GLACIERS, BIG MOUNTAINS AND TIBETAN AREAS OF WESTERN SICHUAN

TRAVEL IN WESTERN SICHUAN

null
Highway from Sichuan to Tibet Late August and Early September is the best time to visit western Sichuan. The rainy season is June through August. Bus run in the area year-round but the roads are sometimes closed by snow or landslides. For a time foreign travelers in Western Sichuan are required to buy an insurance policy for around US$4, which can be obtained at the China Insurance Company next to the Holiday Inn in Chengdu,

Sleeper buses (with bunks, not seats) and newer more comfortable buses bound for western Sichuan, leave from Xinnanmen bus station in Chengdu. The eight-hour trip from Chengdu to Kandling cost about US$15. Web Site : Kham Aid Foundation Kham Aid

Sichuan-Tibet Highway Sichuan-Tibet Highway is one of the world's highest, most dangerous and roughest roads. Built between 1950 and 1954, it consists of two main branches — the 2412-kilometer northern route and the 2140-kilometer southern route — that branch off from the main road west of Chengdu past Luding and Kangding.

Most of the routes are comprised of twisting one lane dirt or gravel roads. Covering the distance between Chengdu and Lhasa can take two weeks to traverse by truck. Half the vehicles in the military convoys that travel this route are fuel trucks that keep the other vehicles going. The Lonely Planet guided described an accident in which a truck overturned and one American lost half his arm and an Australian woman had multiple back injuries. It was several days before medical help arrived.

Northern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway

The Northern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway is 2412 kilometers long and branches off from the main road west of Chengdu past Luding and Kangding. Also known as Route 317, it passes over the 16,128-foot pass, Tro La, which is littered with the skeletons of vehicles that couldn't make it, and passes through the small Tibetan towns of Luhou, Graze and Dege (pronounced DEHR-geh).

Buses from Kangding to Dege leave on odd-numbered days. The 370-mile journey takes at least two days, with buses stopping overnight in either Garze or Luhou, . Also on odd-numbered days there are buses between Chengdu and Garze. This journey takes about a day and half and and costs US$24.

Dege

null
Tibetan book Dege (western Sichuan near the Tibetan border) is regarded as perhaps the best place in Tibet or China to see Tibetan culture. Carved into the side of a ravine, rising steeply from the Zi Qu tributary of the Yangtze, the town has a major monastery, several temples and beautiful red-and-white Tibetan homes.

Dege Printing House is Dege's main attraction. Built between 1729 and 1750, this three-story wooden structure stores 80 percent of the Tibetan literary culture, and produces a wide range of texts for monasteries, libraries, study centers and Tibetan colleges, which people from all over Tibet come to pick up.

The Dege Printing House is regarded as a sacred site. Pilgrims seek it out and walk clockwise around it with prayer wheels in their hands. More than 210,000 hand-craved wooden blocks, some of which were carved in the 16th century, are stored there. Printing stopped in 1950s when Dege came under Chinese rule, but was spared by the Red Guards, while other Tibetan buildings were destroyed, on orders of Zhou Enlai.

Printing resumed in 1979 using 270,000 ancient wooden printing plates that survived the Cultural Revolution. About 100 monks work there. All the work is done by hand. There are no machines or even electric lighting. Blocks made in the 17th and 18th century are still used to make texts that have as many as 30,050 pages (making four copies of this text takes three weeks).

Many of the monks are old men. Some are physically disabled. They coat the plates with black inks and press them on sheets of rough paper, producing 2,500 pages an hour. Describing the work, Peter Hessler wrote in the New York Times, "One of the workers spreads the bright red ink on a wood block while the other presses the paper. They work quickly, printing a page every four seconds." Tours cost US$6.

Web Sites: Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Budget Accommodation: Check Lonely Planet books; Getting There: Dege is accessible by bus from Kangding and Chengdu. Lonely Planet (click Getting There) Lonely Planet .

