China's Wild Frontier: The Tibetan Kham Area
ex-Marine (husband, Steve) and I paid a visit to a small portion of Tibet's Eastern Plateau in 2007 and loved the remoteness, nomads, snow-capped mountains, monasteries and still vibrant Tibetan culture. We worked our way from Qinghai Province, through Gansu Province, and ended up in Sichuan concentrating on an intensive study of Tibetan Khampa culture
An itinerary from Wilderness Travel, "Heart of Kham" was included in their 2008 catalog visiting the area west of Chengdu, another area we had yet to see. This area of the Tibetan Plateau is known as Kham, home of the famous Khampa warriors with tall leather boots, turquoise jewelry and portions of this trip involved camping (no other "decent" facilities). Big sigh from ex-Marine who detests climbing in and out of the tents. It was considered an adventurous overland and camping journey with hikes on pilgrimage paths along holy lakes, ancient trading towns and the annual Litang Horse Festival. A grudging okay and we booked on the July, 2008 departure along with friends dating back to our old Pakistan Hunza Trip, Margie and Art, also run by Wilderness Travel.
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Unfortunately, the 2008 Olympics and Sichuan earthquakes put the kibosh on this trip. The Chinese Government stopped offering permits into this area and the trip was cancelled.
Enter 2009 and I decided to look into a customized Kham exploration through my go-to person in Shanghai, Cindy at Shanghai Far East Expeditions. Shanghai Far East arranged all of our travel into Central China (incredible Pingyao included), Tibet's Eastern Plateau, Yunnan, and always comes up with unique ideas. Cindy suggested omitting the Litang Horse Festival for two reasons. July-August is rainy season in the Litang area and the larger and better Yushu Horse Festival is more authentic.
There would be no camping. The trip would begin in Xining, working it's way through Quinghai Province, into Sichuan Province, and end in Chengdu. Cindy booked the fantastic Mr. Wang as our driver for the entire tour who previously drove us through the Tibetan Plateau. Mr. Wang knows exactly what we enjoy seeing, favorite Chinese foods, and is a phenomenal driver who knows how to make things happen.
A little more itinerary tweaking of the really "off the beaten track" route... and ready to go...
