As paradise of tourist, Chengdu is surrounded by a lot of beautiful nature reserves and historic sites, among them Yading National Park of Daocheng is attracting tourist worldwide now, besides it, on this vast Tibetan plateau in west Sichuan, and a lot of snow mountains, grassland, Tibetan monastery existed, such as Dege, Seda, Danba, etc. The road in this area is also well paved, which made the driving tour in this area a kind of special enjoyment and easy thing.
China Exploration is expert in foreigner driving tour in China, therefore we recommended this self-driving tour in East Tibet and Sichuan, which will bring the traveler free in maximum. From the driving license application, car rental, guide, hotel reservation, all made it very easy!
Below is our standard schedule, and we can also tailor made according to the traveler’s need.
ITINERARY
D1 Chengdu
Arrive in Chengdu, check in your hotel.
D2 Chengdu Driving license application and car rental.
In the morning your guide will pick-up you at hotel and then go through the procedure of health checking and driving license application, car rental.
D3 Chengdu / Rilong / Danba 340km, 6hrs’ driving
Your driving tours start today, and today your destination is Danba, which is 340 kms’ mountain road, you will cross Mt. Balangshan of 5040 ms from tunnel. In this tour, tourist can enjoy the cloud sea and more snow peaks, also in the other side of Mt. Balangshan is paradise of giant panda, Wolong Nature Reserve.
And you will also pass by the beautiful national park of Mt. Siguniangshan. Mt. Siguniangshan got its name from the 4 snow peaks of 6250ms, 5355m, 5279ms, 5025ms, means 4 girls mountain. It is the paradise for mountain climbing actually, freshman can start from the lowest, and veteran can challenge 6250ms.
Arrive in Danba in the late afternoon, and you can drive directly to Jiajv Tibetan village in the mountain. And you will make a home stay in local Tibetan family guesthouse.
D4 Danba / Daowu / Luhuo 240km, 5hrs’ driving
Get up in the early morning to breathe the clean air of mountain, and walk around in the village to enjoy the beautiful village. Tibetan in Danba built beautiful house along the mountain, and made it a wonder eventually. And it is widely spread that the girls of Danba are the most beautiful in Tibetan area, and local villagers also have the folklore of holding beauty contest every year, try your chance!
And then you will continue your driving tour to Luhuo via Daowu. Enjoy the beautiful plateau and mountain en route all the day. Arrive in Seda in the late afternoon. The sea level of Luhuo is 3250 meter, to be acclimated in the late afternoon.
D5 Luhuo / Seda / Ganzi 390km, 7hrs’ driving
Today you will drive to Seda in about 2 hrs firstly, where the huge Wuming Buddhism is the largest in Tibetan area. The Sea level of Seda is 3850 meter, but you will not stay night here, after the tour in Seda, and then drive back Luhuo and then continue driving tour to Ganzi city.
Arrive in Ganzi county in the late afternoon. Ganzi county is the busy transportation hub in North Kham area, tours to Baiyu, Dege and Xinlong, all will pass by here, naturally it turned out to be the most prosperous city in this Tibetan area.
D6 Ganzi / Dege
Ganzi is a beautiful city sitting in a basin surrounded by beautiful snow mountains. The snow peaks are Gods protecting this sacred land. And the Shwedagon monastery of Garz is well known because of the true friendship between Living Buddha Goeda and Red Army General Mr. Zhude.
Today your destination is Dege, the most important Buddhism base of Tibetan Lamaism. Many of Buddhism Sections founded their refuge in Dege when Lang-Dar-Ma cruely killed Buddhist in Tibet in mid century , a lot of monasterys were well reserved here, such as Dzogchen Monastery, Palpung monastery, Gartok Monastery, etc.
Today’s overland tour is a bit hard due to the big challenge of Mt. Bird Mountain, also called Mt. Quershan, the mountain pass is 5050ms. But the tunnel made it much easier now. And you will enjoy the beautiful snow mountain as well as beautiful Yilhun Lhatso lake.
Arrive in Dege in the late afternoon. It is a small town located in the deep valley, it is more reserved Tibetan town, horse, yaks, herdsman, and monks all freely walk on the street. After dinner, you can free to walk.
D7 Dege / Baiyu
Today you will make a pilgrimage tour in Dege Buddhism Printing House firstly. It is boasting the best wooden printing house remained in China, and their books of Tengyur and Kangyur were sold to Nepal, India and Bhutan. Workers are still working in traditional way, using woodblock and cinnabar to print the Buddhism scripture. And it is also shocking your heart seeing poor Tibetan making their pilgrimage in their special way.