Trekking from Dege has become popular in recent years. Destinations include the Babang Monastery, the lovely town of Ha La Maisu and Baiyu Monastery, which has some of the best preserved murals in Kham. One of the murals is 300 years old and 233 feet long. There is no electricity in the area and most people get around on foot or on Mongolian ponies. Trekkers cover about 12 miles a day and walk at altitudes between 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters (at the passes). Travelers often spend the night and eat in the monasteries. Most meals consist if died yak meat, butter tea and tsampa (roasted barely flour) and tsampa dumplings. The Quick and Dirty Guide to Trekking in Dege is available on the Kham Aid Foundation website (www.khamaid.org)

Sethar

Serthar (300 kilometers west of Chengdu on the northern branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Road) is located in the remote, barren 13,000-foot-high Larung valley in the Tibetan region of western Sichuan. It is the home of a unique Buddhist community. Founded in 1980 by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog, who claims to be a reincarnation of the teacher of the previous Dalai Lama, the community boasted 10,000 followers who lived in spartan log cabins and mud huts, making it the largest group of its kind in the Tibetan regions. Most of the members were Tibetans but there were 1,000 ethnic Chinese members in the group.

The community was called Larung Gar (Gars means encampment) and Serthar Buddhist Institute. Located near the border with Tibet and Qinghai Province and 500 miles from the nearest city, it was surrounded by towering mountains and reached by dirt road Before the Buddhists arrived no one lived in the valley.

Larung was not a monastery. Its members included nuns, red-robed monks, scholars and laymen and women. It was not associated with any of the Tibetan sects. Doctrines from all three of the major Tibetan Buddhist sects are taught. The group was tolerated for while because Jigme Phuntosg went out of his way not to do anything to offend Beijing. Even so the "evil cult" law passed to combat Falun Gong in 2000 was used to crack down on the group, because it had grown so large and was perceived as a threat.

In 2001, armed police evicted hundreds of Tibetan nuns, monks and scholars from the Serthar. Houses were burned down and people who were evicted were forced to sign documents denouncing the Dalai Lama and threatened with arrest if they returned. Some nuns threatened to commit suicide rather than leave. The aim was not to close the community but to limit its size.

After the crackdown the community managed to survive. Many monks who were ordered to leave simply walked down te road and turned around and returned, sneaking past police. Members seemed to not care about the risks. After the crack down new members showed up. Their resistance called into question Beijing's ability to crush religious and dissident groups.

As of early 2004, there were about 3,000 people at Serthar. Jogme Phuntsok continued to meet with small groups of students until his death in January 2004. Another crackdown occured in 2007.

Southern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway

null
Trekking in western Sichuan Southern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway is 2140 kilometers long and branches off from the main road west of Chengdu past Luding and Kangding. It passes through the small Tibetan towns Litang and Batang before reaching Tibet. The Southern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway is said to be the more spectacular and beautiful than the Northern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway of the two branches but is also considered to be more dangerous so make sure you have a good driver and good vehicle.

The Southern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway — which is part of the G318 that runs from Shanghai to the Tibet-Nepal border — has traditionally been part of the Tea Horse Road and the a pilgrimage route to the holy city of Lhasa from Sichuan. In recent years it has become a passageway for Han Chinese youths seeking their fortune in Tibet.

Spectacular sights along the way include the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, Mount Gongga, the expansive Maoya Grasslands, Mudui Glacier and Namcha Barwa, the highest mountain in Nyingchi and the 28th highest peak in the world. The route also takes you deep into Kham region culture to places like Danba, Kangding, Xinduqiao, and Litang and Nyingchi — where it can be argued Tibetan culture is more alive than it is in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Web Site: Travel China Guide ;

March to April is good to visit. While most of Tibet is still cold, the climate in Nyingchi is already warm. In Nyingchi area thousands of peach trees are in bloom. In May and June, the azaleas are blooming and a good place to see them is at Sejila Mountain in Nyingchi Prefecture. Here there are 25 different azalea species on one 50 kilometers section of road. During July to August everything is green and horse racing festivals are held in Litang and elsewhere. Be careful though: this is the rainy season. Although rain showers are usually short landslides and road washouts occur. September to October has some of the best weather. The rainy season is over and skies are deep blue and the air is brisk. November to February is still okay for trekking and sightseeing in western Sichuan and the southeastern Tibet but is generally too cold and dangerous to travel along the highway. Some of the passes are closed with snow and many of the lodges and hostels along the route are closed.

