Diqing Mountains and Valleys

Past Songzhanlin, at the northern end of Zhongdian plain, lies the small lake called Napahai. A broad flat pasture lies on its southern side, while hills rise behind its northern and eastern shores. Often the lake shrinks to within the lap of these hills, leaving spongy ground spreading south of it. After the rains it is larger, but shallow and, compared to Bitahai and Shuduhu, not all that pretty. However, twice a year flocks of black-necked cranes make a stopover here on their migration routes.

North of Napahai the landscape starts changing. From here on it is rugged high mountain country, dry and steep. The few villages in the valleys are small, as are their farms, without the great drying racks, but with lots more sheep and goats. The road winds down to the right bank of the Jinshajiang to Benzilan, the main town between Zhongdian and Deqin. The commercial area is along the main road, the residential area down below, on a riverside plateau.

From Benzilan the road zigzags up the mountain, to where one can see the Jinshajiang far below almost loop a small pinnacle in its path. The road then starts heading northwest, past Dongzhulin, towards Deqin. Houses in the area, unlike Zhongdian's, look more like fortresses, perhaps influenced by the lawlessness of the area's not too distant past.

Meili Snow Mountain

Not long after Dongzhulin the inhabited area ends and the road ascends a little higher into the forests and soon crosses the high pastures of Baimangshan. A vast forest preserve of high mountains, its pastures are the grazing grounds for yaks in the summer months. Nomad herders erect temporary tents and cabins for the season, taking the animals hack down the mountain when the snow begins to fall.

Another 30 km and the snow peaks of Taizixueshan(Prince Snow Mountain) and Meili Snow Mountain become visible. But then the road turns into a high valley and drops a little into the suburbs of Deqin city. This is a largely modernised town occupying opposing slopes above a small stream that flows into the Lancangjiang just around the mountain. Deqin has a lively market each morning, which becomes an open-air snooker stadium in the afternoon. The shops in the business district cater to the traditional tastes of the Tibetans, who comprise the great majority of the city's inhabitants. Carpets, fox fur hats, woolen blankets, swords and daggers, animal hides and skulls, silver ornaments and coral, turquoise and amber jewellery are on sale here.

A high road north out of Deqin leads to Dong village, from where the snow peaks are visible again. A little further on, chortens and strings of pennants and prayer flags mark the lookout point from where Meili Snow Mountain, its companion peaks and the glacier that slides down its southeastern face are visible in all their full glory.

From here the road follows the Lancangjiang straight north to the Tibetan border. The river cuts a deep gorge here, wriggling around promontories and slipping between steep,bald cliffs with streaks of mauve, purple, rustbrown and silvery blue colouring the rock. Occasional chortens by the road, flanked by tall poles with fluttering prayer flags, mark the spots where fatal accidents have occurred.

Besides Tibetan, a few villages are Naxi, descendants of frontier garrisons in imperial days. The last settlement in Yunnan is Xidu, 94 km north of Deqin and 9 km south of Yanjing, the first town in Tibet Autonomous Region. The villages are by no means as poor as one might expect for such a remote location. At Naigu, for example, a picturesque settlement above the road, with a chorten mounted on a hill within the village perimeter, most houses are new structures. And a large percentage of them have satellite dishes on their rooftops.

Back in Deqin a road winds out of the lower part of town and around gorges cut by streams slowing into the Lancangjiang. The snow peaks of Meili and Taizi are visible at intervals. About 20 km south the road runs through three short tunnels. At the end of the last one the Lancangjiang is first visible and for the next 10 km to the settlement of Yunling makes eight distinct bends (Lancangjiang means Winding River in Chinese). Gradually the snow peaks are no longer visible as the road follows the left bank of the river south.

Cizhong Church

Occasionally streams and waterfalls on the right bank slice through steep cliffs, while monasteries perch precariously on knolls above the river. Strings of prayer flags run from one side of the river to the other. Yanmen, the last major township in the county, 75 km south of Deqin, marks a change in architectural style, away from Tibetan towards Naxi type housing. This is even more evident a few km south, across the bridge to Cizhong, site of the Tibetan Catholic church, now a protected state historical monument.

At Cizhong, a large, mostly Tibetan village above the river bank the houses more closely resemble the rural Naxi houses of Lijiang County. But one detail reflects the Christian nature of the community. At the apex of the roofs the suspended pair of carved fish, representing water as a defence against fire and lightning, that adorns houses in Lijiang County, have been substituted. Instead there hang painted doves-symbols of the Christian Holy Spirit.

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