Medog, the Holy Land of Lotus, has always been my travel goal. This time, finally, this wish will come true. First of all, we must talk about our temporary small team this time. The 6 of us, except the driver Xiao Li, all signed up with the travel agency online, and lined up according to age: Brother Ding from Shanghai, 70 years old, his wife, Sister Yan, me, and Suzhou Two girls, Xiao Wang from Beijing, and Xiao Zhang from Beijing. Although it was the first time we met, we got along very well and took care of each other, which made this trip to Medog full of harmony and friendship.
September 5: Lhasa to Lulang. About 480 kilometers.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, the driver Xiao Li drove his BAIC Warrior off-road vehicle, pulled the five of us, and started our journey along the Lalin Expressway. Xiao Li is from Jianyang, Sichuan. He has been in Lhasa for many years. He is a very nice person. The key is that his driving skills are also very good, stable and fast. Among the few of us, Xiao Wang from Suzhou has been in Tibet for a while, and has been familiar with Xiao Li through several places. She sat in the co-pilot seat, talked and laughed with Xiao Li all the way, and acted as the director of the office; the elder brother from Shanghai The eldest sister is talkative and forthright; Xiao Zhang and I in Beijing are of the moderate type, chatting with each other, and we are not lonely on the road.
The Lalin Expressway has not been opened for a long time, and the Mira Tunnel has not yet been completed. When passing through the Mira Pass, we still took the old road. From a distance, I saw the colorful prayer flags fluttering in the wind at the Mira Pass. Recalling the first time I passed Mira Mountain Pass, the place was simple, except for these prayer flags and a temporary open-air toilet, there was almost nothing else on the mountain. But now, there are sculptures and many buildings here, and even the newly built toilets are hung with the sign of "revolution", which can really be called a shotgun change. After passing Mira Mountain, we entered the territory of Gongbu Jiangda County. The beautiful and pure Niyang River has always been with us, making our journey more colorful. Gongbu Jiangda County, next to the Niyang River, is small, but clean and tidy. We ate lunch in the county town and tasted the specialty there—the fish from the Niyang River. I don’t know the name, but the fish is very firm. delicious. After lunch, continue to move forward, and in a short time, you will arrive at Sejila Mountain.
Sejila Mountain belongs to the Nyainqentanglha Mountains. It is the watershed between the Niyang River Basin and the Palong Zangbo River. It is also a climate dividing line, which makes the climate of Nyingchi and Lulang significantly different. Of course, the most attractive thing about climbing Sejila Mountain and climbing the Sejila Pass at an altitude of more than 4,700 meters is whether you can see the handsome and majestic appearance of Nanga Bawa Peak. Because of the changeable climate here, Namjagbarwa Peak is often hidden in the clouds and mist, appearing mysterious. Here, the blue sky and white clouds at the bottom of the mountain turned into rain and snow on the mountainside. We smiled and said in the car, whether we can see Namjagbarwa this time depends on our luck. Strange to say, our car had just stopped in the parking lot of the mountain pass when we heard someone shouting "it's exposed". We hurriedly got out of the car and looked up. Sure enough, behind the thick clouds, a pagoda-shaped mountain was faintly exposed.
【Nanga Bawa Peak】
We hurried to the viewing platform, the cold wind blowing snow particles made our faces hurt, but the joy of seeing Namjagbarwa made us not care to dodge, and raised the camera to shoot wildly. After a while, the sun came out of the clouds, the rain and snow stopped, and the blue sky and white clouds returned to the world as if released from the pocket of the gods. Namjagbarwa really stands in front of us. From that moment on, for the whole afternoon, on our way down the mountain, in Lulang Linhai, we asked Xiao Li to stop the car countless times, changed one angle after another, looked at it, took a look at it, and even crossed the river with him. The confronting Gala Bailei Peak has also been included in the camera countless times by us.
【Gala Bailei Peak】
In the evening, we arrived in Lulang Town.
