Kham Travel Guide

When we are saying Kham, we generally mean the adjoining area between East Tibet A.R., South Qinghai, West Sichuan and North Yunnan, this area features in big mountains, deep rivers,wide valleys, virgin beauties and Tibetan culture. The population here is about 3 millions, Tibetans make the most part of it.

People there, usually named as Khambas, became famous for their warlike spirit, a lot of legends and stories could portray you a vivid figure of Khamba. "Kham" means "eastern" while "Ba" is for "person" in Tibetan. Khambas are the people inhabited in the east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. They are tall, well-built, fearless and open of countenance.

Major Attractions

Daocheng Yading

In the far southeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, under the administration of Sichuan Province, Daocheng is a Kham county blessed with a varied and beautiful landscape.

From the northern glacial-erosion highland where thousands of lakes and ponds are scattered and crowds of wild animals are inhabited, the topography descends through the rolling hills of Daoba River Valleys where there is a lot of farming, pasturing and pilgrimaging, across the comparatively flat heartland, up to the soaring heights of the mountainous south where stands a vast mountain consisting of three isolated peaks known as Khongga(snow-capped) Reesum(3 moutains) Gombo(religious protector).

Dacheng is the poetry of all great outdoors, the paradise of the wild animals, and also a pilgrim must for a Buddhist in his lifetime.

Kangding

It is a fairly big town nestled in a steep river valley at the confluence of the swift Zheduo and Yala Rivers, known as the Dar and Tse in Tibetan. Towering above Kangding is the mighty peak of Gongga Mountain (7556 m).

The town has been a trade center between the two cultures of centuries with the exchange of yak hides, wool, Tibetan herbs and, especially, bricks of tea from Ya'an wrapped in yak hide. It also served as an important staging post on the road to Lhasa, as indeed it does today.

In Dartsendo (Kangding), you'll still see plenty of Khambas down from the hills shopping or selling huge blocks of yak butter in the market, and spot monks wandering around town in crimson robes.

Danba

Danba is a small county in the mountain valley whose residents are Gyarong Tibetans, or farmers living in a mild climate. With its green mountains and waters, birds and flowers, is the most brilliant pearl of Ganzi.

The local people are excellent masons and skilled architects who build castles, suspension bridges, dams and sinking wells. Their homes are block made from different size stones and built like fortresses.

Because the amount of ancient watchtowers here, Danba County is also called "the country with thousands of pillboxes", and because beauties are gathering here, it is also called "the beauty valley". Here are the sites of ancient mankind activities 5,000 years ago, and here has completely kept the life customs of Jiarong Tibetan, and has the scenic spots of The Fist Living Village, scenery gallery, Yak's ditch, and magical Molduo Mountain and Dangling Mountain etc.

Litang

Lying in the surroundings of vast grasslands at an elevation of 4100m, 286km west of Kangding, Litang, an oasis between Chengdu and Tibet, used to be an important stage on the Tea-Horse Caravans Route, now is a stop on south Sichuan-Tibet highway, a simple pasturing area with bustling bazaar where the nomads and Tibetans gather to trade their products.

Litang is quite famous for its horse racing festival. The festival stages in August every year and lasts for 10 days in Litang, celebrated with singing, dancing, eating and of course racing. Tibetans come a long way from and set their tents in the grasslands around, which offers an extraordinary scene in the grassland a world of tents.

After the wonderful ceremony with traditional Tibetan dancing and songs, the most exciting event is the horse races. The brave riders will take their pretty decorated horses to participate the races and showcase their excellent horse riding skills. The women are all in their most beautiful best with magnificent jewelry as they shower their applauses on their heroes.

Hailuogou

Located in the Gongga Mountains in western Sichuan, Hailuo Gou is the biggest glacier park in China. Gongga mountains, at the height of 7556 meters above the sea level, called as "the King of the mountains", is the 11th highest mountains in the world and the highest one in Sichuan Province.

Hailuogou Glacier, formed 16 million years ago, is one of the natural wonders of the world. The vast movement of the earth's crust caused the Gongga mountains to thrust upward and the moderate climatic circumstances both created the good conditions of the formation of the modern glacier and simultaneously made large amount of sights of glaciers including ice mushrooms, ice pagoda forest, ice stairs, ice grooves ,ice pearl lake and ice crystal etc. It boasts three characters: it is the lowest altitude glacier in the same altitude glaciers; with high activity, and with the most integrity of glaciered landform.

How to Get in?

By ROAD

Road transportation is the only way for getting there. There are several roads leading to this part, the main roads are from Chengdu and from Tibet.

Best Time to Come

Kham is quite abundant of touristy sources, so different sceneries of Kham show their best in different seasons although visitors can visit this wonderland at any time.

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