the buildings on both sides are full of Tibetan architectural decorative aesthetics, which are unified and rare in the inland. Behind the buildings are the mountains surrounding the city. This is a city built in a ravine, long, narrow, crowded, and lacking space for expansion. The last time I encountered a similar urban landscape was in Andorra, but compared to Kangding, Andorra has a wider space between the two mountains and a higher drop. Cars coming from Chengdu no longer have access to the expressway here and are crowded in the city, heading towards Xinduqiao. The traffic police are extremely busy, constantly driving away the cars illegally parked on the roadside, and diverting the crazy traffic.
Here we found chain coffee shops, chain hotels, chain electrical appliance stores, chain clothing stores, as well as fake milk tea shops that are the most popular in first-tier cities, express delivery companies of various brands, KTV entertainment cities, Tibetan souvenirs, and a store hidden in The main street is cramped and dark, but the charges are directly aligned with Beijing's underground parking lot. I told the parking lot owner that the price you charge is the same as in the center of Beijing! I don’t know if he understood, but he smiled and told me that Kangding is also a very big city!
More and more people wearing Tibetan costumes began to appear on the streets, and various signs and signs began to appear in two languages. Tibetan is a language that I don’t even know which direction to start reading. It was the first time that I saw it in front of me in such a large amount. I was indescribable and at a loss.
After Kangding, we drove the car in the direction of Danba, contrary to the direction of travel of most people. Danbajiaju Tibetan Village is today’s destination, we will spend one night in the Tibetan Village. There is only one provincial road from Kangding to Zangzhai. On one side of the road is the Dadu River, which flows rapidly throughout the entire journey, and on the other side are towering mountains. The road conditions in the province are average, and there is a risk of rockfalls at any time. In order to show that rockfalls can cause serious traffic accidents, the local road administration department even places severely damaged motor vehicle wreckage on the roadside to warn passing drivers.
Rockfalls and mudslides are indeed a major disaster that plagues the mountain roads here. Along the way, you can constantly see roads destroyed by rockfalls. On the smooth road, there is a huge piece of road missing. Or be smashed into a deep hole that cannot be ignored. Roads along rivers also face the risk of the roadbed being washed away by the current, causing the entire road to collapse. Due to the construction of expressways, the number of "large vehicles" on these national and provincial highways has been relatively reduced, which will reduce some damage to the road surface, but compared with the frequency and destructive power of natural road damage, it is still a drop in the bucket.
The road conditions also affected our itinerary to a great extent. The original original plan was to go from Chengdu to Dujiangyan, via Siguniang Mountain, to Xiaojin County, and then to the Danba area. However, due to excessive rainfall this summer, serious landslides occurred from Siguniang Mountain to Xiaojin County, making road repairs unable to proceed smoothly. The owner of the local B&B suggested that we abandon this route.
"It's not that you can't go, it's just that traffic control will be released, so there is no way to estimate the passage time."
What the B&B owner said more than a month ago has come true. The car rental company we made an appointment with was doing a booming business. The car we had booked was delivered at 6pm, but because the previous car rental customer was stuck in Siguniang Mountain on his return trip, the boss didn't deliver the car until nearly 12pm.
"There's really no way. They arrived at Siguniang Mountain at one o'clock in the afternoon, but they didn't enter Chengdu until ten o'clock." The boss was a little embarrassed and said that he couldn't find a place to wash the car. He paid us 50 yuan and asked us to wash the car ourselves. . Even the reversing camera was covered in mud. I couldn't imagine where the previous customer had gone with this car.
"So you don't want to go to Siguniang Mountain?" The boss seemed a little worried. He was doing holiday business, but he didn't understand why everyone was rushing to the difficult mountain road.
"No, let's go back to Ya'an from Danba." Ah Hao said. He planned the itinerary. I had not left Chengdu at that time and had no idea which one was called Ya'an and which one was Danba.
"Let's go around Zheduo Mountain as much as possible."
We thanked the boss for his advice, and now it seems that it is all accumulated experience by local people. Just like when you come to Beijing, I definitely don't recommend that you drive to visit the Forbidden City - there is no place to park the car.
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There are many local Tibetans gathered at the entrance of the Tibetan village. Once a car drives by, they will surround you and ask if you need to book accommodation in the village. If you tell them politely that the room has been reserved, they will not quickly give up their enthusiasm, but will tell you how to get to the ticket office without exception.
Among these people, men rarely wear traditional clothing, and the headdresses of some women in traditional clothing are obviously different from the impression of traditional Tibetan clothing. Thinking that Auntie had asked us if we needed to book accommodation, I couldn't restrain my curiosity and asked her about the headdress she was wearing. She told me that they were "Jiarong Tibetans".
