First impressions of a Tibetan town in China | Litang

Our adventures in China are about to change as we make our way through western Sichuan which is part of the Garze Tibetan Prefecture. It’s basically a vast region on the Tibetan plateau where Tibetans live in China. You could call it eastern Tibet and I’ve even heard someone call it ‘Inner Tibet’, similar to the region in the north called Inner Mongolia. Our first stop in the region was the town of Litang and it took a little bit of effort to get there. First we needed a taxi from the nature reserve we were in to the nearest town. The driver just dropped us off at the side of the road and we had no idea how or where to find the shared taxis. It turned out to be better value to take a shared taxi to Daocheng and we only found one other person wanting to go that way but at least it cut the price down a little bit. It’s funny with these shared taxis because instead of them driving the whole way they coordinate with a driver the other end to meet halfway and they swap guests and then drive back to their original village. The drivers were absolutely reckless though I didn’t feel safe at all in their cars as they overtook in dangerous places and used their phone constantly.

Once we got to Daocheng we managed to find a shared van to Litang which only required a 30 minute wait for it to fill up which was a great success. We weren’t really sure if we’d make it all the way to Litang today so we hadn’t booked a hotel and used those 30 minutes to try and log onto free WiFi and find a room for the night but it seemed quite expensive and £18 was the cheapest price. One of the last passengers to join the van was someone we recognised but we couldn’t pin-point where from. He gave us a big hello and that’s when we realised he was the Chinese hiker who’d joined the pilgrimage route yesterday and slowed down all the Tibetans on their walk. He was a nice chap though but spoke very basic English. We asked him if he’d booked a room in town and it turned out he’d found one on a Chinese app for just £10 so we decided to go there and see if they had a spare room. The owner of the hotel was Tibetan so didn’t understand our written Chinese translator but he could understand spoken Chinese so our friend helped to ask for a room but before we checked in they spoke amongst themselves and then our friend relayed to us “the owner said if someone knocks on your door don’t answer it” he said it so casually and we were like “what?! why?! is it dangerous around here?!” But he explained that it was a safe area but it could be the police knocking because tourists aren’t allowed to stay in this hotel. Interesting!! We’d heard this before but have spoken to a Chinese hotel owner who told us that rule has stopped now and tourists are allowed in all hotels, although they might deny you just because they can’t speak your language.

We checked into the room and then would you believe it, 15 minute later there was a knock on our door and we both froze. Fuck. What do we do? I don’t want to get in trouble with the police but we’ve been told not to open it so we didn’t, but then they knocked again, and again!! But on the last knock we heard someone say “it’s me” and it was our Chinese friend! He said we need to show the manager our passports so we headed down to reception and as we were showing our ID a policeman came down the stairs from our floor. What the fuck. We were so confused, did someone tip him off that tourists were staying here or did our host end up contacting them to avoid any dramas? Either way it appeared that we were now allowed to stay and didn’t have to scurry through reception as quickly as possible.

Our Chinese friend asked if we’d like to go out for dinner together and being totally honest I just wanted to grab a quick bite to eat and go to bed, we were still recovering from yesterday’s 20km hike and we’d been hiking and travelling all day today too but alas, it would be rude to say no so off we all went. Our hotel was about 2km from the main town and while there were many eating options near our hotel our friend opted to find a place in town and then we had to tell him I was a vegetarian. I didn’t want it to be different so I just translated that I was fine with something easy like fried rice or noodle soup. As we walked more into town it changed from Chinese vibes to Tibetan. There were monks walking along the streets and most people were Tibetans in traditional dress. Their outfits were absolutely incredible, I felt like we’d gone through a Time Machine back to the 70s. The young Tibetan men were quite punky looking, with leather jackets, tight trousers and funky hairstyles. The elder men dressed more like cowboys with a classic cowboy hat and a big fur lined tunic with sleeves that went down to their knees. We noticed many of them wore the tunic with one sleeve off which they either tied around their waist or threw over their head like a hat. The ladies had plated hair, sometimes thin braids and other times just two thick ones. They wore a long sleeve top with a long skirt or a dress and a colourful apron was on-top, known as a Pangden or Bangdian and it’s a symbol of marriage. Many of the Tibetans had the classic red cheeks from living at such a high, sunny and cold environment

Everyone was so jolly and excited to see us walking through the street there was a chorus of “Tashi Dalek” as everyone said hello or tried to practice a few words of English on us like “How are you? Where are you from?” usually followed by a giggle of embarrassment. I liked the place already.

We eventually found a little shop selling noodle soup and it turned out to be one of the best of our trip. You can never tell until you try it but this one was so delicious with the perfect spicy kick to the broth. I was constantly asking our friend questions using our translator app because I don’t like awkward silences and I realised once we got back to our hotel that he didn’t ask us a single question! I’d kind of ran out of things to ask though so we were quite happy to explore on our own the following day. We strolled back into the Tibetan area of town, past all the jolly locals and little market stalls where they focused on gemstones and jewellery. Many of the Tibetan ladies wear gemstone necklaces, earrings or both and we’ve seen some with fabric going from their head and down their back which is covered in turquoise stones. Apparently because Tibetans tend to be nomadic they had no way to store their money, not wanting to buy land and live on one place for example so they put their money towards elaborate jewellery which is passed through the family tree.

Litang is the birthplace of the 7th Dalai Lama so we headed to the old Tibetan house where he was born in a dark room in the basement. His descendants still live in the neighbourhood and are happy to show you the exact spot where he was born but we just opted for a stroll around the house. Next door was a museum about the Khampa Tibetans who live in this area. They’re said to be the most fearless warriors, much taller than the other Tibetans and the most good looking too. It was only a small museum set inside an old traditional Tibetan house with realistic wax models of locals doing typical things like weaving, cooking etc. What I found most fascinating was that the people that we saw in the town looked like these models, they dressed the same now as they did hundreds of years ago.

Nearby was the monastery and just as we arrived we spotted a large group of monks sitting down to the left of the courtyard. Suddenly they all put on some headpieces which were kind of like a big yellow Mohawk but before I could change my lens and capture the moment they’d all taken them off, draped them around their necks and proceeded to walk to the main hall to pray. We didn’t go inside the hall as we didn’t want to disturb them so we had a look around the other buildings and admired the grand rooms, giant Buddha statues and fabulous paintings. One area had hundreds of paintings of Dalai Lama’s covering the wall. They were kind of realistic but with a mild cartoonish twang, I absolutely loved the paintings and they were so good and detailed that we could recognise a couple of the men including the current Dalai Lama.