Live Your Best Lives
the golden autumn of 2019, I rented a car and drove a trip to western Sichuan, driving routes: Chengdu → Dujiangyan→ Taoping Qiangzhai (Li County→ Bipenggou (Li County→), Malkang→ Xiaojin→ Danba→ Bamei → Xinduqiao→ Litang→ Daocheng→ Aden→ Daocheng→ Litang→ Xinduqiao→ Zhedushan→ Kangding→ Hailuogou→ Luding → Chengdu, which is actually the Western Sichuan Small Ring Road plus Daocheng (Aden). The only companions were my eldest son X.J., who was responsible for driving and all the arrangements and expenses during the trip, and I was responsible for planning the driving route.
X.J. was allowed to take a vacation from October 4th to 14th, and planned to invite me to drive around western Sichuan and let me arrange a specific itinerary. He mainly longed for Daocheng (Aden), however, it was obvious that only one trip to Daocheng (Aden) could not accommodate an 11-day vacation, so X.J. put forward a vision of "Chengdu→Hailuogou→ Kangding→Xinduqiao→ Daocheng Aden→ Ganzi→Seda→ Miyaluo→Chengdu". The specific plan is to rent a car in Chengdu and arrange all 11 days of vacation during the trip, so that I can help him enrich and improve. This is actually the plan of the Western Sichuan Grand Ring Road plus Daocheng (Aden), but after inquiring, I found that the essence of Ganzi is all in Daofu, where the scenery is beautiful but very primitive, and you have to hike and camp, which is obviously not suitable for us. Seda's main attractions are the Buddhist Academy and the Heavenly Burial Platform, which is also not suitable for X.J., because he is not interested in temples, and is a character who would rather be in a daze and bask in the sun in Lhasa than enter the Potala Palace. Therefore, I suggested changing to the small ring line in western Sichuan plus Daocheng (Aden), which is mainly based on natural landscapes, which is more in line with X.J.'s appetite, and the small ring line chooses a clockwise direction, and the altitude rise is relatively gentle, which can gradually adapt to the plateau. This suggestion was eventually approved by X.J., the owner and driver who contributed both money and effort and had the final say.
On October 4 (D1), I went to Chengdu today, flight MF8401 took off at 7:35 in the morning, and in order to facilitate travel, I stayed at X.J.'s house last night. Just after five o'clock in the morning, the eldest daughter-in-law L.H. got up to make breakfast and cook dumplings, and according to the rules of her hometown, relatives had to eat dumplings when they traveled far away. The little grandson also woke up early to see us off, and the family affection was deeply touching. Before six o'clock, we said goodbye to L.H. and our little grandson and set off.
Arrive at Takasaki Airport at 6:20, check in your luggage, go through security check, board at 7:05, and take off at 7:35. The flight was a Boeing 787, each person had an exclusive video, the screen was installed behind the front seat, and I was flying a Boeing 787 for the first time. Arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport at 10:40 on time, and the Chengdu company that provided car rental services sent personnel to pick us up and drop us off at the store near the South Railway Station to complete the car rental procedures. This is a company based in Xiamen, and we rent a car through the headquarters and give some discounts.
At 11:42, we drove on the road, roughly driving northwest, passing through Chengdu City, with the goal of Dujiangyan. According to my plan, we are going to stay in Dujiangyan for a while, visit, have lunch, and then go to Bipenggou, stay at Goukou tonight, and visit the ditch tomorrow morning. I went to Dujiangyan in 2001, the scenic spot is not big, and it is enough to walk for 1 hour. "Bipenggou" and X.J.'s original proposed "Mialuo" are adjacent scenic spots, but Bipenggou was developed later and more primitive, and a friend who is engaged in tourism in Sichuan suggested that we choose Bipenggou.
At 12:10, go around the city at the "Chengwen Qiongyi Expressway Wenjiachang Toll Station", then transfer to the "Chengguan Expressway" through the "Chengguan Expressway Chengdu Toll Station", and get off the highway at the "Dujiangyan" toll station at 12:53. However, as soon as I drove into Dujiangyan City, I saw a big screen announcing: "Today's Dujiangyan Scenic Area is full, tourists who have not made an appointment should not go to the scenic spot", so our Dujiangyan plan has failed. Unable to enter the scenic spot, X.J. decided to have lunch first, choose "spring water steam stone pot fish", after eating it felt average, he thought it was a local specialty of Dujiangyan, but after asking, he found out that it was Yunnan cuisine.
