As close as I'll get?
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2005
1
225
248
Trip End
Aug 15, 2008
Ganze, China
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Although architecturally perhaps not the most interesting, Ganze is a large market town at the crossroads of two major routes through the Tibetan regions, and as such is refreshingly Tibetan in character. Tibetan script outweighed Chinese, freshly removed yak furs lay drying in the streets, tall, wild haired Tibetans in heavy long coats with absurdly long sleeves (making me quite jealous, with only cheap gloves to keep my fingers from freezing) and greetings came as 'tashi delay' instead of 'ni hao'. Except with me, that was. Even here, they seemed to know the drill - foreigner appears, say 'hello!', then stare intently until they feel really, really uncomfortable. And being almost the only foreigner in town, I got a lot of this. At least they smiled.
One guest house worth a mention is the Himalaya Hotel. More comfortable than I was expecting for a backwater town, they donate the profits of the business to inadequately funded local schools, a common problem in Tibetan Sichuan. And they have a great herbal sauna.
Although the town itself is of some interest, it is dwarfed by the magnificence of the surrounding country. The Chola Shan range, so impressive when first seen, stand snow peaked and high above the buildings, dominating the view no matter where you stand. A short taxi ride out of town and you're in the middle of a vast, empty valley; no vegetation to explain the existence of the scattered villages, but an emptiness and seclusion suitable for the many, many monasteries littering the landscape. Although Ganze monastery, reached through the winding lanes of town, a sprawling hillside complex of whitewashed and red timbered monks' quarters, seemed peaceful (despite the throbbing Tibetan techno blasting from some unknown source in the old town below) compared to the commerce of the main streets, those places properly isolated and dwarfed by the weight of the mountains, so close at hand, with pictures of the Dalai Lama openly displayed despite being so close to the 'border' with Tibet seemed more in harmony with their environment.
The landscape itself was just begging to be explored, though on horseback is not the best way to do so. The idea of riding across the steppe, small lakes and towering mountains all around, is quite an appealing image, but unfortunately the reality didn't quite live up to expectations. For a start, the horses were tiny. Good, solid animals, and capable of walking for days on end I'm sure, but I don't think I would want to with my knees up around my ears. Also, it seemed that all of the trained animals were out working; the beasts we were given seemed a little less than ready for us. I was lucky, and got the one that just wanted to walk in circles no matter what command was yelled. Evan (quick links: blog - www.mcfrylock.blogspot.com band site: www.sonicbids.com/veryreallyso ), the only other foreigner in town, wasn't quite so fortunate. An experienced rider, he was given a horse that was quite clearly rabid, as it came out of the stable rearing and foaming at the mouth. The others weren't much better; in the course of 20 minutes, two people had been thrown (one quite seriously) and two of the horses had escaped. I was the only one who managed to retain my mount, though only because it was such an effort to get him to move at all.
Abandoning that idea, going for a walk seemed a much less life threatening way of seeing the area. Within a few minutes, we had crested a ridge and were out of sight of any traces of civilisation, and the views across the remote, rocky grassland were astonishing. I think I would have been happy just to carry on walking through that landscape, but it was already late in the afternoon and after an hour or so, we hit a suitably gorgeous, windswept viewpoint that provided a suitable point to turn around and go back. Attempting those snowy peaks was tempting, though.
It's strange for me to think that there existed such a sense of peace out here, so contrary to the troubles that occurred just a couple of weeks later.
