Zhongdian

After a few weeks in Yunnan province it was time to continue on the road - we only have so much time left and China is such a big place - to Chengdu. However, since its not looking like we'll make it into Tibet, we decided to do the next best things. Take the long and rough way around into Sichuan province and finally Chengdu. By doing this we skirt the border of Tibet and are able to see a number of Tibetan villages/towns without ever crossing the border. This included numerous all day bus rides over rough terrain on shoddy buses at high altitudes. It was a tiresome and memorable journey, yet well worth all the effort.



The route we took was Zhondian, Daocheng, Litang, Kanding, and finally to Chengdu. We'll start with Zhongdian. The specialty here seems to be yak. On the left you can see myself enjoying a yak hotpot. On the right you see how you know what our particular restaurants specialty is!



































A view of the streets in Zhongdian.A monastery in town. Not a big one, but really nice one which was close to where we stayed.A massive prayer wheel. Easily the biggest we've ever seen.Me standing beside it. We had some fun turning this monster. It took almost everything I had to get it going, and once it was moving there was no stopping it!
An interesting/funny thing about this town. Every night we were here the locals would fill the 'Old Town Square' and dance to local music. All the dances were a traditional choreographed Chinese dance, a Chinese type of line dance.Some ladies preparing some corn for Jillene!And the main site to see here. A big monastery, and apparently and important one in China for those of the Buddhist faith. Not our favorite one, but something to see none-the-less.A really cute girl sitting beside her mother in the monastery we had to get a photo of.And nothing terribly important, but me getting my shoes/flip flops fixed - for the 5th time this trip! I am determined to make these things last the whole trip, not that I have a choice. Not a lot of size 12's available in China. It's a good thing a I carry spares...