[Lulang town, the stone pot chicken head office is here]
Lulang means "Dragon King Valley" and "the place where immortals live", and is known as "natural oxygen bar". This is a small town at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. Under the white snow-capped mountains, green trees, grasses and colorful flowers cover the slopes, and white tents are dotted among them. It is clean and serene, resembling the scenery of Switzerland. It is said that what is being built here is the so-called "Little Switzerland of China". Dinner, of course, is indispensable here: stone pot chicken, and matsutake. We were so happy that we ate and chatted, and the more we talked, the more excited we were, until it was very late.
It's night, stay at Tashigang Folk Village.
September 6: Lulang to Ranwu. 300 kilometers.
After getting up in the morning, walk around the village of Zhaxigang. The farmers here are already relatively wealthy. Not only are the houses of better quality, but also many houses with Tibetan characteristics can be seen to be used for business at a glance. With this income, the family is not far behind.
Today's distance is not very far, nearly 300 kilometers. In order to see more scenery, we hit the road without breakfast. This section of the 318 line is along the Palong Zangbo River. The water is so powerful that you can only hear the sound of the water along the way, and the water is rushing.
[The rapid Palong Zangbo River]
[The extra-large bridge at the entrance of the No. 2 tunnel in Shalonggou and the big bend of the Palong Zangbo River next to it]
Passing through Pailong and Tongmai, they were originally called natural barriers. Now that the roads have been repaired and the bridges have been erected, if you don’t know the history and no one introduces you, you will never think that this place used to be Sichuan. Extremely dangerous location on the Tibetan line. We stopped at Tongmai Tianxian and saw three bridges almost side by side in front of us, each with a longer history than the other. The pedestrian iron cable bridge was a temporary bridge built for the construction of a new bridge after the original cement bridge was destroyed at the end of the last century. It served such a great purpose that it was not demolished after the new bridge was built. The latest and most majestic bridge is the Tongmaite Bridge, which was opened to traffic in 2016. When there were no such bridges, the turbulent water flow of the Yigong Zangbo River turned here for more than ten kilometers from Tongmai to Pailong, which formed a huge impact force, coupled with other natural disasters, making this place a famous bridge on the Sichuan-Tibet line. "Road to Death". We watched, listened, and sighed. The history of these three bridges is undoubtedly the epitome of the transformation of the Sichuan-Tibet line from a dangerous road to a thorough road.
[The Three Generations Bridge of Tongmai Natural Insurance, the epitome of the development of Line 318]
At noon, I went to Bomi County for lunch. One of the dishes was the rather well-known braised Tibetan pork.
Proceed onwards after the meal. First, we went to Midui Glacier, which is known as the most beautiful glacier. According to reports, it is the most important marine glacier in Tibet, one of the three major marine glaciers in China, and the lowest altitude glacier in my country. But after reading it, I feel that the name is a bit misleading, and it is not as spectacular as the glaciers seen in Hailuogou. Midui Glacier can only be seen from a distance across the icy lake at the foot of the mountain. It is actually a scene formed by the water flowing down from the snow-capped mountains after the ice and snow have melted. The shock of the glacier.
【Midui Glacier】
Then head east all the way to Ranwu Lake. This lake also refreshed my understanding of the word lake. In fact, there is no closed environment like the lakes we saw in the interior. Ranwu Lake is actually a part of the river, but the terrain here is relatively flat, the water flow slows down, and the river is relatively open. Due to the good and bad weather, the surface of the river has always been dark green, and the river water is also relatively muddy. According to the driver Xiao Li, the most beautiful time for Ranwu Lake should be in spring. When there is less rain, the water flow here is very slow, clear and green, and can reflect the reflection of the opposite mountain. At that time, many people came here to enjoy it and take pictures.
[Ranwu Lake in the morning light]
When it was getting dark, our car drove into Ranwu Town. As can be seen from the map, it is only 710 kilometers away from here to Litang (the turning point of Route 318 when we drove from Chengdu to Daocheng Yading last year), that is to say, the Sichuan-Tibet line from Chengdu to Lhasa is 2200 kilometers away It is also known as the most beautiful section of the road. I have walked two-thirds of it, but I don’t know if I have a chance to finish the remaining third. Really hope to have such an opportunity!
In the evening, we ate in the hotel where we were staying, ordered the local specialty - mullet, and drank white wine.
September 7: From Ranwu to Medog. About 250 kilometers.
