Danba
After giving up on Danba due to no one going there, as I was going to get the bus to Ganzi a lama calls out ” Danba “. Good enough for me, so with a Chinese girl and two locals we went to Danba. Very scenic journey with the colours changing and the lama was great, stopping for photos and pointing things out, usefully the chinese girl was fluent in English.
Then when we got Danba after the 3 hour journey he offered to show us around so spent the afternnon sightseeing. Danba itself is nothing much, a sprawling newish town, concrete block buildings but with a river on one side and backed up by mountains so at least in a scenic setting. But its the surrounding area which makes it so famous with the chinese. Lovely Tibetan\Qiang villages nestled amongst the mountains and protected by high watch towers dating back hundred of years, and proved a lot harder to climb than I was expecting. And lots of old concrete houses with hundreds of years of history.
Last night took in my first Sichuan meal, a hot pot, Sichuan known for its spicy food, yes they are right, still suffering now, as bad as Issan food in Thailand. One good thing about this place is the low altitude, good to have a break and even hot at night.
This morning the lama picked us up at 7am and took us to Jiaju, voted top village in China in 2005, to watch the sunrise over the mountains and then a morning of sightseeing. Again lots of scenic landscapes and buildings and went and saw the prettiest lady in Danba, at least meant to be and whose face adorns all the promotional pictures. However now 40 but the lama said her daughter also very pretty. Danba is actually famous for its beautiful girls I’ve been told, I’ve obviously come on the wrong day -admitedly better than the surrounding area.
So lots of good sightseeing, certainly the lama and chinese girl proved excellent company and useful to have it all explained. But now they’ve gone back to Tagong and all being well I will be in Ganzi tomorrow.
Tags: Travel
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