Kangding

Kangding (on the road between Chengdu and Tibet, 210 kilometers west-southwest of Chengdu) is small 2620-meter-high town on the Tibetan Plateau in the shadow of Gongga Shan. The scenery is spectacular. Trekkers and pilgrims often begin their journey here. There are four lamaseries in the vicinity of the town and more are accessible by foot including one at the base of Gongga Shan.

Kangding is the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province. Home to about 134,000 people, it is populated by both Tibetans and Han, and is part of the historical Tibetan region of Kham. The swift-moving Zheduo river flows through the city.. At the north end of the town near the bus station the Zheduo river converges with the Yala River. The city features a sizable People's Square, where locals gather to do Tai Chi, play badminton, and socialise, especially in the early mornings and weekends. There are many Tibetan and Sichuanese restaurantss. The Tibetan Buddhist monastery Dentok sits on a hill in the Paoma Mountain overlooking the city, and is accessible by cable car.

In 2008 the PRC government opened an airport at Kangding, the third-highest in the world, at 4,280 meters (14,040 feet). Kangding contains some notable Buddhist monasteries, including Nanwu Si Monastery, Anjue Monastery and Jinggang Monastery. A Catholic church was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt in the 1980s. Today it is no longer in use and has been converted to shops and a hotel. Web Sites: Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Getting There: Kangding is accessible by bus from Chengdu.

Luding Bridge: Long March Landmark

null
Luding Bridge Luding Bridge (near Kangding) is where a legendary battle on the Long March took place over the Dadu River. It is possible to walk across the footbridge and have your picture taken with a man dressed up in Long-March-era Red Army uniform. Lots of Mao kitsch is on sale. In 2005 a number of museums were opened up along the Long March route.

In May 1935, during the early part of the Long March, the Kuomintang troops arrived before the Communists at Luding Bridge, 120-meter chain link footbridge that spanned the Dadu River. According to legend, by the time the Communists got to the bridge it had all of its planks removed and was guarded by a regiment of Kuomintang soldiers armed with machine guns. At night 22 brave Communist commandos, the story goes, went across the bridge — in some places hanging from the chains and pulling themselves forward hand over hand with grenades in their teeth — and captured the bridge, allowing the marchers to proceed. Mao later told Edgar Snow that the crossing the Dadu River was the single most important event of the Long March. Of the 80,000 soldiers that began the march in 1934, 20,000 made it across Luding Bridge.

Many of the reported events of the Long March, it seems, never happened or were exaggerated. The Luding Bridge incident appears to be a complete fabrication. There were no Nationalist troops at the bridge and there was no battle: only a skirmish with no casualties. The local warlord, who controlled the bridge and hated Chiang Kai-shek, let Mao's army pass and was later made a minister in the Communist government.

Gongga Shan

Gongga Shan (near the towns of Kangding and Luding) is an impressive-looking peak in western Sichuan that was once thought to be the highest mountain in the world. Using a barometer, the boiling point of water and a pocket compass to make his calculations, the explorer Joseph Rock estimated the mountain — formally known as Minya Konka — it was 9,220 meters (30,250 feet) high.

The claim was given further credibility in World War II, when a plane was blown off course, while flying "over the hump" from Burma to China, and end up near the Anye Machin range (see below). Reportedly when the plane emerged from the clouds at 30,500 feet, three snow-covered peaks toweredoverhead. The story, it was later revealed, was dreamed up American pilots as a joke on British war corespondents (the C-47 plane the flew the mission couldn't even reach 30,000 feet).

In 1949, an American explorer survey the mountain and claimed it was 9041 meters (29,661 feet) high, making it higher than Mt. Everest. Claims persisted until the 1970s when a Chinese surveying team determined the mountain was 7556 meters (24,790 feet) high. Maqen Gangril (formally known as Anye Machin), an impressive-looking peak in southern Sichuan was also thought to be the highest mountain in the world. It too was said to be more than 30,000 feet high.