And Gengqin monastery is also a famous monastery of Nyingma section in Dege, and you will also drop a tour here.
After walking tour in Dege, you will continue your driving tour to Baiyu county about 100 kms away. The driving tour will be along Yangtze river mostly, which is the boundary of Tibet Auto administration region and Sichuan province. The road is a bit bumpy due to construction, but just relax and enjoy the mountain, Tibetan village en route.
Arrive in Baiyu in the afternoon. The Palyul Kloster Monastery in Baiyu is the most beautiful, the whole monastery is built up the mountain, golden palaces shining under the Sun. Guide will take you up the monastery and have a bird’s eye view of the whole city.
D8 Baiyu / Ganzi 320Km, 6.5hrs’ driving
Today you will return Ganzi from Ganbai road, which is a bad road of 233 kms, but tour is still deserved today, it is sparse mountain and grassland en route, but provide you good chance of encountering with wildlifes as well as beautiful nature. And you can drop a tour in Yachen Monastery, which is newly built in 1980, but developed very fast, almost a city now, more than 10,000 monks stayed there now!
D9 Ganzi / Xinlong / Litang
It is a long overland tour again today, and our destination will be Litang. Enjoy the huge mountains en route. Arrive in Litang in the afternoon.
D10 Litang / Daocheng / Shangrila Village
The picture of Tibetan plateau today will continue to be unrolled for you today.
Litang is boasting the highest town becaue of its sea level of 4014 meters. And it is also an important religious city in Tibetan plateau, Choekhorling Monastery, or we say Litang Monastery, is the largest monastery in South Kham area. The huge monastery was built along the mountain, which made it extremely spectacle in view. And Litang is also the birth place of the 7th Dalai Lama, also the deeply loved land by the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, who is the most famous Lama poet. And the horse racing festival of Litang in August is listed as the TOP 3 horse festical in Tibetan plateau.
In the afternoon you will arrive in Shangrila village, also called Riwa village. It is strange that our tours overcome one by one snow mountain and eventually we arrived at warm village of low level.
D8 Shangrila Village / Yading National Park / Daocheng
Today you will take local sightseeing coach, and about 30 kms’ mountain road up the mountain, you will arrive in Yading National Park. Just before your arrival in Yading village, the 3 peaks of Yading already rose from the green forest and thrusted into the blue sky like three Gods sitting in the sky, just Kneel down!
With the help of local electric car, tour in Yading is much easier now, just 30 minutes, you can reach Lorong Yak Farm, where you can closely admire the peak of Yambeyong. And if your physical condition support, you can start a hiking tour to the two beautiful lakes, Milk Lake and Pearl Lake. They are two small lakes lying at the foot of snow peak, and they are said to be tears of God.
Descend the mountain in the afternoon and you will drive back to Daocheng city, the beautiful Tibetan villages and houses will company you in this 3 hours’ driving tour. en route. Arrive in Daocheng in the late afternoon, and then you can have a free walk in this quiet town.
D9 Daocheng / Litang / Yajiang / Kangding
It is a long driving tour overland today, but the beautiful landscape of Tibet remains endless charm to tourist. In the late afternoon arrive in Kangding, the capital city of Ganzi Tibetan prefecture, only 2560 meters in sea level.. Free to walk around in this Tibetan town in the late afternoon. Kangding is also known for the folk song of Kangding Love Song.
D10 Kangding / Luding / Leshan
It is an overland tours again, 380kms for about 5 hours’ driving, mostly on express way on No 318 state highway. The landscape will change from mountain area to wide plain gradually.
You will also drop a tour in Luding Bridge, which has played key role in the early history of Chinese communist party. If they were stopped by the bridge, so they would facing the danger of perished by Chiang Kai-shek army, but God helped them, and the brave heros crossed the bridge naked with only chains after fierce battle!
Arrive in Leshan in the afternoon, and then you can drop a visit in Leshan Giant Buddha. It is the largest Buddha statue in the world now.
D11 Leshan / Chengdu City Tour
Today you will drive back Chengdu in the morning in about 2 hrs, and then drive in the ancient city of Chengdu to explore the ancient cultural spots as Kuanxiangzi street, Wuhou temple, Bamboo garden, etc. Also enjoy a delicious hot pot as farewell dinner.
And return your car in the evening. End of the service.
D12 Chengdu Departure
You can head for other city in China by flight or bullet train today, or just fly back your country.
Prices of Private Tour ( US $) (Based on per car and shown in US dollars): $1550.00 per car