Litang Horse Races Tour

Arrival at Chengdu. Our representative will meet you , transfer to your private van, visit downtown of Chengdu. Tianfu Square, the People's Park close by and experience the tea way in the park. stay at Chengdu.

Visit Kuanjie , the formal Manchurian princelings' private garden and residents in Qing Dynasty. Take night train from Chengdu to Xichang.

You will take local bus from the train station to the city. check in the hotel, then you will visit the ancient town known as Jianchang. The town was built in fourteen century, with 20 alleyways connected with four main streets unfolding from Sipailou pavilion standing high at the center of the ancient town. The architecture is seen with the influence of both Yi people and Han Chinese style of Ming Dynasty. stay in Xichang.

You will travel to Lugu Lake today by bus. The journey takes four hours. You will arrive at Lugu Lake , with Mosuo people's villages scatter by the wide lake in west Sichuan. You will stay at Xiaoluoshui, a small village to the north of the Lake.
Visit the Mosuo home in the village, enjoy their local food. In the evening, you will enjoy the performance of music and dance given by the locals of Mosuo.

There are plenty of places in Lugu Lake worth your time to hang around. The hill behind the Xiaoluoshui offers wide range view of the whole lake. A museum owned by Yang Er Che Lamu, the writer of a well known book " the Kingdom of Women", the Age of Feminine Energy, and several other books in Chinese , telling the story of the matriarchal society in Lugu Lake region. All these books are translated into English which earns her fame in Europe.
There is a colorful Tibet Lamaism Temple just by the museum, should worth your time to visit. Local Mosuo, to some extend, is a branch of Tibetan from anthropology study, practicing Tibetan Lamaism, use Tibetan name blessed by local monk.
You will stay in the village for the second night.

Eya village lies 180 kilometers to the northwest of Lugu Lake. This is a less known but authentic hill tribe, the Naxi people. Polyandry is practiced , just like the Khan Tibetan family. It is common for a woman to have several husbands at the same time.
Landscape is marvelous with big mountains around fill in the skyline . Horse become common transportation tool. we will stay in Eya village

80 kilometers through the deep gorge along the river to the north of Eya , lies a beautiful village known as Kasi in a slope of hill by the river. Hot springs just by the river feed the rough the clean river , traditional water mill is driven by the water to grind the grains daily meal. Highland barley is the main crop that can grow in this altitude. A blue pond near the village is their sacred sanctuary of soul that the locals often pilgrimage , color banners hanging among the branch of the tree. The famous snowcapped Jiangmaiyong Mountain is just now far , where the tough men must pilgrimage around for more than a week every year.
Stay in the family's home in Kasi

Daocheng lies 160 kilometers to the north of Kaisi. The bus will take a detour around the famous Yading National Park. Josef Lock , the famous American biologist visited here in 1928, later he published his book in the National Geographic. Impressed by the beautiful description of the book , later on James Hilton wrote a novel, the Lost Horizon. The Mountain just behind Kasi village is named Shangri-La, the same taken as Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan.
Daocheng is a paradise of hot spring, where nomads and monks from the grassland to take bath. The white pagoda lies by the county is believed to be the biggest in Khan Tibet. Here nomads, local residents come to pilgrimage early in the morning and before sunset.
Stay in Daocheng .

The landcape from Daocheng to LItang is gorgeous. More white pagoda, grassland, monasteries of Red Sect and Yellow Set are seen along the way. And those subgroup of Khan Tibetan nomads who live only above three thousand meters , replying on milking yak and sell to someone who come up to collect. The yak milk will be processed as top quality of cheese to serve at the dinner table of the living buddha's home and rich people in the U.S. The subgroup seldom contact the people who live in the lower place so their pronunciation is so different to understand. you will have many stops for visiting and taking photo. Stay in Litang
Stay in Litang

The horse races in LItang is probably the most typical and impressive in the whole Tibetan region of Tibet, Ganshu, Sichuan , Yunnan and Qinghai. The festival is hosted by both the headmen from each pasture region, and the monastery led by living buddhas. Most participants are from the Litang, Daocheng, Xiangcheng, even some from Inner Mongolia who practice Yellow Sect Lamaism. Activities includes skill showing and speed races. The colorful traditional festival dresses vary in color and style from the different pastures. If you don' t like the horse riding , the women's colorful dress should be worth your photo . Stay in Litang.

Litang is a paradise for hiking.
option 1 tough: The private van take you for thirty kilometers to Genie Mountain , the sanctuary for Vagrasamvara, the holy buddha whose statue hug a naked lady , vagrajogini. Genie Mountain is such a holy place that all the men in the grassland must pilgrimage every winter time. You will stay over night in the hostel of a monastery just below the snow capped mountain of over 6100 meters, the third highest mountain in west Sichuan Tibetan area. You will hike for the second day , then take van back to the town.
Option 2. take a van to for eighty kilometers , then you come to double lakes, also known as glasses lake, with a snow capped mountain behind the two lakes. You will trek around the lake by the mountain. Stay in Litang
Option 3. visit the celestial bury behind the town . It is a tradition that everyone who comes to the end of his life, his body will be chopped into pieces to feed vulture. well, this could be creepy if you are sensitive. You can choose to skip this . visit the Ker Monastery, found by the third Dalai Lama Sonan Jiacuo, with the help of the baron from Dali and and the princeling from Mongolia , the king of Chekeardeng. You will be impressed locals come up here to pray, prostrate around the monastery which covers 600 mu, or 40 hectares. stay for the third night in Litang

Xinduqiao is praised as the paradise for the prisoner of light( the photographer). the castle style houses wall brushed in white color is glimmering in the sunlight, flocks of sheep on the grassland which extends to the skyline combines the cloud in the sky. Far to the south is the snow capped Minya Konka Mountain, over 7500 meters above the sea with 45 peaks around are above 6000 meters. Stay at Xinduqiao

Early morning in Xinduqiao , the sunlight is soft , a little bit mist in the valley with flocks of sheep appear and disappear behind . Snowcapped mountain far to the skyline is stunning view. It is worth your time to hang around before we take the van to the airport.
At noon, you will take plane for departure. Tour ends