info@absolutepanda.comOdyssey into Tibetan Wilderness I
Odyssey into Tibetan Wilderness I
---Philip's itinerary research journal
As a half Kangba-Tibetan in Sichuan Tibetan Area, AbsolutePanda founder Philip has a strong love toward the land where he was born, grown up and educated. The call from this piece of land has never been so strong during the past 20 years. After getting three bookings to visit different parts of this vast land of treasure, Philip planned to do an itinerary research to ensure all these three upcoming trips to be of the top quality.
This itinerary research has the following purposes:
1. To find out the latest information about road conditions in the remote areas of Tibetan Plateau to improve the comfort level of the upcoming trips.
2. Discover some new resources that can enrich the travel experiences of our clients including some key sites for endemic animals and plants, as well as photography sites.
3. Check out hotels and restaurants, especially in those remote counties.
4. Photograph mammals, birds, plants, landscapes and ethnic minority culture on Qinghai Tibetan Plateau.
This will be a pretty long trip starting from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. Along the way, they will photograph birds and flowers in two most popular birding sites, Balang Mountain and Mengbi Mountain, watch summer breeders and rapters on Tibetan Plateau, search for Spotted Deer, then drive through the wilderness in search for Wild Yak, Tibetan Antelope, Kiang and Tibetan Gazelle. Then they will return to Ganzi to photograph White-lipped Deer and stunning scenery.
Map for the trip
This trip will be full of excitement as well as challenges. Thus, he wants to name this itinerary research “An Odyssey into Tibetan Wilderness”. Unlike his past itinerary research, he is going to share what he discovered in this vast expanse of extremely beautiful land which he loves deep in his heart with those who have interests through AbsolutePanda Blog and Facebook.
---Trip manager:Melinda
Day 1 July 3rd Getting started
First destination---Wolong national nature reserve, in the UNESCO site Giant panda sanctuary. It is possibly the best place in China for pheasants, rosefinches, laughing thrushes with beautiful alpine flowers and amazing scenery
Because of the El Nino phenomenon, there is recently a big amount of rainfall in the southern part of China. It started raining since previous night. While I was preparing for this long trip, I really worried about the weather, because we had to drive through a section which has been strongly damaged by the 2008 earth quake. I called my friend in Wolong and was told it was not raining there. I felt relieved and in the afternoon, we left Chengdu in spite of downpour. There were not so many traffic on the road, maybe because of the heavy rain.
As we drove westward, the rain got less and less. Eventually, when we drove into the mountains, there was no more rain, however, the road condition was still pretty bad. But I became more and more excited maybe because I was answering the strong call from the deep in my heart. We did not plan to see anything or photograph anything this afternoon, by the time we reached our hotel, it was already evening. We met some birders in the hotel and after dinner, I started to plan our program for tomorrow.
Sunset in Wolong
The scouting site for tomorrow is very familiar to us. We had organized many trips each year to this site. Still I want to go again and take a look because of its charm and important status among eco-resources in Sichuan.
Mt. Balang
The mountain is called Balang Mountain, the core area of the Hengduan Mountain Range which the Conservation International has listed as one of the 26 global hot spots for biodiversity. The world famous Wolong Nature Reserve and China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda is located in this area. This place is possibly the best place in China for pheasants, rosefinches, laughingthrushes with beautiful alpine flowers and amazing scenery.
Day 2 July 4th Going through the Land of Diversity
After a nice sleep in local guesthouse, we got up at 4:00 in the early morning, and started exploring at 4:30 a.m.
Rhododendron Irroratum
We drove along the paved road toward the set place, where we normally see Chinese Monal, White Eared Pheasant, and Koklass Pheasant. The loud call of Koklass Pheasant and White Eared Pheasant have already come to our ears when we got closer. We walked along a stretch of deserted road in the fresh morning air and chirping of birds toward the observation sites. What a beautiful early morning, a stretch of red clouds from sunrise shows up in distance over the mountain peaks. The deep gorge below decorated in patches of white mist going all the way toward the red cloud with a chain of mountain peaks standing by its side. Up on the slope, herds of yaks were grazing calmly.
Domestic yak
Three white spots came into my eyes, with binocular, I found they were three White Eared Pheasants, feeding under the cover of early dawn light. We scan the slope carefully for Chinese Monal and any other wildlife. Discoveries came one after another when it become brighter and brighter, Chinese Monal,Giant Laughingthrush, Common Rosefinch, Eurasian House Martin, Collared Grosbeak and White-capped Redstart.
Common Rosefinch
Female Three-banded Roesfinch
The site also became more crowded. Many local birders and bird photographers come here to appreciate birds. Birding is getting increasingly popular in China recently. The birding population in China grows very fast as well.
We moved to lower site in search of Firethroat. When we get there, we immediately got robust call of this lovely bird, but we failed to spot it from the thickets where the call was from. We gave up and dedicated to spend the rest of our time for blooming flowers and birds.
The search is really rewarding, I got numerous pictures of different Primula flows, Rododendron, orchids, poppies, Iris, and some other flowers to be identified.
Primula
Iris tectorm
Cypripedium tibeticum
Caltha palustris
After lunch, we drove along the 4500-meter pass. On the top of the pass, we got some nice photos of the winding road. After spending some time photographing birds and flowers, we drive on toward our next destination, the guesthouse at the foot of Mengbi Mountain. I was surprised that some of my birding friends were also there. The road work in Rilong hold us about 3 hours. The rest of the driving was very smooth.