When you set off after dinner, the first task is to refuel, because there is not much gas when you pick up the car. Who knows, there are traffic jams everywhere, and several gas stations indicated by Baidu maps are difficult to reach, so I have no choice but to get on the highway first, ready to go to the service area to refuel. So, at 14:55, I got on the "Duwen Expressway" through the "Dujiangyan West" toll station and drove to Wenchuan. The Duwen Expressway starts from Dujiangyan and ends in Wenchuan, which is an important part of the G4217 Rongchang Expressway and was completed and opened to traffic at the end of 2012. In 2001, I went from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou, and I also walked through this area, and I went from Dujiangyan to Wenchuan along the national highway G213, and I drove along the Minjiang River by car, and I felt that the scenery was very good all the way. This time I took the highway, always through the tunnel, and didn't see any scenery. The highway was also the hardest hit area by the 5.12 earthquake in 2008, and collapsed mountains could be seen everywhere.
In order to refuel, I searched all the way for the service area, however, there were very few service areas on the Duwen Expressway, and it was only at 15:38 that I encountered the first "Mianqi service area", and hurriedly drove in, and there was already a long queue of cars waiting for refueling. Nearby is Dayu's hometown, and there is a "Dayu Altar" on the side of the road, which can be seen from the highway.
After refueling, we continued on the road, arrived at the Wenchuan intersection at 16:39, the Duwen Expressway ended here, we did not enter Wenchuan County, but crossed the "Wenchuan Tunnel" to the west, and continued along the G4217 Rongchang Expressway to the direction of "Malkang". All the way through the mountains, the highway is also a tunnel and a long bridge alternately, the long bridge winds along the trend of the valley, it is an elevated road in the valley, turning the steep valley into a flat road.
The Rongchang Expressway runs parallel to the national highway G317, and from time to time you can see the G317 flashing below us. At present, the Rongchang Expressway only allows one-way traffic between Wenchuan → Malkang, and there are very few vehicles on the road, but the national highway G317 under its feet is abnormally congested. At 16:52, due to the closure of the road ahead, he was forced to get off the highway at the "Taoping Toll Station" and change to National Highway G317 to continue westbound.At this moment, the east → west directions of National Highway G317 are unimpeded, but the west → east are blocked into long queues, and they are all private cars returning to Chengdu after the National Day holiday. G317, also known as the "Sichuan-Tibet North Line" or "Chengna Line", starts in Chengdu and ends in Naqu, Tibet.
At 16:55, we drove past "Taoping Qiang Village", stopped and sightseeed, this place was not originally a project in our plan, but because the Dujiangyan plan was in vain, the time was rich, so we planned to stop here. "Taoping Qiang Village" is located in Li County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, about 40 kilometers away from the county seat, and is located on the side of the road on National Highway G317. It is the only well-preserved ancient Qiang village in the world that is still inhabited today, and is known as a "living fossil" of Qiang architecture and folklore.
The new area is located on a large flat area next to the national highway, which can be entered and exited at will, without tickets, and cars can also drive directly in, which is obviously newly built for the development of tourism in recent years. The area is mainly filled with hotels, inns, restaurants and shops selling various ethnic handicrafts, and is crowded with tourists during the National Day holiday.
old area of Qiangzhai is located on the hillside behind the new area, and it is the real "Taoping Qiang Village". The whole ancient village is centered on tall watchtowers, the houses are connected, the corridors are connected in all directions, and the radial road network leads from the central watchtower to the exits of the village. The buildings in the village, whether they are watchtowers or residential buildings, are all made of local materials, using the flakes abundant in the surrounding mountains, and then using yellow mud as a binder to build them. The current old area of Qiangzhai has been developed into a scenic spot, the ticket is 60 yuan/person, X.J. buys a ticket, and I show my ID card (over 70 years old) to receive the "ticket discount registration form" for free entry. The registration form must be signed by the person and the remarks "safety and security" must be noted. Compared with the bustling tourists in Qiangzhai New Area (commercial area), the old area of Qiangzhai is sparsely populated and very deserted.
We didn't have much time, and after entering the village, we went straight to the watchtower of the "Qiang King's House", which is the most representative watchtower of Taoping Qiang Village. The passages in the village are intricate, the alleys are narrow and deep, and houses have been built on some lanes, and you need to pass through the houses to pass the house, even if there are road signs along the way, we have to ask for directions frequently. At present, there are still more than 100 households in the village, and the folk customs are very simple and very friendly to foreign tourists.
