Lost Horizon

"There are moments in every mans life, when he glimpses the eternal"

-James Hilton, Lost Horizon

I have just finished my 20 mile hike to the Tiger Leaping Gourge, parted from John and Ruth (the Irish couple), my knee is busted and now I am sitting on the side of the road, with a Chinese couple that speaks little English, waiting for the bus that will take me further north, to Zhongdian, near the Tibetan border. My original goal was to actually flight to Lhasa, capital of Tibet, however, speaking with several backpackers, I found out that I am more likely to experience true Tibetan culture by simply exploring the northern Yunnan and western Sichuan provinces than going to Tibet itself. That is due to the explosion of tourism in Tibet itself and also the intense Han migration towards that region, which is driving the original Tibetan natives away. It seems that the Tibetan populations located near BUT outside the borders of Tibet were able to better preserve their identity than their fellow nationals inside of Tibet. Well, if this is true or not, I am about to find out pretty soon.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, the bus that will take us to Tibet finally arrives. The vehicle stops about 100 feet way from the curb where we are waiting, so the Chinese couple and I have to scramble, carrying our heavy backpacks and bags to get to the bus (and this is not nice to my wounded knee). The bus driver will charge us 20 Yuan (less than US$3) for a 3 hour to Zhongdian. I am assigned to the seat furthest back, were I sit amongst a group of Chinese military grunts who chain smoke for the entire trip. I get to enjoy first class second hand smoking for 3 hours. Oh joy!

Within the first hour drive, we must have climbed at least 1000 feet. It is significantly colder now and I must put my jacket on. The vegetation and architecture of the houses we see on the road have changed quite dramatically too. But most evident charge are the people. Looking thru the window, I see less and less Han Chinese going about their business. Instead, I see a new kind of people, who dress and look differently. I guess these must be the Tibetan. They are darker and have higher cheek bones than the Han and they dress in a much more traditional and colorful way. The landscape also has become more barren, with fewer vegetation and more rocks. The air is certainly dryer and my lips are beginning to crack.

Typical Tibetan Woman

I get to Zhongdian (or Shangrila) at dusk, and I am must confess that as I get off the bus at the local bus station, I am not impressed. Zhongdian looks more like a small bleak frontier outpost than anything else. The town is littered with small and ugly Soviet style concrete buildings. The roads and avenues are infested with old cars and trucks emitting large amount of fumes, and the Tibetan population seem as filthy and impolite as the people I saw in Xi’an. It does not take me long to begin to wonder what in the hell am I doing in this God forsaken place. With the backpack on my back, I begin to walk out of the bus station. All the other passengers that rode with me were quick to scatter and it seems that I do not attract much attention here. Well, events once again prove how wrong I am about things. As I walk outside of the gates of the bus station, this passing van comes to a screeching stop right in front of me and a Tibetan male head, wearing a cowboy head pops out of the driver’s side window. There is a loud sound of Tibetan hip hop basting out of van (things keep getting more bizarre by the minute), which prevents me from fully understanding the guy’s badly broken English. After a few repeated tries, I am able to gather that he is offering me a ride to a nearby hotel, where I’ll be able to arrange some shelter. I check my Rough Guide To China and it does seem that the bus station is pretty far outside the center of town. It is also getting dark and cold very quickly, and I am not very excited about wandering alone here in the outskirts of Zhongdian, so I decide the bite the bullet and hop in. The music inside the van is really loud and it takes a while for my mind to even begin to grasp the concept of Tibetan hip-hop. The driver is all smiles as I settle myself on the back. He must not be older than 25, and he is a full old west cowboy costume. He tries to have a conversation with me while he drives like a maniac thru the streets of the city, but he simply does not have enough English skills to build the most basic sentences. We both seem very frustrated about the language barrier, since he appears to be as curious about me as I am about him.

He drops me off near the so called “old town”, where there are lots of shops, and more traditional Tibetan style architecture. There is a traveler’s hotel nearby, where I head to after saying goodbye to my “driver”. As I arrive at the hotel, I begin to realize that I do not think I want to stay in this place. The hotel itself is completely sterile, like a hospital. There is no color or life here anywhere. The staff is Chinese and speaks little English. They also seem completely unmotivated. To make matter worse, there are no backpackers in site at all anywhere. No, there is no way I am staying here. There has to be a backpacker’s place somewhere in Town. I check the Rough Guide once again and it does mention a “Dragon Cloud Inn” as a backpacker friendly place. The problem is that the maps on the guide are very vague, the locals do not speak English and due to the darkness, it is very hard to navigate to find the place. Also, Zhongdian has some very dark and narrow streets, so it seems more like a labyrinth than anything else. But I am tired, cold, my knee hurts, so I must find a backpacker friendly place soon to rest. My plan is to wonder the streets until I bump into some Westerner who fits the “backpacker” profile, so that I can request advice. It does not take me long to achieve success. After 15 minutes wondering thru the streets, I bump into a very fair skinned girl, with dreadlocked hair. She HAS to be a backpacker. I approach, say “hi” and begin to ask where she is staying. As luck has it, her name is Aya, an Italian girl who is staying at the Dragon Cloud Inn, the exactly same place I am trying to find. She is accompanied by Wan, an older Chinese woman that Aya had met on her trip to Lhasa. Wan is fluent both in English and Chinese and they have been traveling together ever since. They both guide me thru the narrow roads of Zhongdian, until I get to the place. Ah, this is a true backpackers Inn. Although the staff speaks no English, I am able (with wan’s help) to arrange for a dorm bed.

