October 04, 2005 Xiangcheng, Sichuan, China, elevation ~3,200 m (~10,500 ft)
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The van driver didn’t show up. Luckily, the daily bus was about to leave, and I was able to get a seat. The ticket lady refused to sell me a ticket, so I was worried I was going to get thrown off the bus. But I was OK, and after a few hours we stopped and the driver asked me for money by extending his thumb and index finger. The Chinese have their own system of finger counting, and you can count to nine using one hand, but I haven’t mastered it yet, and when I hesitated, he counted in English “one… two… three… four… five… six,” invoking laughter from the rest of the bus.
It was another ride through spectacular scenery. We went up and up and over two more high passes. There were actually nomads at the top of the first, with their herd of yaks, well above 5,000 m! We were on top of the second pass for a long time, and it was an eerie, rocky tundra moonscape. No yaks up there.
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Xiangcheng is an ugly little town, completely under construction, with piles of rocks everywhere, and huge trucks and tractors driving around honking loudly. There were crowds of people hanging about, I think because of the holiday.
But the unpleasant town is in a beautiful valley setting, and I walked out into it. Once I left town it was quiet and peaceful. Xiangcheng means “string of pears” in Tibetan, and the little clusters of whitewashed Tibetan buildings did indeed look like pearls.
The weather here is pleasant, as we came down a considerable amount. I was actually sweating a little during the walk. It’s even nice at night.