---Philip's itinerary research journal
As a half Kangba-Tibetan in Sichuan Tibetan Area, AbsolutePanda founder Philip has a strong love toward the land where he was born, grown up and educated. The call from this piece of land has never been so strong during the past 20 years. After getting three bookings to visit different parts of this vast land of treasure, Philip planned to do an itinerary research to ensure all these three upcoming trips to be of the top quality.
This itinerary research has the following purposes:
1. To find out the latest information about road conditions in the remote areas of Tibetan Plateau to improve the comfort level of the upcoming trips.
2. Discover some new resources that can enrich the travel experiences of our clients including some key sites for endemic animals and plants, as well as photography sites.
3. Check out hotels and restaurants, especially in those remote counties.
4. Photograph mammals, birds, plants, landscapes and ethnic minority culture on Qinghai Tibetan Plateau.
This will be a pretty long trip starting from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. Along the way, they will photograph birds and flowers in two most popular birding sites, Balang Mountain and Mengbi Mountain, watch summer breeders and rapters on Tibetan Plateau, search for Spotted Deer, then drive through the wilderness in search for Wild Yak, Tibetan Antelope, Kiang and Tibetan Gazelle. Then they will return to Ganzi to photograph White-lipped Deer and stunning scenery.
Map for the trip
This trip will be full of excitement as well as challenges. Thus, he wants to name this itinerary research “An Odyssey into Tibetan Wilderness”. Unlike his past itinerary research, he is going to share what he discovered in this vast expanse of extremely beautiful land which he loves deep in his heart with those who have interests through AbsolutePanda Blog and Facebook.
---Trip manager:Melinda
Day 1 July 3rd Getting started
First destination---Wolong national nature reserve, in the UNESCO site Giant panda sanctuary. It is possibly the best place in China for pheasants, rosefinches, laughing thrushes with beautiful alpine flowers and amazing scenery
Because of the El Nino phenomenon, there is recently a big amount of rainfall in the southern part of China. It started raining since previous night. While I was preparing for this long trip, I really worried about the weather, because we had to drive through a section which has been strongly damaged by the 2008 earth quake. I called my friend in Wolong and was told it was not raining there. I felt relieved and in the afternoon, we left Chengdu in spite of downpour. There were not so many traffic on the road, maybe because of the heavy rain.
As we drove westward, the rain got less and less. Eventually, when we drove into the mountains, there was no more rain, however, the road condition was still pretty bad. But I became more and more excited maybe because I was answering the strong call from the deep in my heart. We did not plan to see anything or photograph anything this afternoon, by the time we reached our hotel, it was already evening. We met some birders in the hotel and after dinner, I started to plan our program for tomorrow.
Sunset in Wolong
The scouting site for tomorrow is very familiar to us. We had organized many trips each year to this site. Still I want to go again and take a look because of its charm and important status among eco-resources in Sichuan.
Mt. Balang
The mountain is called Balang Mountain, the core area of the Hengduan Mountain Range which the Conservation International has listed as one of the 26 global hot spots for biodiversity. The world famous Wolong Nature Reserve and China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda is located in this area. This place is possibly the best place in China for pheasants, rosefinches, laughingthrushes with beautiful alpine flowers and amazing scenery.
Day 2 July 4th Going through the Land of Diversity
After a nice sleep in local guesthouse, we got up at 4:00 in the early morning, and started exploring at 4:30 a.m.
Rhododendron Irroratum
We drove along the paved road toward the set place, where we normally see Chinese Monal, White Eared Pheasant, and Koklass Pheasant. The loud call of Koklass Pheasant and White Eared Pheasant have already come to our ears when we got closer. We walked along a stretch of deserted road in the fresh morning air and chirping of birds toward the observation sites. What a beautiful early morning, a stretch of red clouds from sunrise shows up in distance over the mountain peaks. The deep gorge below decorated in patches of white mist going all the way toward the red cloud with a chain of mountain peaks standing by its side. Up on the slope, herds of yaks were grazing calmly.
Domestic yak
Three white spots came into my eyes, with binocular, I found they were three White Eared Pheasants, feeding under the cover of early dawn light. We scan the slope carefully for Chinese Monal and any other wildlife. Discoveries came one after another when it become brighter and brighter, Chinese Monal,Giant Laughingthrush, Common Rosefinch, Eurasian House Martin, Collared Grosbeak and White-capped Redstart.
Common Rosefinch
Female Three-banded Roesfinch
The site also became more crowded. Many local birders and bird photographers come here to appreciate birds. Birding is getting increasingly popular in China recently. The birding population in China grows very fast as well.
We moved to lower site in search of Firethroat. When we get there, we immediately got robust call of this lovely bird, but we failed to spot it from the thickets where the call was from. We gave up and dedicated to spend the rest of our time for blooming flowers and birds.
The search is really rewarding, I got numerous pictures of different Primula flows, Rododendron, orchids, poppies, Iris, and some other flowers to be identified.
Primula
Iris tectorm
Cypripedium tibeticum
Caltha palustris
After lunch, we drove along the 4500-meter pass. On the top of the pass, we got some nice photos of the winding road. After spending some time photographing birds and flowers, we drive on toward our next destination, the guesthouse at the foot of Mengbi Mountain. I was surprised that some of my birding friends were also there. The road work in Rilong hold us about 3 hours. The rest of the driving was very smooth.
Last one: Hike in Panda Habitat
Next one: Odyssey into Tibetan Wilderness II