These days Gongga Sahn is a pilgrimage, trekking and climbing destination. Pilgrims walk several hundred kilometers, circling the mountain and its 5,200-meter-high sister peak. Trekkers are sometimes disappointed because clouds often hide the view and many climbers have died tried to reach the summit. In 1981, eight Japanese climbers were buried in an avalanche. two Americans were killed in 1939 and six Chinese climbers died in 1957.

Hailuo Glacier

The Hailuo Valley (at the foot of the Gongga Shan) is situated on the eastern hillside of Gongga Mountain at the eastern edge of the Tibetan-Qinghaian Plateau. It is well-known for its low-elevation glacier.

Hailuogou Glacier is the lowest glacier in Asia. The main glacier is 14 kilometers in length and covers an area of 25 square kilometers. It also only 1,600 years old. There are specular treks along the glacier, which can be reached from the town of Moxixang, which in turn can reached from Kangding. For details of the treks see the Lonely Planet Guide.

The crystal glacier comes down along the steep hillside and decorates the whole valley with a pure icy white coating. Its huge ice cave and bridge make the scenery resemble a crystal palace straight out of an ancient myth. More particularly, the magnificent grand ice waterfall, over 1,000 meters high and 1,100 meters wide, is 10 times larger than the famous Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guizhou Province.

In this world of ice and snow, there are dozens of hot, warm and cold springs, exuding from underground. The highest temperature of the spring mouth can be up to 90 . The ancient forest is also an important feature of the valley; Admission: 72 yuan (US$11.38) per person;

Places on the Southern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway

Danba (370 kilometers from Chengdu, 100 kilometers north of the Southern Branch of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway) is the cultural center of the Jiarong region. Situated in the east gate of Garze, Sichuan Province, Danba is hidden among western Sichuan's mountains and valleys. Danba's nickname, "Beauty Valley," is a tribute to the splendid landscapes and the culture. Of course, in Danba, the girls are very pretty, and every year they hold the Beauty Festival. Danba also has a culture of stone cave architecture and is famous for its stone rooms. Its mysterious Feng shui theory combined with the rich religious culture makes the place close to perfect.

Terraced mountain slopes in western Sichuan

Litang (Ganze Prefecture, 400 kilometers west of Chengd) is situated in a treeless valley that is 4,680 meters (15,350 feet) high. It is home to around 54,000 people, 95 percent of them Tibetans. The number of Chinese is growing. They run many of the shops and restaurants. Large numbers of herding families are also moving to the town, happy to gain access to schools, electricity and jobs. The busy government-sanctioned monastery is home to 300 monks. It has 3,000 monks in the 1950s before it was shout down in 1959. It reopened in the 1980s. Web Site: Lonely Planet Lonely Planet

Maoya Prairie (western Litang County) is the largest area of grassland in the central Shaluli Range of the Hengduan Mountains. With an altitude between 3,800 meters and 4,500 meters, this boundless prairie is filled with wandering flocks and herds, and is the site of the famous Litang Horse Racing Festival.

Haizi Mountain and Sister Lake ( Daocheng County) is a beautiful Tibetan landscape, with a striking blue lake and a natural hot spring rich in natural minerals. Grand monasteries are found in an of barren empty valleys with by towering mountains and imposing glaciers.

Muli

Muli (200 kilometers south of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway) is a remote region of Sichuan located near Tibet. Once a small kingdom, it was an important stop for Tibetan pilgrims in Sichuan on their way to the holy mountains in Tibet. In the 1920s the pilgrims were often terrorized by bandits, that now seem to have disappeared. The Muli monastery has been rebuilt after being destroyed by Red Guard and is now watched over by lamas and acolytes. Poor roads, deep gorges and politics kept Westerners out of the region until the late 1980s.

In 1924, the explorer Joseph Rock crossed a 13,000-foot pass in Sichuan to reach Muli, then a New-Hampshire-size Buddhist kingdom with only 22,000 people. Rock ate "ancient mottled yak cheese, interspersed with hair" and cakes "heavy as rocks" with the overweight, 6-foot-2-inch monarch, whose black, greasy attendant "showed that soap was not in demand."