Next morning Aya and I hook up to explore the city of Zhongdian together, while Wan goes check out some other things she wants to see. During our conversations as we stroll to the narrow streets of the town, it is pretty obvious that Aya is an exceptionally smart and sensitive girl (even for backpacker's standards). She was truly moved by her experience in Tibet, where she saw pilgrims LITERALLY crawl for a year on the rock and dirt or their way to Lhasa, in order to purge their karma. It seems that it was a life changing experience for her to witness that and she spoke with true emotion about it.

Shangri-la

Together we climbed a local hill, to check out a monastery on the top and get a better view of the town. For lunch, we try to find some local restaurant where we can order food, but all the local places are either too gruesome to eat (fresh dead carcasses of animals hanging from the walls) or there are no menus in English that we can order from (neither one of us reads Chinese). So, humiliated, we at a local touristic trap western restaurant that charges 3 times that of what a local place would charge.

After the meal, we return to the Dragon Cloud In, where we meet Wan. Fascinated by the story Aya told me about her 5 day car ride from Lhasa to Zhondian, I ask them if they can hook me with the Tibetan driver who drove them thru the Tibetan wilderness.

Aya and Wan then take me to the Tibetan driver’s home, were we can hopefully negotiate for me a similar trip, but this time headed to Lhasa. Little did I know that this simple negotiation would quickly become one of the most interesting experiences I had in China so far. We arrive at the driver’s home late afternoon. It is a big house by Tibetan standards and there is a nice Mitsubishi Pajero parked in front of the house. I am told that this was the car they used to their trip. The driver greets us very warmly at the gate and invites us in. We are taken to a small “living room” inside the house that is heated by a metal oven that burn wood, to keep us warm. After some chit-chat (with Wan as the translator) we start talking about the prospects of him driving me to Lhasa. He is more than willing to do it, but he needs 4 more passengers to make this trip economically viable and that might take 5 days to put together. The problem is that I do not have 5 days to wait in Zhongdian. I am little disheartened, but he suggests that I put flyers on the hostels, so that we might find the other passengers more quickly. We are about to leave his house, but him and his wife insists that we stay for dinner. I can hardly believe my ears: I will have a true Tibetan dinner inside a genuine Tibetan home! Dude, you can’t PAY to have this. We are taken to the kitchen and sit on a low table, where dishes after dishes of food are served. There is the famous Tibetan chicken soup, vegetables, lots of Yak meat, rice and some other things I do not recognize. But everything is absolutely delicious. After being stuffed to our breaking point by our hosts, we are taken back to the living room, for more social conversation. This is where I take advantage of Wan’s Chinese skills and start asking some questions to the Tibetan driver. I want to know about him, his life, how he started this driving business. I also ask about how he feels about the future, if he feels that things are getting better in China, if he is optimistic, if he feels that his children’s lives will be easier than his, and so forth. He gladly answers all question, with Wan doing an excellent job of translation. This gentleman was born a peasant and endured much misery and hunger during the Cultural Revolution and The Great Leap Forward. It was only when he turned 30 that he knew for sure that he would never starve again. Imagine that: a man that at age of 30, still feared not having enough to eat. This certainly put things in a new perspective for me. What are the things I worry about on a daily basis? Have I ever worried about starving? He certainly made all my worries seem pathetic and meaningless compared to what this man has been thru. But he was very clear that since the economic opening in China during the late 70s, things have improved by leaps and bounds. He now had several cars (used to drive tourists back and forth from Lhasa) and a big house. He says that those things would seem impossible for him to attain just 20 years ago. He pointed to the table: The banquet we just had would put no strain in his finances right now, but according to him, 20 years before, that meal would be all the amount of food he would have available to sustain himself for 5 days. So the differences were indeed staggering. The China that he lived on today was unimaginable to him 20 years before!

Pedro, "Driver" and his wife.

After the meal, I wished the “Driver” goodbye and we left his home. I was a bit bummed that the car trip to Lhasa was probably not going to happen, but I was happy for the whole experience of seeing a Tibetan home from the inside and actually having a meal with them. I would certainly not forget this experience, as it was a true Marco Polo moment. I had accomplished one of the things I had set myself to do, which was to get a non touristic glimpse on who these people lived. I had just gotten what I wanted.

We then headed to the town hall, were we got a chance to witness a traditional Tibetan square dance. This is something spontaneous that happens every night in town. Hundreds of locals gather every night at the center of the town to do a traditional dance for hours. No one organizes it or controls it. It is completely spontaneous and includes people from all ages, social strata and so on. Even tourists are welcome to join if they so wish. It is a truly remarkable thing to watch. So, Aya and I are side by side watching the square dance when I am bumped by Jeff, Jessica, Hannah and Pete, the same people that I had met before during the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike! Now, what are the odds of that??? We hug, shout give high fives and laugh as we are reunited once more. Jeff then gives me a serious look and says “Dude, it was destiny that made us meet again, WE are headed to a place in the heart of China where no tourists ever go, and when I say WE I mean that YOU are coming with us. WE are going to Ya Ding”.

So I took a long breath. I had never heard of Ya Ding, but I had met this folks for a reason. I am not a superstitious man, but there was something that felt right about this. I stared at them for a moment and finally nodded my head. “Yes WE are”, I said, “WE will go to Ya Ding”. I did not know at the time, those words set in motion the greatest adventure in my life so far. I was headed to the heart of the Dragon.