Deqing & Mt Meilixue

I’m sending this to you from Meilixue Tavern at Fei Lai Si, Deqing
County, right at the border between Yunnan and Tibet. The average
temp is a relatively warm -7 deg C. This is a Tibetan “teahouse”
managed by a man from Guangxi. I call him Qin lao ban - a descendant
of Qin Shi Huang, perhaps.

To be honest, Deqing is somewhat a disappointment. Yes, there are a
couple of impressive mountains here, but there are much better
mountain views in Nepal. One thing I didn’t realise is that Tibetans
don’t work during Tibetan new year either. This new year’s eve, the
whole town of Deqing is d.. oops I mean shutdown. They also have
reunion dinners and they light firecrackers. Hence, I couldn’t find
anybody to guide me to Meilixue base camp. I may even have trouble
finding a driver to get me out of here!

Deqing town is unspectacular - something like Namche Bazaar, but a
lot more modern, with electronics shops, sealed roads, traffic
lights and vehicular traffic. It’s still a nice place with good
scenery, but far more impressive is the way up here. The Shangrila
Canyon, as some people call it, is probably one of the most
spectacular natural features I’ve ever seen. Yes, I shall call this
the Shangrila Canyon Road.

Some of the Tibetan hamlets after the town of Yunling look like
castles in the air. Unfortunately, I didn’t stop at the most
spectacular part to take pictures as it was too dangerous to stop
the vehicle on the winding road. I only managed to take a few shots
of the latter part of the canyon, some 5km from Deqing.

If I ever get to again, I would ask the driver of a chartered
vehicle to drop me at Yunling and wait for me about 10km further up
the road.

Another chance discovery thanks to ponytailed Tibetan friend. The
Catholic Church in Deqing is nowhere hear Deqing town. Instead, it’s
situated at a place called Cizhong. The church really stands out in
the middle of Tibetan country. It also has a very interetsing
history and missionaries. About 60% of the Tibetans in Cizhong are
Catholics. Even their scriptures are written in Tibetan and they
attend church on Sunday in their traditional Tibetan costumes.
Pastor Liu, a Naxi man, operates a vineyard (where the 2 French
missionaries were buried) and makes his own organic red wine. I
bought 2.5 jin, but will probably have to finish it before I come
back.

It’s said that the missionaries also did a crossover from Cizhong
over the Biluo Range into the Nu Jiang (Salween in Myanmar) region.
They would bring their skis along and completed the trek in just one
day. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could revive the Missionary’s
Crossover?

At the moment, my biggest concern is to get out of Deqing in time to
catch my plane from Kunming on the 11th. All the drivers out here
are on holiday. The good news is, the much shorter highway 214 is
relatively snow-free and passable. The bad news is, my climb of
Malong Feng will have to be aborted too. There’s way too little time
to do so much. Even though my ice axe and crampons were brought for
nothing, I’m very glad that this trip has been unexpectedly
rewarding. I had a steamboat dinner (and some red wine) with Qin lao
ban last night. He bought some red wine from Cizhong too, but my
vintage was obviously better. This morning, I had Tibetan bread and
yak butter tea. I also made offerings of juniper, rice and incense.
The Tibetans offer to the goddesses of the mountains. I offered to
the dead climbers of Mt Melixue and also reaffirmed a constant
reminder to myself that man can never really conquer mountains. He
can only sneak up when the mountain is sleeping and then get the
hell out of there.

Even for people who are not very prone to AMS like me had to contend
with a headache last night (maybe it’s the wine). But one should
realise that from Weixi to Deqing, it’s an altitude change from a
few hundred feet to about 3500m. I even did a trek to Fei Lai Temple
after arrival. Coming up from Lijiang (2400m), Zhongdian (3200+)
might be easier on the body.

Overall, I would conclude that it’s a misconception that it’s
impossible to travel to Deqing in winter. In fact, this place is now
fully booked! Given the conditions now, it’s even possible to go to
Tibet from here. That would be another trip, but definitely not
during Tibetan new year. Deqing is somewhat of a letdown, but the
Shangrila Canyon, along with the red wine at Cizhong, are probably
two well-kept secrets of Shangrila I didn’t mind discovering.

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