Just another dimension?

Sunday, December 23, 2007
Sichuan Trip part 7 -vvv

Day 7: 15 Nov 2007

Danba was named the most beautiful ancient town by the Chinese National Geographic magazine in 2005. In actual fact, the county seat looks just like any other Chinese towns. The beautiful aspects of Danba lie in the outlying Tibetan villages.

From my research, I know Danba to be famous for primarily four things: 1. Dangling, a remote undeveloped scenic spot reserved for only the hardcore travelers. 2. Tibetan villages. 3. Ancient stone towers. 4. Beautiful women.

Considering my mother’s lack of physical fitness, Dangling was out of the question. That was a pity because everyone who went there was full of praises for the place.

As for the villages, we visited the two most accessible and therefore, most touristy ones. Jiaju is particularly so because most of the houses there are well maintained, had satellite dishes on the roof and also function as some form of bed-and-breakfast. Zhonglu village is a lot less commercial but it still charges an entrance fee.

Lastly, we went to Suopo village, where the concentration of the ancient stone towers is the densest. The towers are part of the Tibetan fortress architecture. They must be hundreds of years old, quite remarkable that they are still standing. Since this was the last attraction of the day, my father took his own sweet time to take his perfect picture.

In the meantime, my mother chatted with a passing Gyarong Tibetan goat herder whose goats are scattered all over the mountain side. We found out from her that to gather the goats, they had to manually climb up there to chase the goats down. Why not use a sheepdog? According to her, they will be lucky if the dog doesn’t bite the goats. Oh my, they must have some ferocious breeds over there.

What about the beautiful women? Well, I didn’t see any. Apparently, the most pretty ones came from a particular village. Unfortunately, I had no idea where it was until much later in the trip. Information on the internet was also rather vague. Perhaps I will return another time during some festival. Everyone will surely be dressed to the nines.

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Yiheng made 12:55 PM

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