Describing dinner with the local ruler, Joseph Rock wrote in National Geographic: “The king's uncle, a dried mummy, plastered and gilded, sat in a golden chorten (shrine) in the same room where we had lunch. The king explained, “My uncle died sixty years ago." Thus royalty in Muli is never lonely."” With little knowledge of the outside world, the monarch asked Rock questions like: Was it possible to ride a horse from Muli to Washington? Was Washington near Germany? Could Rock's binoculars see through mountains." Web Site: China Trekking (click under Minority Towns) China Trekking

Diaolou Buildings and Villages for Tibetan and Qiang Ethnic Groups

Diaolou Buildings and Villages for Tibetan and Qiang Ethnic Groups (300 kilometers north to 150 kilometers west of Chengdu) were nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage site in.2013 These building and villages are scattered over a fairly large area in the mountains north and west of Chengdu. The area lies between The North End (N 32°17, E 104°10), South End (N 30°04, E 101°38), The East End (N 32°17, E104°10) and West End (N 31°29, E 102°12). [Source: National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO]

Stone watchtowers in some Qiang villages have polished walls and were built to withstand earthquakes. They are usually square, hexagonal or octagonal, with the tallest reaching 14 stories and about 30 meters (98 feet). The Diaolou buildings and villages reflect the adaptability, creativity and cultural traditions of Tibetan and Qiang communities living in the difficult environment of the Tibetan Plateau. [Source: National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO]

The site includes 225 Diaolou buildings and 15 villages in the upper Dadu and Min river valleys of the Hengduan Mountains. They are distributed across Barkam, Jinchuan, Wenchuan, Li and Mao counties in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, and Kangding, Danba and Daofu counties in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The area has great diversity in ethnic groups, languages, geography and religions, with elevations generally ranging from 1,500 to 5,000 meters (4,921 to 16,404 feet).

The villages and Diaolou include Buwa and Luobo villages in Wenchuan; Taoping in Li County; Heihu and Yingzuihe in Mao County; and Tibetan villages in Danba, including Kegeyi, Xiarenyi, Boselong, Han'eyi, Zuobi, Moluo, Dongfeng, Gongbu and Jiaju. Other groups include Zhibo and Songgang in Barkam, Zengda Pass in Jinchuan, and the ancient Diaolou buildings of Kangding and Daofu. The valleys form part of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, an important route for migration and cultural exchange among ethnic groups in western China.

History of the Tibetan-Qiang Diaolou Buildings and Villages

The Tibetan and Qiang peoples have lived together for centuries in the Hengduan Mountains on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. The Qiang are one of China’s ancient ethnic groups and are mentioned in Shang Dynasty oracle-bone inscriptions. The Tibetan people migrated into the region after the 7th century and developed distinct local branches through interaction with existing communities, including the Jiarong (Rgyalrong) and Zhaba Tibetans. [Source: National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO]

The region combines Tibetan and Qiang traditions, including worship of heaven and mountains, Bonpo and Tibetan Buddhism. Farming is supplemented by animal husbandry, creating a form of agriculture adapted to different elevations. Villages, Diaolou buildings, farmland, meadows and alpine valleys together form a cultural landscape shaped by mountain agriculture.

Diaolou architecture developed from local stone buildings and tombs dating to the Neolithic Age. Religious traditions and practical needs for defense and housing influenced their design, producing distinctive tower-like buildings with both spiritual and physical functions. Village layouts also reflect the careful use of land and natural resources and a close relationship between people and their mountain environment.

Tibetan-Qiang Diaolou Buildings

The Diaolou buildings are a distinctive form of architecture developed in response to the severe mountain environment, using stone, earth and wood. They reach up to 60 meters (197 feet) high, with the largest height-to-side-length ratio reaching 10:1. Their floor plans include four, five, six, eight, 12 and 13 sides. They combine spiritual functions, including nature worship and religious beliefs, with residential and defensive uses. Most survived the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, demonstrating their strong resistance to earthquakes. [Source: National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO]

Diaolou are mainly stone watchtowers, although some Qiang towers are built of adobe. They are generally 10 to 60 meters (33 to 197 feet) high and cover 25 to 100 square meters (269 to 1,076 square feet). Floors have openings, floor slabs and wooden ladders, while exterior walls often have embrasures. Qiang towers commonly have square or polygonal plans, while Tibetan towers often have star-shaped plans with five, six, eight, 12 or 13 corners.