Today is the shortest day of the journey, but also the hardest day. Because there is about 120 kilometers of road from Bomi to Medog. This section of road has a name on the map, called Zhamo Highway, that is, the road from Zhamu Town, Bomi County, to Medog Town, Medog County, and it is also the first road leading to Medog.
In the early morning, it began to rain lightly in Ranwu. We went back the same way we walked yesterday. When passing through Bomi County to the west of the city, there is a road that turns left, which is the Zhamo Highway. It didn't take long to go on the road, passing through the dark Galongla Tunnel, this really bad road really started. So I thought, this 120-kilometer road, no matter what, there must be a slightly better road surface of tens of kilometers, right? No matter how slow you are, you should be there in three or four hours, right? Looking at his watch, it was only 10 o'clock, so he asked the driver Xiao Li, "Shall we have lunch in Medog?" It was nearly 11 o'clock when we passed the border checkpoint and started on the road. After running on the road for a while, I realized that this road may be the worst road I have ever passed. There is no one: one is that the road is not three miles flat, and the road surface seems to have been hit by something, and there are large and small pits all over the road. , Later, I simply ignored the small pits because there were too many; second, people who ride a car like a sedan chair can’t stand the bumps. After a long time, several of us even scientifically classified the bumps. One category is called "soft bumps". "Bumping" refers to encountering a series of big pits. When the car gets on and off, we also go up and down in the car. When we are lucky, it feels okay, like a well-intentioned car bumping, which is finally tolerable; the other type is called "hard" "Bump", that is, suddenly encountering a pit or a ditch, with a "boom", people are completely unprepared. It feels like sitting directly from the air to the ground. This is more uncomfortable. If it was placed in the first two years, my waist It may not work directly. This road is actually a combination of a soft ride and a hard ride. You are either on a soft ride or a hard ride. The two must be one of the two; the third is that natural disasters are prone to occur and have great lethality. There are warnings of mudslides and landslides everywhere along the way. The big brand waiting for the disaster, I figured it out after walking this way. Why the roads in Medog have been unable to access roads now that technology is so advanced is because of the combination of natural disasters and geological structures here. Xiao Li said that there was a road built here, that is, the Zha-Mo Highway. The road surface level is quite high, but it was washed away in the second year, and then repaired every year, and destroyed every year, so until now there is no fixed long-distance bus here. , Getting in and out depends entirely on off-road vehicles, and it depends on God's face and luck.
However, just because of the inconvenient transportation, the natural features along the road still maintain the original ecological appearance, which is quite distinctive. What is even more unexpected is that the altitude has been dropping after the Galongla Tunnel. Not far from Medog, the temperature is obviously rising. The plants on the roadside also show the characteristics of tropical rainforest, especially banana trees and Banyan trees with long aerial roots can be seen everywhere. I checked the ink marks and found that the highest temperature here has reached 34 degrees, which is hotter than the day in Zhengzhou! So, we changed our autumn clothes one after another and redressed as summer.
[Not too far from Bomi, there is already a tropical scenery next to the Zhamo Highway]
At noon, we ate next to the 52K checkpoint. Only then did I understand what Xiao Li's smile meant just now. After dinner, continue on the road. From time to time along the way, you can see a waterfall hanging from the opposite bank of the mighty Yarlung Zangbo River. It is said that there are more than 40 waterfalls beside this road, and the largest drop is more than 100 meters. At first we stopped to take pictures. Later, due to aesthetic fatigue, No more parking, just enjoy quietly through the car window in the gap between bumps.
[When passing the first waterfall on the Zha-Mo Highway, stop to take pictures]
After passing a place called Linduo, we saw the spectacular Yarlung Zangbo River turning. Going further, the rain stopped, and our car was behind two large trucks. The dust kicked up so that we could not see the road ahead at all, but we were unable to overtake. So, walking along, he suddenly felt that the road became smoother and the dust was much less. Xiao Li held the steering wheel and let out a sigh of relief. Medog, here we come.
I looked at my watch, it was already 5 o'clock in the afternoon. We stop and go on the road, including lunch, a total of about 7 hours.
Due to time constraints, we first went straight to the commanding heights of the county - Lianhua Pavilion, where we could have a panoramic view of the county.
