BootsnAll Travel Network



China beginning 2 Shangli

So the motorbike dropped me off at the bridge to the old town, I crossed over and went to the first building, a lovely old place and took a room with a balcony with excellent views. Unfortunately I hadn’t checked the water situation and instead of a nice hot shower it was a freezing cold bucket. But that at least refreshed me and within 25 minutes had found a nice bar.
Ended up staying 4 nights in Shangli, a chance to get over the jet lag and a relaxing place. Shangli from memory was one of the old tea horse stops going back centuries so has lots of old buildings and history. Also tend to get a bit of atmosphere as the Chinese use them as party towns. It is also an ideal base for visiting the Bifengxia panda base – it turned out this was where the truck had dropped me off and was a long way even when taking the minivan.
Bifengxia took over after Woolong was destroyed by the 2008 earthquake. Its in a lovely setting, set in forests and a deep gorge. The pandas themselves are probably better seen in Chengdu as the enclosures here not as nice and more spread out. However where as there you had packed crowds here come lunchtime I had the place to myself as even the staff went for their lunch. So I sat down had a coffee and as I sat there one of the pandas came out and climbed a tree and another walked up to me. It was so sweet in such a lovely setting. Then after I did a nice hike down the gorge along the river and thru the forest and back up the other side. Got back to the road and sat on the wall towait for the bus to take me back to the reception area. I put my bag on the wall next to me only for it to roll back and to my horror fall down then quickly descend under the road and on its way back down the gorge. Not only did it have a camera in it but all the sd cards rechargers kindle tablet and 2 jackets. My heart sunk but luckily it dropped about 30 meters and then stopped right on the ledge before the abyss below. One of the park guys kindly climbed down and I was extremely relieved plus some. But all told a good day.

Yesterday took the minivan back to YaAn then a 8 hour boring bus journey to Kading. At least this time I got a good hotel with the vip room and a chance to do some washing.
Tomorrow head for Daocheng in the middle of nowhere. Have covered some of the route previously and a lovely trip but high altitude so probably cold.
Will try to update where possible.



Tags:

Comments are closed.