"Jiarong Tibetans?" This is the first time I heard this name.
"Yes, the Tibetans in our area are all Jiarong Tibetans." She instinctively reached out and touched her headdress. "If you want to wear our clothes, they are sold in the village. You can buy a headdress to wear. .
The boundaries of regional cognition have been expanded again. "Jiarong Tibetans" are a branch of the Tibetan people living in parts of Garze and Aba. It is said that the ethnic group was formed in the Tang Dynasty. As Tubo guarded the Dadu and Minjiang Rivers, they gradually merged the multiple ethnic groups and tribes here to form the Jiarong Tibetans today. Today, they still have their own ethnic language "Jiarong". Different from Tibetans in other areas, Tibetans of this branch mainly focus on farming, and watchtowers and Tibetan villages are also a unique construction method of this ethnic group.
In 2005, in the "China National Geographic" selection of the most beautiful China, Danba Zangzhai, represented by Jiaju Zangzhai, topped the list of "most beautiful ancient rural towns". Along the Dajinchuan River in Danba County, Tibetan villages are not uncommon. Most of these residential houses built on gentle mountain nests, facing water and facing mountains, have towering earth-colored watchtowers in addition to three- or four-story white stone buildings. Such scenery is still rare even in Tibetan areas with rich folk customs. One is to be within the Jiarong Tibetan territory, and the other is to choose the unique landform of this mountainous area. Although there is no shortage of mountains in western Sichuan, most of them are dangerous. It is really not easy to find a mountain nest where a village can be built.
The brand-new asphalt road brings visitors into the mountains again, and Jiaju Tibetan Village is hidden on the back of the mountain. The B&B we booked was right at the entrance of the village, less than 100 meters away from the first observation deck. The exterior looks like any Tibetan village, with high white stone walls and saffron decorations surrounding the roof. The tall spiers standing at the four corners of the top floor are like four white crowns. There are a wide variety of flowers planted in the exquisitely renovated courtyard. I probably only know the Gesang flower, and I can’t name the others.
Local Tibetan villages generally have three or four floors. The first floor is a warehouse, the second and third floors are rooms for home use, and the top floor is a sutra hall. Nowadays, for the renovation of B&Bs, this floor distribution can no longer be used as a reference, because generally speaking, each floor is a guest room. The B&B we chose also has a huge terrace facing the other side of the river, allowing almost every room to open the door and have a bright and open view. There are also two long tables on the first floor where guests can rest and drink tea.
Of course Ah Hao and I had no interest in drinking tea. We walked out of the hotel along the road and continued up the mountain for less than 100 meters to the "No. 1 Observation Deck" of Zangzhai. From here, you can see most of the Tibetan village in the nest. It is slightly different from a Tibetan village we encountered on the road. There are not many watchtowers here. Perhaps it is different from the situation and situation when each village was established. I thought the watchtowers played more of a lookout and defense role. Perhaps life in Jiaju Zangzhai has always been relatively peaceful.
I admired how the Jiarong Tibetans were able to find such a place to stay in the mountains. The mountain becomes gentle only here, with the roaring Jinchuan River at your feet, and the thousand-meter-high mountain facing the cliffs and rugged rocks. The lush woods hide the Tibetan villages, and they appear to be both united and independent. It is a sight of residential buildings that I have never seen before, and a national lifestyle that I have never been exposed to.
The B&B reserved dinner for us. This was my first time trying authentic Tibetan food. The staple food is a food called tsampa, which is made from highland barley, milk grains and other common foods in Tibet and made into noodles, and then kneaded with bare hands. The color and hand-made shape make this dish very difficult to describe in words, but in terms of taste, it was my favorite staple dish of the night. The taste is soft and glutinous, and you can taste the sweetness and graininess of milk grains. It is very different from the delicate staple food I have eaten before.
The chefs and waiters are all authentic locals. They danced in the restaurant the whole time while the guests were eating. It was not an organized performance dance, but when the music played, their bodies started to move. During the meal, a beautiful Tibetan sister came next to us and offered a khata to us both. I didn’t know what everyone was going to do when receiving the khata, so I just smiled in return, hoping that she could feel the feeling of a girl from the plains of the Han ethnic group. May the sincerity and happiness come from afar.
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This day was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Ah Hao and I saw the bright moonlight in the mountains on the terrace of the B&B. Although the moonlight is actually the same no matter where you look, your mood and feelings will naturally be different depending on where you are. In the past, I rarely thought that I would be the kind of person who knows how to appreciate the moon. However, on this night when everything is completely silent and only the huge shadows of the dark mountains are around except the moonlight, it seems that there is nothing to do except admire the moon. It’s over. 🐑