Discovering Yunnan’s Tibetan Plateau - A personal Shangri-La (III)

Publish Time: 2017-12-14 Author: Bruce Connolly From: chinadaily.com.cn

Food stalls were intriguing. While vegetables such as corn and potatoes were produced locally the large quantities of fresh fruits must have been trucked up from lower parts of Yunnan. Locals laughed as I tried to photo a table heaving with sheep heads - maybe what the copper cooking pots were for? Then there were the restaurant booths where cooking was through woks over wood-fired stoves.

Smoking long stem pipe 1995. [Photo by Bruce Connolly/chinadaily.com.cn]

It was the constant sense of activity. While some Bai women sat having lunch at an outdoor eatery, a Tibetan grandmother with a young boy walked past alongside other heavily garbed women chatting profusely.

Traders selling mushrooms at roadside 1995. [Photo by Bruce Connolly/chinadaily.com.cn]

So quickly I was realizing Zhongdian was a discovery where I could have spent a considerable amount of time, but that was a luxury in short supply. I knew I had to get every minute out of my remaining few days there.

Vegetable stall holder Zhongdian 1995. [Photo by Bruce Connolly/chinadaily.com.cn]

Walking initially was my preferred way of discovering Zhongdian. With very few cars on the streets most people got around by bicycle, small three-wheel farm pick-up trucks or by rather dated minibuses. Larger buses occasionally headed north out of town toward centers such as Benzilan, bordering Sichuan, but in 1995 unfortunately off-limit to foreign travelers. Indeed Zhongdain had only recently been opened-up. Being relatively compact a short walk would soon lead into the surrounding countryside. A hill rising a short distance to the north was my initial destination. However I had forgotten something - altitude! With the town itself mostly flat, walking proved no problem, but going up a small hill was unexpectedly challenging. However, reaching the summit covered with prayer flags the view was of the urban core: of countless whitewashed villages set amidst an expanse of green; of a distant lake and the nearby monastery. It was obvious there lay much more to discover about my personal "Shangri-la" with Tibet oh so close but still so far from me.

It was time to hire a bicycle!