[Overlooking the most prosperous area of Medog County from the Lotus Pavilion]
Medog is known as the sacred land of lotus, but its economy should be extremely underdeveloped. Before coming here, I heard people say that the economic level here ranks one or two last in the country. Looking at the current urban area, I guess this statement has some truth . There are no tall buildings in the county town, and the low-rise houses are scattered on the hillside, a bit like the Ganzi Danba Tibetan Village in Sichuan. There is not much difference between urban and suburban areas, and stretches of farmland can be seen everywhere in the county. The Yarlung Zangbo River gallops past the county town. From Lianhua Pavilion, we went out of the city again, and headed to another big bend of the Yarlung Zangbo River—the big bend of Guoguotang, where the road was repaired, and we hiked up the last two or three kilometers of uphill mountain road. But the scenery of this big bend makes us feel worthwhile. The Yarlung Zangbo River makes a big bend at Guoguotang, which is also called a serpentine bend locally. When we went up to the viewing platform, it was just as the sun was setting, and the gentle sunlight hit the green vegetation on the hillside through the clouds, which reflected the big bend shaped like a lollipop, which was particularly spectacular.
[Big Bend in Guoguotang]
After returning to the county seat, check into the hotel. The altitude here is only 600 to 700 meters, everything is the same as in the mainland, and there is no need to slow down for activities. Dinner is just downstairs in the hotel, I can't remember what I ate, I just remember drinking white wine.
September 8th ~ September 9th: Medog - Lulang - Lhasa. 750 kilometers.
In the morning, it was still raining lightly. We drove to the only square in Medog County, Lianhua Square, to bid farewell to this small border town. The square is still very beautiful. A stone pillar is engraved with the words "Lotus Holy Land Park". There is a small water surface in the square, next to a fountain, and inside the main entrance is a sculpture of a pink lotus flower. It is conceivable that at night, this place should be an ideal place for residents to rest and do activities. Unfortunately, at this moment, there are almost no people in sight.
[Medog Lotus Square in the morning light rain]
On the way back, we still repeated yesterday's experience, but it seemed that the bumps were not as severe as yesterday. Ask Xiao Li, is it our illusion? Xiao Li stared straight ahead at the road full of large and small pits, and said: It's not an illusion, because the way back was uphill, and the bumps were lighter than yesterday. Oh I got it. Due to the night's rain, the Yarlung Zangbo River seemed to be much larger, and the surging water hit the boulders in the river, making a shocking sound. We who have been in the sea, in the still bumpy condition, can actually take a moment from time to time. It can only be said that the experience of driving is already very rich. Passing through the Galongla Tunnel again, the light rain had stopped, and the sun showed half of its face, but it still made us feel cool. This reminds us that we are getting farther and farther away from Medog. Around one o'clock in the afternoon, we returned to Bomi County, and continued westward along Route 318 after lunch.
According to the plan, we should stay in Nyingchi that day. However, after we left Bomi, a few of us discussed it, and everyone felt that Lu Lang's stone pot chicken was really delicious, and we hadn't enjoyed it yet, so we should eat it again. So I changed the itinerary temporarily, and went to Lulang again that night to taste the stone pot chicken, still in a big pot, with matsutake. After dinner, stay in Zhaxigang Village.
On September 9th, we bid farewell to the small town of Lulang. After passing Nyingchi, we stopped by Kadinggou. This is a very delicate scenic spot with a small area, but around the Tianfo Waterfall, the trails are winding and winding, and the roadsides are densely forested, especially the bamboo forests, which make people feel refreshed. The waterfall is also very spectacular. It falls from the top of the mountain and rushes down. In the middle, there are stacks of protruding rocks, and it pours into the river at the foot of the mountain, stirring up spray and mist, which is really beautiful. At the end of the itinerary, there is such a beautiful small scene to refresh the mind, and it is very pleasant to get rid of the hard work and fatigue after a few days of running around.
【Kadinggou Tianfo Waterfall】
At around five o'clock in the afternoon, we could already see the majestic Potala Palace from the car window, and this trip to the Holy Land of Medog has come to an end. Everyone wished each other well. Although the five days are short, it shows that our fate is not shallow. We will see you again if we have the opportunity in the future!