The Short Report - More Words and Photos From The Himalaya

I'm now back in Shangri-la after week away in the Chinese Himalaya of far western Yunnan province near the boarder of Tibet. The journey began with a 10 hour bus ride along exposed mountain roads passing over 5000 metres 3 times on the way to Deqin. From there it’s a couple of local taxi rides along bumpy mountain roads to the the entrance of Meili Snow Moutain National park.

First I visited Mingyon Glacier before moving on to a steep long climb over an impressive pass into a valley resembling what I’d imagine Shangri-la to be really be like. Glacieated peaks scraping the sky above 6000 meters with valleys falling into Upper and Lower Yuebang villages. Aside of an occasional satellite dish and cell phones with unbelievable reception, little has changed.

You can only reach the Tibetan Yuebang villages by horse or foot and it takes 6 to 8 hours depending. Stroll down the single lane of that passes through each community and your very likely to be dodging yaks, horses, pigs, chickens, an odd pesky duck and the by product of digestion thereof.

I spent 3 nights in the Valley in the company of 4 others. A South African couple, a young woman from England, and a young professional from Shanghai. I would only see 3 other westerners, two French and one other Brit. The only people who really know about the the area are Chinese and they tend to be a little more adventurous side because its not an easy area to get to.

This has been this highlight of my Chinese travels thus far and is really more of what I’m interested in. Here are some photos of the people I hiked with as well as villagers along the way.