Travelling by car in China was the best decision we ever did.

In this article, I will  elaborate  “our travel by car into China” mainly the Sichuan Province with  beautiful Tibetan Villages along the Valley of Abba mountain.

We arrived in Chengdu from Singapore.

The Hotel we stayed in Chengdu was a hostel.

I dare to book a hostel as it was recommended by our travel friend Steven.  Steven was staying in this hotel as well at the time of visit.

The hostel consist of sharing rooms for 4 pax in the room, a family room and a standard room with private bathroom.

You maybe surprise when you get to the entrance of the hostel as the fruit vendor were scattered to display their fruits for sale.

They are more than just a hostel to be honest.

The hostel is located just within the city center of Chengdu which saves you time and money when you need to go out for a meal or shopping.

There are many other big Hotel names is Chengdu such as Hyatt, Marriott hotel as well. The reason I elaborate on this particular place is because in Chengdu it is not that easy to get an affordable and decent place to stay.

We rented a private car that drove us to the following location for 10 days.

It cost Total of RMB 8,000.00, an equivalent of about S$1500.00 I am not sure if that would be the cheapest but I think our safety is more important.

(Look above: the right image – in the middle is our rented Driver and his car behind them. While on the left is the Hostel Entrance).

Our journey has began! After the 6 hour drive from Chengdu City. We arrived in Luding Town

This town is very unique on its own. There were very old building . Most importantly, the long history of that bridge make it unique as the bridge is made long long time ago, yet the people until today still using it to cross back and forth.

I have seen a huge TV monitor screen on the background and children were happy entertaining the tourists.

(the picture above is Steven, Markus and the kids who were playing at the time of visit).

This Geckos dried or fried and it was for sale along the alley of Luding town. From Luding town, we just drove heading west not far from town and we settled for the night.

2nd Day

The following day, we head up to a mountainous Karst where Moraine lake is located.

 

It is a kind of interesting  lake. We walked in a beautiful track while the locals prefer to take the bus that was from town.

There is an Alpine Karst (looks like a Huge Block of Ice)  We went up to the Karst but due to bad weather, we could not see anything. The trip to see Mountinous Karst and Moraine lake took us 1 day. It could have been beautiful if it was summer; I guess.

3rd Day – After the trip, we head to direction to Kangding.

This is a Temple in Kangding Town.

We are now into  Tibetan Villages. In Kangding- the people you meet will be happy if you can say to them…

TSA SI TALA! (It means God bless You).

 4rth Day – From Kanding town, we drove direction to to Xinduxen. We were heading direction to Songpan. We stayed overnight in a Hotel or rather call it motel because it is small.

I cannot exactly remember but I hope the image below of the hotel will make you understand. These small hotel is very cheap and super clean. Just recently open for about 2 months and the owner is a traveller.

It is not easy to get a decent place in more remote area in Sichuan when you are into Tibetan Village according to our driver. But this place will soon be publish in Booking dot com. They serve decent food but of course their kind of food. But it was clean and room were really in very good condition.

5th Day 

We head towards Danba- Passing through temple of Tibetan villages.

6th and 7th day in Danba

In Danba we stayed 2 nights. Roaming around Danba. Getting to know the area and we went up to Zhonglu.

Even it was a bad weather, I can still see the beauty of the area. A small village- developing area and has narrow road. Surprisingly, there were few tourist even it was cloudy.

Zhonglu is famous for Autumn leaves and unique design of the houses. On the video above this article you will see how the house were settled inside the shadow of the deep Valley.

But during this time of visit- Because it is already first week of November- the autumn is over.

I saw so many corns from the houses. They were drying them. And I have never seen a cauliflower having flower on top of it. So little purplish flower that you may not notice.

The 2 days stayed in Danba makes us well rested and once again we were active on a long ride direction to Wenchuan. We come down back as it was getting cold. I was suffering from headaches and dizziness.

We are now on our 8th day

We arrived pretty late in Wenchuan town. This town has a big malls too but not as many as in Chengdu.

We finally got something to eat that we like. Like burgers or pizza. Just imagine you been eating with oily villages food for days.. 2 or 3 times a day. Until you want to stop eating because it just does not go to your stomach. The toilet were very dirty as well.

Did not spend much time roaring around Wenchuan. But I can tell you that this town is live and very colourful at night.

From Wenchuan, we aim to hit the road to go to Songpan. But we end up stopping and did some sight seeing and we end up in Moxi town for the night.

9 and 10 Day

We spend our 9th day  and 10 day in Songpan. Very old town. According to Steven, this is a famous town. He have been here 4 times.

Indeed, we did some  touring in the  town as well as Huang long, Jade lake and Mounigou Water falls.

2 nights in Songpan I think was good enough. But many tourist come and stay here longer.

We took an extra day with the driver for the 11th day as we were just tired from Day sight seeing in Huanglong.

Over all, our journey was fantastic. I could never imagine that China is actually very beautiful.

However, the food maybe a concern for many.