In the past, the Qiangzhai watchtower was mainly used for military defense, and the watchtower of the "Qiang King's Family" was about 30 meters high, with a total of nine floors, and each floor had shooting ports on the four walls, which was the commanding heights of the Qiang village. We climbed to the top of the building and looked out, there were dense houses at our feet, and there was another watchtower opposite, and the environment of Qiang Village was a deep canyon, surrounded by high mountains and mist, and the G4217 Rongchang Expressway and the national highway G317 meandered along the deep valley. The National Day holiday is coming to an end, and private cars eager to return east are lined up on the national highway.
18:10 Leave Qiangzhai, continue west along National Highway G317, a long "white dragon" appears in the mountains ahead, this is a unique cloud scene of the plateau, in low-altitude areas (such as our Fujian), the clouds and mist in the mountains are often diffuse, the boundaries are blurred, as if the fog on the ground has climbed to the mountain, and the clouds and mist on the mountains at high altitudes are clear boundaries, and it feels as if the white clouds in the sky have fallen into the mountains.
18:25 Leave G317 and re-enter G4217 through the "Xuecheng Toll Station", this section of the expressway is still one-way and can only be released from east to west. Bipenggou is located in Putou Township, Lixian County, Aba Prefecture, we drove through the "Putou" exit and did not get off the highway, and we cleverly thought that "Bipenggou" should have a special exit as a famous scenic spot, but it was an oolong, and we couldn't get off the highway when driving through Bipenggou, so we had to continue to go to the "Guergou East" to get off the highway, and then turn around and return to Bipenggou along the national highway G317, and took a long way to go wrong. 19:44 Check in to the "Shuimu Yuntian Hotel" near the entrance of the scenic spot, although the facilities are a little simple, but the sanitary conditions are acceptable. The hotel has a restaurant and beef noodles for dinner.
This hotel is run by local Tibetans, X.J. asked the head office brother to recommend the essence of Bipenggou, however, this brother claimed that "because it is a local, I don't feel that there is anything special about it."This reminds me of visiting Yuanmou "Bogor Tulin" in Yunnan in 2010, a national AAAA-level scenic spot, and a scenic spot employee told me that she has been herding sheep in the scenic spot since she was a child, and she has never thought the "Tulin" was good-looking.
On October 5 (D2), the hotel provides breakfast, which is said to be a meal standard of 10 yuan/person, and is served from 7:30. At 7:58, after breakfast and checking out, the front desk was replaced by a "Han" little girl on duty, who asked if she was actually Tibetan, but she admitted that she had been Sinicized. The ticket office of Bipenggou Scenic Area is 1.5 kilometers away from the hotel, with a wide parking lot, and we arrived at 8:04, because we arrived early, there were many parking spaces, and the fee was 20 yuan/day. Tourists must take a sightseeing bus to enter the scenic spot, and the bus ticket is bundled with the scenic spot ticket, and I am free of charge (over 70 years old), but I still need to buy a sightseeing ticket.
sightseeing buses depart from the ticket office at 8:00 at the earliest, there are many buses, although there is an endless stream of tourists, but the sightseeing buses are also one after another, You can get on the bus quickly after purchasing your ticket. Before boarding the bus, I already felt that the scenery was picturesque, the air was particularly fresh, and the small flowers on the hillside were also particularly watery.
At 8:30, board the sightseeing bus, Bipenggou is a "natural ecological scenic spot", and the sightseeing bus can only go 27 kilometers deep into the scenic spot and arrive at the "Shanghai Sub-Tourist Service Center", and can not drive further into the core area of Bipenggou. We took a sightseeing bus into the deep mountains, and the grass and trees in the field of view had begun to change their clothes after the autumn wind and frost, and the red, orange, yellow and green were alternated, and the beautiful scenery of Bipenggou gradually became better.
Arrive at "Shanghaizi" at 9:17, which is operated by the "Lixian Bipenggou Tourism Development Company", and the Anmin sign indicates that further forward is the core scenic spot of "Bipenggou", with a total length of 9 kilometers, tourists can walk on foot, or they can pay to take an environmentally friendly battery car to continue moving forward. The scenery in Bipenggou is beautiful, roughly divided into 6 viewing areas, including 82 natural attractions and 5 cultural attractions. However, in the entire Bipenggou, the most visited and most famous are the two scenic spots of "Panyang Lake" and "Swallow Rock".The environmentally friendly battery car is also divided into two sections: the first section is from "Shanghaizi" to "Panyang Lake", 4.5 kilometers, with a one-way fee of 20 yuan/person and a round-trip price of 30 yuan/person; The second section is from "Panyang Lake" to "Swallow Rock", which is also 4.5 kilometers, and it is also 20 yuan one way and 30 yuan round trip.
