Travel to Songpan (Sichuan)
- Sights
and tours around Songpan : Most people go to Songpan for the horse treks
in the mountains. It is one of the few places in China where you so easily and
fast can organize a trek of several days on horse back. Song pan is a beautiful
Chinese village although the main road is in a bad state from all the busses
passing through. You can buy delicious dried Yak meat (the black pieces Yak meat
are hanging everywhere to dry) and Jak tea in instant powder (the taste of the
yak tea from such a tea bag actually really resemblances the fresh Jak tea so
the tea bags make a fun souvenir to invite the friends back home to). The most
beautiful part of Songpan lies in the west of town just below the tempel on the
cliff. There under is a beautiful wooden bridge and a few cozy open air tea houses.- Getting and exchanging cash : is practically impossible in Songpan, the banks won't exchange any dollar. The only chance you have of exchanging is in the horse trek agencies that after a bit of discussion will give you a bad rate for your dollars.
- Horse treks and tours : there are two travel agencies in Songpan situated opposite each other on a square. The quality and price of the two is the same. The horse guides are at both agencies farmers or herders from nearby villages. The price for a trek is 80 Yuan per day. This price includes everything for the trekking : blankets, rain clothes, horses, tents and simple meals in the mountains. Do remember that Songpan is situated 2850 meter above sea level and Chengdu only 500 meters. Most horse treks groups then move even higher so a slow acclimatisation can be necessary to avoid altitude sickness. If you have traveled from the North-West of China to Songpan you are already acclimatised. The treks are very popular and when I was there about 50 tourists in groups of 6 people left for a trek per day. It is a very nice contrast to be in the wild nature after having spent a long time in the busy Chinese cities, trains and busses. The treks are also very well organized, if you book a trek on the day of your arrival you can gallop out in the wilderness already the next morning. The agencies have a handy laundry crevice, they wash while you go trekking, when you arrive back your clean clothes are waiting for you. There are 3 standard trekking's :
* The villages in the Songpan area : 2 days, including a big waterfall.
* nature park : a trekking of 3 days, the entrance to the park is unfortunately very expensive and it seems to be very touristy.
* Snow mountain : a 4 days trek; the one that I would have preferred to do but without a few days of acclimatising in Songpan I felt that it would be too much to ride up to 4800 meters and I heard some other travelers complaining over terrible headache because of altitude sickness after having done this trek.
- Budget hotels in Songpan : there are several cheap hotels for the quite large quantity of backpackers that come for the horse treks.
I stayed in the Linye Binguan Hotel, no board outside, not far from the North port of Song pan, the rooms cost 20 Yuan per bed in a proper (and even quite luxurious) double room. Unfortunately there is a problem with the water and sometimes the hotel has no water.
