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SICHUAN LOOP

Sichuan is as large as Spain, but you don’t have to travel along great distances to get a taste of the incredible diversity of the province. Travelling in a circular route whose axis is Chengdu, the provincial capital, it’s possible to see a range of different people – Qiang, Tibetans, and Han peasants – in eclectic intersections of culture, nature and geography. These ethnic groups all have their customs, ways of dress, beliefs and superstitions, building style, and so on. These exotic peoples also live in some of the richest landscapes in the world, a tumbling terrain of high peaks and forbidden mountains. It’s a milieu that is inspiring and evocative, and the geographic and human diversity is like time-travel: in this loop route, the elevation changes from 500 metres to more than 6,000 metres, and the cultural fabric morphs from an anachronistic old Communist-Industrialist town to the ruggedness of the Tibetan plateau.

Descriptions of main peoples and places along the route: 

Qiang people & villages

The Qiang people, with their unique culture and way of life, sometimes called the People of the Clouds, are an ethnic group that live in 1000 villages along the Minjiang River valley. They have a history that stretches back about 4,000 years, making them one of the world’s oldest surviving ethnic groups. They are also one of the most esoteric ethnicities in Asia, and they live in evocative village: the hamlets of tightly-knit low-squat buildings and old defensive towers often cling to steep slopes in high mountains at around the 3,000-metre mark. The architecture is forbidding and defensive – a lasting legacy of the fray and pillage in the history of wars and banditry associated with the strategic Minjiang River valley, a valley that was throughout history the main route from central Asia to the Sichuan basin – and the high turrets attached to private buildings (the defence of last resort) are nowadays dramatic features on the high ridges. Many Qiang still wear their old costume, which consists of black apparel with geometric splashes of colours and a strikingly black turban, and their villages remain oases of ancient culture and architecture. 

Danba

Straddling the point where the mountains reach their final steps before levelling out on the Tibetan plateau, Danba straddles the cultural zone between the Qiang and the Tibetan people. It draws cultural influences from both ends, and the girls are adorned with legendary beauty. The villages of Danba consist of massive farmhouses; these are constructed of slate, with wooden sections, and trimmings of Tibetan-style sculpting and brightly-painted panels of wood. The villages are set upslope from the Dadu River – which is one of the most dramatic river valleys in the world – along semiarid terrain. Yet the villages flourish with orchards and trees and fields, which turn a riotous russet-crimson in autumn, thanks to water siphoned by the peasants from the river. South-facing slopes also hold pine forests. In Danda, as in the Qiang villages, you can get close to local culture by lodging with a private family. You can also then do a day-walk up the slope to a peak almost 4,000 metres high, where we are greeted by a sweeping view of mountains. 

Siguniang

The second-highest mountain in Sichuan, peaking at 6250 metres, Siguniang is famous for its series of spectacular granite peaks. It’s a massive mountain and a protected wilderness that’s criss-crossed with massive valleys hemmed in by forbidden summits. There is a range of habitats in the mountain, with broadleaf forests in the valleys, pine forests higher up, and a mix of scree and grasslands and lakes beyond the tree line. There are various treks you can do in Siguniang – these could be day-walks, but you get the best of the landscape in a three-day two-night-camping trek. 

Tagong

A pure and wild Tibetan palette awaits us in Tagong, a town set at the heart of the old Tibetan kingdom of Kham and the hub of the vast Tagong grasslands. The small town has a frontier feel and spirit: its large monastery attracts pilgrims doing Buddhist circumambulations, and the town is a mélange of nomads coming and going on horses, selling yak hides and butter, buying supplies, and being seen. They swagger in town wearing heavy robes, cowboy hats, and daggers dangling from their hips. A short hike outside town, across a pasture peppered with flowers, there is a large Tibetan monastery where sky burial is still practised. Dotted along the grasslands undulating in the distance are the stooping black tents made of yak-hide of the nomadic herders, who follow a seasonal migratory pattern. We will experience all of this; you can also then do a day-walk or go horse-riding in the grasslands, then visit a nomadic encampment. 

Peasant villages

Several peasants’ villages are clustered in rich mountain valleys in south-central Sichuan, where the terrain is subtropical. The inhabitants are Han peasants who rake a living from the cultivation of major crops (mostly maize) and live in old-style wooden houses that seem to morph out of Chinese history books, decorated with folk prints and old Chinese recitations as well as figures of deities that ward evil and bring good luck. The farmhouses nestle in groves of bamboo stirring in the wind like huge fans of feathers – bamboo is planted around the houses partly for its value in making furniture and other household implements, and also for its totemic value (the peasants in the south of Sichuan believe that bamboo has talismanic powers). You can stay in a comfy guesthouses in one of the villages, and then get lost in a world of fantasy while you explore the atmospheric alleyways and wooden houses, the old arched stone bridges, the roadside deity shrines, and the exotic markets where hole-in-the-wall eateries make corn bread, cured meats, steamed dumplings and other local foods. In one village we will visit the ancient opera house and governor’s old house – all features that showcase the wonderful old-style Chinese masonry. Or you can equally sit back under the canopies of weeping willows, and watch the rural bustle: the farmers peddling vegetables, day visitors sitting along the riverside and sipping tea or playing mahjong or just whiling away the time in chit-chat, children playing in the shallow stream. And then top it all up by sampling the local Chinese food dishes, particularly the dish known as dou hua, which is light-consistency tofu freshly made in traditional stone mill and then simply boiled and served with a pungent Sichuan sauce. 

Steam locomotive

The last steam train that runs commercially in China – and one of the last in the world – twists and hisses and heaves through subtropical mountains, passing peasant hamlets and an old coal mining town built in a Leninist-Industrial style. The steam train and coal mining town (the mine is now defunct) is a sight from another era: old Communist murals with firebrand revolutionary slogans still survive on facades of some buildings, the old administrative buildings are built in Soviet Neoclassical style, the industrial tenements are dense and forbidden, the market has dentists and herbalists and barbers, and old people while away the time playing mahjong in the public teahouse or waltzing in the square. Blacksmiths continue to make spare parts for the train the old way, and everything is manually operated. There are no roads and no cars. It’s like a forty-year-old time-warp – a real living town that has survived in a kind of limbo. 

Start & Finish: Chengdu

Recommended duration: 16 days

Recommended treks: 3 days

Trekking difficulty level: Moderate to hard. Read explainer…

Prices & Inclusions: Full-board prices range from €950 (US$1250 ) and €2000 (US$2600) per person. More info…

Crew & Transport: More info…

Standard Accommodation: Mid-range hotels, home-stays, guesthouses, and camping. More info…

Terms & Conditions: For the general terms and conditions that govern our tours and operation, and Frequently Asked Questions, please go to Nitty Gritty (FAQs).