Tibetan and Qiang residences are generally two- to four-story, flat-topped buildings with rectangular plans and stone-and-wood structures. Livestock are kept on the ground floor, while upper floors are used for living and storage, with the top floor serving as a drying platform. Fireplaces are found in the main living rooms, and white stones placed at roof corners reflect local worship of snowy mountains and white stones.

The Diaolou buildings express a long-standing belief linking architectural height with divinity. Together with the villages and related traditions, they preserve evidence of the history and development of agricultural communities on the Tibetan Plateau.

Tibetan-Qiang Diaolou Building Construction and Architecture

Diaolou construction uses techniques such as outward masonry, battered walls and wooden bars for reinforcement. These methods represent a high level of traditional Chinese stone-tower construction. The earliest written reference to Diaolou appears in the 5th-century Book of the Later Han. Among surviving examples, the oldest dates to the Tang Dynasty (618–907), with others built during later dynasties through the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). [Source: National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO]

The large scale, sophisticated techniques and varied forms of the Diaolou buildings are important achievements of Tibetan and Qiang traditional architecture. Together with residences, temples, farmland, sacred mountains and trees, valleys and rivers, they form a distinctive agricultural landscape of the Tibetan Plateau and reflect changes in the Tibetan-Yi Corridor over time.

The Diaolou originated from nature worship and the defensive needs of Tibetan and Qiang communities. Their functions later expanded to include residence, religion, displays of wealth and fengshui. They developed into different forms associated with residences, temples and military fortresses of tribal leaders.

Traditional materials, designs and decorations remain well preserved in many residences and temples. Construction techniques have been passed down, with craftsmen continuing to use local materials and traditional methods and customs for restoration and new buildings. Most village buildings retain their original functions. Although Diaolou defensive functions have declined, storage, residential and religious uses continue, and the buildings remain important symbols of Tibetan and Qiang culture.

Tibetan-Qiang Diaolou Villages

Tibetan and Qiang villages are agricultural settlements on the plateau, usually built on terraces or gentle slopes between alpine valleys. Their locations follow principles of facing the sun, staying near water, avoiding strong winds and using as little arable land as possible. Villages are often surrounded by sacred mountains, forests and religious or recreational places. Their layouts vary from concentrated or scattered settlements to villages extending along mountain ridges. [Source: National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO]

Diaolou buildings may stand inside or outside villages or near strategic locations, depending on their functions. Their numbers vary among villages, with Tibetan villages generally having more. Their forms, uses and construction techniques, along with village layouts, developed through more than 2,000 years of interaction among different ethnic groups. They reflect the diversity of languages, ethnic groups and religions in the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, as well as migration, cultural change, the transition from nomadic to agricultural life, and exchanges between Tibetan and Han communities.

The villages retain their traditional locations, layouts, agricultural landscapes and natural surroundings. Traditional production methods and religious beliefs have also been preserved, and Tibetan and Qiang residents continue to live in the villages and maintain strong ties to their ethnic cultures.

Village layouts serve several purposes, including defense, disaster prevention, farming and religious activities. They demonstrate settlement practices adapted to natural conditions and the three-dimensional agriculture of the Hengduan Mountains. Urbanization, energy development and tourism now pose challenges to the plateau environment and traditional Tibetan and Qiang cultures, making protection of the Diaolou buildings and villages important.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Nolls China Web site; CNTO; Perrochon photo site; Beifan.com; University of Washington; Ohio State University; UNESCO; Wikipedia; Julie Chao photo site

Text Sources: CNTO (China National Tourist Organization), China.org, UNESCO, reports submitted to UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, China Daily, Xinhua, Global Times, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Compton's Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Updated in July 2020