The "Shanghaizi" square was crowded, with long queues for tickets and rides, and the vast majority of tourists were from Chengdu. Bipenggou is known as the "Back Garden of Chengdu" because it is not far from Chengdu and can be traveled back and forth on weekends, which is especially suitable for Chengdu people to spend weekends. The National Day holiday is overcrowded, and sightseeing buses send tourists one after another, but there are also many battery cars prepared in the scenic spot, and tourists are sent away one after another. We queued up here to buy tickets and wait in line, which took about half an hour in total.
At 9:46, I got on the battery car and arrived at the "Panyang Lake" viewing area about 10 minutes later, probably because of the National Day holiday, the battery car was full at the beginning, and there was no stop along the way, so all the attractions located between Shanghaizi (the start of the battery car) and Panyang Lake (the end of the battery car) were not with the tourists. I visited Siguniang Mountain in September 2007, and the scenic traffic bus was like a bus, stopping at many scenic spots along the way, and it was very convenient for tourists to go up and down. I guess that if it weren't for the "golden porridge", the battery car here would also have an intermediate stop. The small square at the outlet of Panyang Lake is the terminal of the battery car, obviously because of the artificial damming, the outlet forms a small waterfall, behind the waterfall can see the snow-capped mountains, and there is also a "white dragon" in the mountains, the scenery is quite spectacular. Panyang Lake is named because of the frequent presence of Panyang around it, but at this moment, the lake is full of people, and Panyang should have fled far away, leaving only a Panyang sculpture still standing by the lake.
Panyang Lake is the largest lake in Bipenggou, with an altitude of 3,676 meters, a water depth of 2-6 meters, a water accumulation area of 450,000 square meters, and a clear and transparent water quality, which is a typical alpine lake. We walked along the east bank of the lake, from north to south, surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks, lush primeval forests, and beautiful scenery.The altitude of Panyang Lake is similar to that of Lhasa, Tibet, but there is no strange feeling when walking in it, and there seems to be no lack of oxygen in the air, which should be due to the dense vegetation. While walking, I suddenly saw a girl flying soap bubbles by the water, and the picture looked beautiful from a distance, so I took a picture with a telephoto photo.
The footsteps of autumn have come to the mountains, the vegetation is changing color, and the conifers are still verdant, but the broad-leaved trees and shrubs and grasses by the lake have been dressed in autumn clothes early, showing different shades of red, orange and yellow. Thick green trees, deep red autumn leaves, green lakes, blue skies, and white snow on the top of the mountain, Panyang Lake has beautiful scenery and scenery like a dream and fantasy.
There is a wooden plank road along the lake, we walk along the long plank road, through the swamp, wetland, detour to the southern end of the lake, there is a large white sand beach opposite here, deeply inserted into the center of the lake, there is also a crescent moon-shaped sculpture on it, the scenery is also very beautiful, however, the "golden porridge" is full of people, we did not go, just took a photo from a distance.
11:32 Walk to the end of the wooden plank road, which is also the starting station of the (Panyang Lake→ Swallow Rock) environmentally friendly battery car. We bought tickets, lined up, and boarded the battery car again, this time to go to Swallow Rock. The battery cars of Panyang Lake → Swallow Rock also did not stop halfway, and the 4.5-kilometer uphill road was completed in one go, reaching the parking lot of Yanziyan Scenic Area. However, the parking lot is still about 500 meters away from the real scenic spot, and you have to hike and climb after getting off the car.
At about 12:00, we walked to the "Swallow Rock", which is 3837 meters above sea level, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, and in the middle is a large area of alpine meadows, with a boulder inscribed with "Swallow Rock Nest", which is the official name of the scenic spot, because there are swallows on the cliffs to build nests. Swallow Rock is adjacent to the famous "Siguniang Mountain" scenic spot, and the back of the snow peaks on the west and south sides is the "Shuangqiaogou" and "Changping Ditch" of the Siguniang Mountain Scenic Area, so Bipenggou is also known as the "beautiful back of Siguniang Mountain". During the National Day holiday, the vast meadow is filled with crowds.
