Not in Tibet but Close and the Mountains are huge!

I woke up to the sounds of goats and jack hammers. A seemingly odd combination but the rural road to Tibet is under constant assault from landslides and avalanches depending on the season...

My Tibetan ambitions hit roadblocks along the whole way. Though Beijing "re-opened" Tibet in late June, I quickly found out that things weren't nearly as simple as the China Daily would have me believe. Arriving in Chengdu, my high hopes were crushed as I learned that although I could get to Tibet (and more importantly, Everest), the trip would be costly, monitored and mired by red tape and restrictions. Turned out that all foreign tourists must go on a fully booked tour with guide and driver while staying in 3 star hotels. The common costs could be split up by 4 people in a group but for reasons which I cannot understand, the Government requires that everyone in the group be of the same nationality. One used to be able to book a cheap "tour" which would dissolve on the other side of the border allowing everyone to do as they please. This option has not been available since the pro-Tibet protests last April.

In the end, even with a hypothetical group of 4 Americans, it would have cost me $1500-$2000 and over a week of waiting to obtain the necessary permits. I decided that being babysat while shuttled around from sight to sight was not the way that I wanted to experience Tibet or Everest. It was a tough decision to make and weeks later I still wonder if it was the right one.

I left Chengdu and with it my frustrations with Tibetan travel restrictions and my growing weariness to travel on the whole. I was headed south to Yunnan with plans to get as far into the mountains as possible. And that is exactly what I did.


I'm writing this just a stone's throw from Tibet, Burma, and Sichuan province. Duqin is about as far into the Tibetan Plateau as one can get without actually crossing the border. Situated at around 9,000 feet, the days are crisp, the nights are cold and the area is filled with countless hiking opportunities. Last night was perfectly reminiscent of the Colorado mountain sunsets that I'd come to love so much in the past. The therapeutic qualities of this place are something that I've been needing to get over the oppressive qualities of China’s cities. Good thing I'll be here awhile.

I haven't been able to upload pictures since I got Yunnan so my Flickr page is in desperate need of updating but I'll have to get around to that later. I have miles of hiking ahead of me in the coming days including trips across the Mekong (yes, the river I thought I would never see again), to glaciers and remote Tibetan villages. It's the rainy season but I really hope the nice weather holds. Expect more updates as I get back to civilization.