We explored Barkam for a few hours and headed up the mountains to Thuchen. The drive was spectacular as evidenced by these shots out of the van window. Prayer flags, amazing mountains, clear skies – just beautiful!!!!
We travelled the Diwen Expressway to Barkam. Known as the ‘Tunnel region’, there were 27 tunnels under mountains. Not all tunnels were labelled with their length, but we estimate that there was about 60km of tunnel. Amazing engineering feat! Between the tunnels were bridges over lakes, raging rivers and hydroelectric power generation. 2km bridge between tunnels 5 and 6 there was a 2 km long bridge. From each power station, there were dozens of power lines out over the mountains.
Really enjoyed the English signage – West Sichuan expressway ‘Have a pleased journey’ and warnings to ‘Don’t overtired and drive.’
Once we reached Barkam, there was a challenge getting rooms. The issue seemed to be that the Police are worried about monks protesting the Chinese presence by setting themselves alight. They didn’t want us to see it or for monks to decide to do it because we were there. Given the sensitivity of the situation, we did a frantic photo shoot – capturing as much as possible!
The part of Chengdu that we found most fascinating was the Tibetan Quarter. The beauty, colour, culture … all provide a strong contrast to the rest of the city. Just LOVED it!!
June 2013 saw me taking up an amazing opportunity to be part of a scouting trip through eastern Tibet. Part of a team scoping a documentary, I had an AMAZING 2 weeks with my camera!! In the next blog posts I will share some of the highlights!
These images are taken in and around Chengdu. We Westerners are very much the minority here. There is a high degree of local curiosity, and as always I am impressed by the power of a friendly smile to win one in return! We are certainly being watched with great amusement.
Chengdu has signs up everywhere ‘Tourist City – Number One Tourist destination’ (in English interestingly). We have found very few locals with English and there aren’t many English speaking tourists about the place! Perhaps they are appealing to Chinese tourists??
There is certainly a sense of pride in the city and with the plastering of panda images, manicured high rise apartments of 15-20 storeys, pampered (often shaved) pooches and fascinating sights – there is plenty to see.
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