"Zhongdian" Zhongdian by l_joo

Zhongdian Travel Guide: 116 reviews and 261 photos

Its me with little Lama and my travel companion KKC doing his sketching of scenery ZhongDian. I'm wearing the little Lama’ hat and ask whether he wants to wear mine, he shook his head. These Tibetans don't speak Mandarin probably due to…you know but body-language can be useful.

Scenery
Dry rocky yellowish linear mountainous terrains without much development, extremely good-looking. Peaceful feel with cold winds thin air and sometimes Tibetan yaks appeared in a distance. Roads are near empty, inhabitants are loose, slower and quiet. For tourism, I rate 90+ points out of 100.

Just a woman

Altitude challenge
Walking on the street will cause dizziness because of its high altitude, very hard breathing especially at night. I woke many times just to get more air inhale.
I can remember we stayed at a hotel of Tibetans style, fully decorated with Tibetans fundamentals and colors.

Bad luck
While we were queuing to buy tickets at the bus station, my friend's wallet was stolen, later we ended up in the police station drinking tea and making report, from there we learned how to call 110 from the public phone.

Juast a man

Religious inhabitants
This Tibetan man together with many other Tibetans cycle rounded the entire village as a form of praying.

Driver’s Gossips
The best memory I had was the bus driver drove us from Zhongdian to Lijiang. Halfway we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant. Roadside foods are nearly tasteless but that’s okay. After eating, some passengers getting mouth itchy by talking about world politics. The driver suddenly join in saying something like this "We are the poorest country in the world, our government couldn't control the birth rate. So many peoples kept their extra descendants secretly inside villages so that nobody knows. China has more than 12 billions but 14 or 15 billions are possible." We told him about our travel in Laos where peoples are much poorer than Chinese. The bus driver replies hopelessly "Chinese to match up to Japan needs 5000 years and to compare with USA requires another 10000 years."

Last visit to Zhongdian: Dec 2000
Intro Updated Dec 5, 2004
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Reviews (10)

Because at 5000 meters above... Shopping (1)

Because at 5000 meters above sea level, you'll find your lungs very hard to breath and the weather is extremely... more travel advice

These 4 are extremely... Warnings and Dangers (1)

These 4 are extremely dangerous when visiting ZhongDian...lolThere not much of dangerous in this area except one of our... more travel advice

Local activities. Things to Do (1)

Tibetians like to do this as something spiritual in the culture, I don't know much about this, but I can see they are... more travel advice

No problem at all, you can get... - Zhongdian

No problem at all, you can get... Hotels (1)

No problem at all, you can get hotels, guesthouses in ZhongDian but I don't think I can sleep outside because it's so... more travel advice

Travelogues (1)

Written Mar 22, 2004

4 photos

Entering Tibet tips

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Comments (3)

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fattyjulia Mar 22, 2010 at 1:14 AM

hi! how to get there!? and is it safe enough?
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mim95 Jul 24, 2006 at 6:59 AM

Nice overview of the town. This is a smaller and more quiet version of Lhasa.
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Guantanamera Jun 28, 2003 at 5:12 PM

Population 15 billion... 10000 years until USA... But Tibetan casinos already at Las Vegas levels! haha