George Hellman Impressions - 2004

A second trip to China? Yes, indeed! This time we traveled to western China and the Autonomous Region of Tibet.

The small group of adventurous travelers led by Bob Cheung experienced fantastic scenery, rarely seen places and peoples – places perhaps as beautiful as any on this planet and people (ethnic minorities) with cultures very different from the mainstream Chinese. Often we were ourselves of as much interest to the local residents as they were to us.

After you have been greeted by the customers of a restaurant with silence followed by nervous giggles a few times you begin to understand how infrequently western travelers have been in some of these locations. Our jump off point and travel nexus in China was Chengdu.

From there we went to Kunming( to the Stone Forest), to Lijiang (in the center of the region inhabited by several ethnic minorities), to Lugu Lake (where we visited the matriarchal Mosou people in the remote mountainous region on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces), to Zhongdian (also known as Shangri La), to Lhasa and Bayi City in Tibet( and to spectacularly beautiful scenery on the trip between), to the Wolong Panda Reserve, to Dujiang (site of an ancient irrigation project and Daoist Temple Complex), and to the Sanxingdui Museum (site of a bronze age civilization) before we returned to Chengdu for a final dinner and departure back to the U.S.

Perhaps even more than with our first trip to China selecting photos that represented the diverse nature of all that we saw was a daunting task. So again those that were selected may just be a random sampling that seemed interesting when the 1000 or so that were taken were reviewed (digital cameras make it so easy to take pictures).

But China has so much to see that it’s nearly impossible to grasp even after you’ve been there.

Children playing in the narrow lanes of Lijiang.

Members of the Naxi minority dancing in Baoshan Village in celebration of Elder’s Day.

Even the new improved road from Lijiang to Lugu Lake has a serpentine quality.

Buddhist monastery on an island in the middle of Lugu Lake.

Buddhist monk walking on the road outside of Lhasa.

View of Potala Palace in Lhasa.

Prayer flags at Mila Pass on the road from Lhasa to Bayi City.

Glacier above Basong Lake – a side trip on the Lhasa to Bayi City drive.

Tibetan house along the highway (2 lane macadam) on the return to Lhasa.

Tibetan nomad encampment along the Lhasa River.

Fu Fu, a  21-day old panda, at the Wolong Panda Reserve.

What Fu Fu will grow up to be

Smiles are international – local woman vendor met on a walk above the Panda Reserve.