We left Lake Ranwu this morning and drove to Chengdu.  We arrived the starting point of the zig-zag mountain around 10:20am.  The altitude of that point was 2600m, which zigzagged for 2 hours to the entrance of Mt Yela at 4685m.  Then we went to Town Bangda at the foot of the mountain and had meals there.  Nice sceneries along the way.

An explorer once described geographic characters of Tibet: Mountains have thousands of turns and roads are bumpy all over.

In 1950, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau didn’t have a highway nor an accurate map.  More than half a century ago, heroic road builders overcame all the dangers and difficulties, and completed the mountain road connecting Sichuan and Tibet.  The road started from Chengdu and ended in Lhasa, measuring over 2400km.

This is a heroic road.  The scriptures covering the mountain not only showed the respect to the god but also memorized and praised the heroes who built it.

This is the famous Road 318 – breathtaking and thrilling

Nu Jiang is running underneath

Nu Jiang Cave – must have been built through the mountain

Thanks to the cave, we are able to go to the other side of the mountain without any difficulties.   Thank you, road builders!

The bridge in the front – we can pass to the other side of the river via the bridge.

River running through the mountain

Nu Jiang Canyon is the number 2 canyon in the world.  Nu Jiang, the name by itself is intimidating, needless to say climbing the mountains.  There is a local analogy – if you fall from the mountain to Nu Jiang, you are getting out of Tibet to Yunan. The analogy is a little bit exaggerating, but it shows how dangerous Nu Jiang is.

We passed by Village Gama.  Gama, the sacred name, is from the Temple Gama built by Kagyupa, who once ruled Tibet.

Temple Gama was opened to public in 1984, as Tibet’s Major Historical and Cultural Protected Site.  Tourists from all over the world are visiting every day.

The village sits in between the mountains and  the river.  What a life to live here!

The view point of the mountain road

The best view point among the 72 turns.

Looking at the magic created by human beings, one thought of a song:

Dragons climbed the mountain one after another,

Sending peace and health to the plateau

That is a mysterious mountain road

Sending the warmth to the surrounding areas

From then on, mountains are not tall anymore and roads are not long

Men and Women from all races gather together.

Sichuan-Tibet Highway is the most scenic but the hardest to drive highway.  The only way to build it is to follow the mountains’ flow.  Therefore, the road is like a ribbon, zig-zagging along the mountain.  The difference in altitude is approximately 2KM with hundreds of U-turns.  It’s a perfect combination of thousands-of-years old mountains with the modern highways.

Suonan and the road

The electric wires passing through the mountains are other mountain roads? Connecting with the world farther away?

A corner from the view point.

Mt Yela’s altitude is 4658m.  The sign told us that there was a group of people who were taller than the mountains.  They are the protectors of the highway and the plateaus.

Statue in Plaza Bangda

The statue showed a Tibetan, riding a horse on top of a cloud, galloping through the sky.  He is the showcase of Tibetans, brave and persistent.

Standing on this side of the road, we are waving goodbye to Tibet.  Without taking home a piece of cloud, we are carrying home the whole sky.