On the Road

*Make sure you continue to check out the mobile section of the site.  I’ll be live blogging (as much as possible) from the beginning to the end… just because I figure you guys deserve to know exactly how cold I am.

Tonight at 9:30pm(7:30am CST) I depart for an 9 day 5,000km+ trip from my home in Qinghai to two of China’s largest cities and then crossing through Sichuan and to one of the coolest places in the world – KangDing.  After visiting KangDing for about 3 days I’ll continue overland from Sichuan to Qinghai in time to get back home for Christmas on the plateau.  A little work, some important visa meetings, and some fun.

I anticipate being cold – really cold.  Why’s that? Mostly because China is just kinda cold in the winter…especially the last 4 days of my trip in the Kham regions of Sichuan and Qinghai.  I’m especially excited about the last few days because it’s a good opportunity to see parts of the plateau that I have yet to see – specifically Kangding.

So why is Kangding so cool?  Check it out:

Kangding, known as Dartsendo དར་རྩེ་མདོ། / Dardo དར་མདོ་ in Tibetan, is the capital town of Garnze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture དཀར་མཛེས་ཁུལ་ located in western Sichuan province. Kangding sits at 2,600m and has a population of around 100,000. Part of the traditional Tibetan region of Kham ཁམས་, Kangding has always been the gateway to the Tibetan world. The town itself is roughly 40% Tibetan, 40% Chinese with the remaining 20% being other minorities such as Qiang, Yi and Hui. Everything east of Kangding is inhabited primarily by Han Chinese while everything west of Kangding is predominantly Tibetan.

There are over 20 mountains the rise over 20,000 feet within 40 miles of downtown Kangding.  Dartsendo, known in Chinese as Kangding, sits at 8600 feet above sea level in a very narrow valley with the large Gyeto River flowing down the middle. The town is surrounded by mountains – with the highest, Mt. Dentok, rising to over 17,000 feet.

Check out the mobile section of the site.  I’ll be live blogging (as much as possible) from the beginning to the end… just because I figure you guys deserve to know exactly how cold I am