It's already noon, lunch is eaten first, and the local mountain people set up a shed near the entrance of the scenic spot to sell iron plate barbecue, and tourists first buy fresh ingredients by themselves, and then hand them over to the "chef" for processing. X.J. bought two large paper bowls of barbecue, which contained yak meat, pork belly and potato chips, totaling 100 yuan, the amount of meat was super sufficient, and the taste was excellent, and I was very satisfied. X.J. thinks it's a bit expensive, but I consider this is a scenic spot, the price should be okay, a month ago I had a hamburger set at the "McDonald's" at Xiamen North Railway Station and the "KFC" at Jiujiang Railway Station, the price is more than 50 yuan, and the burgers are only the size of a small teacup, compared with this big bowl of "teppanyaki", the cost performance is much lower.
There is a waterfall on the nearby mountain, with a drop of 360 meters, known as the "Flying Dragon Waterfall", the water pours down from the cliff, passes several layers of rocks and disappears into the jungle, as if it is a white dragon flying in the mountains. There is also a red stone ditch on the opposite mountain, a glacial meltwater flows down from the top of the mountain, and the sides are covered with red stones, and the stone is red because it has a red algae attached to the surface, which has extremely high requirements for the environment, and can not survive if there is a little pollution.
The two walked slowly around the big meadow, stopping from time to time to watch the scenery and take pictures, "Swallow Rock" is higher than the "Panyang Lake" altitude, the autumn color is more intense, most of the trees in the mountains have been changed into autumn clothes, and because the leaves are gradually changing color, even red, orange, yellow, green, there are different tones, looking around, bright red, light red, orange red, orange yellow, golden yellow, light yellow colors and dark green, light green, yellow and green that have not completely changed color blend with each other, layer upon layer, gorgeous and colorful, bringing us a time, Another surprise. The beauty of autumn leaves is not inferior to spring flowers, it is really "the autumn wind is strong once a year, not like spring, better than spring!" ”。
It took about 80 minutes, walked around the big meadow, at an altitude of more than 3,800 meters, and it would be difficult to walk too much, and I needed to take a deep breath from time to time. There were people everywhere during the November holiday, and a few of them said they were from Chengdu, some were traveling with their families to help the elderly, and some even brought a few months of babies. I asked what to do if they encountered a plateau, and they all said that it didn't matter, and the "high reaction" did not come immediately, it needed to have a brewing process, and they would not stay too long when they came up, and they had already gone down the mountain before the "high reaction" occurred.There is a clear stream in the center of the grassland, which originates from the surrounding snowy peaks, which should also be the source of Panyang Lake.
At 14:10, I was ready to take the battery car down the mountain, but at this moment, the tourists waiting for the bus were already in a long queue of nearly 600 meters, extending from the parking lot to the entrance of the Swallow Rock Scenic Area, crossing the "barbecue greenhouse", and extending inward for nearly 100 meters. The two had to line up honestly, sometimes "punished to stop" and sometimes moved, but on the way, they also saw the "red stone" on the side of the road up close. After queuing for about 40 minutes, we were able to board the bus, but we had to queue up again after arriving at Panyang Lake, and the long queue in this place has also exceeded the north-south length of Panyang Lake, and we have to continue to "penalize stops". Finally, I was able to board the bus and arrived at the "Shanghaizi" parking lot at 15:34, but I didn't expect to transfer to the sightseeing bus here very smoothly, basically the car and other people, you can go with you.
At 16:25, the bus arrived at the parking lot of the "Bipenggou Scenic Area Ticket Office" and found our own car, X.J. felt very tired because of the long "penalty stop", in order to ensure driving safety, he decided to take a nap in the car for a while, and only hit the road at 16:50. Drive out of the intersection of Bipenggou Scenic Area, turn left onto National Highway G317, the goal is "Malkang", the capital of Aba Autonomous Prefecture, where we will stay tonight. 17:22 Passing through "Gurgou", which is a beautiful town, and at 17:59 passing through Miaro Town, compared with the commercial Gurgou Town, the buildings of Miaro Town are more stylish and more exquisite. Gurgou, Miaro and Bipenggou Scenic Area are not far away, and the landscape is also very similar, and these three places can only go to one place. At 18:20, pass the "End of Village" toll station and re-enter the G4217 Rongchang Expressway (this section is also known as the Wenma Expressway), pass through the Partridge Mountain Tunnel at 18:25, and get off the highway at the "Malkang East" toll station at 18:55.
18:57 Enter the "Malkang" city, 19:03 check in the "Mansion Celebrity Hotel", the room is on the second floor of the auxiliary building, there is no elevator, the room is not big, but the facilities are okay. At about 20 o'clock, I had dinner at the "Luxi Fat Cow" next to the hotel, a hot pot set for two, the dishes were very exquisite, but there was not much beef rations, and it was arranged in the shape of a Tibetan girl presenting Hada.
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