kjp

Yup, remote is the right word. It was either this or more touristy places (yup, like I'm going to do that...), and I felt like this was a better option anyway. Having just paid out touristy stuff, the walk that I'll be doing later this week is on several tourist backpacker trails. Anyhow.

We had a shortish bus trip this morning - 4 1/2 hrs. (Leaving at 7 am....). I've been feeling a lot better (although not 100%) than yesterday. It's kind of weird seeing trees on the tops of mountains way down below you, and being happy with that (as that's were you'll be soon). There was some weird landscapes - just rocks and a few low lying (< 0.50 m) shrubs. Nothing can live up there, pretty much.

There isn't much in XiangCheng - it's a Tibetan town that has an influx of Han Chinese people coming in and building a new town around the old town.... There's a pretty cool 1600's (Buddist) monestry at the top of the hill overlooking the town which I've just got back from checking out - it's pretty impressive. 1/2 hr from the end of the trip a whole bunch of locals got on the bus (to get a ride into town). The guy who sat next to me looked like a Tibetan Nelson Mandella. XiangCheng is pretty much an overnight stop to break up the journey to Zhongdian in Yunnan province.