Heishui County Travel Guide

Heishui County in Aba Prefecture is a place full of natural spirituality. The natural environment here is well-preserved, almost untouched by human interference. People have lived here for generations, enjoying a pastoral life and embracing the mysterious aura bestowed by nature. Below is a Heishui County travel guide.

The range of one’s travels is her world.

This is the Dagu Glacier in Heishui County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province. You have to take a cable car to get to the glacier. The cable car price was a bit painful for me, a poor student, at 180 yuan per person.

The glacier is at an altitude of over 4800 meters. Some people brought oxygen tanks, but my friend and I went without, comforting ourselves with the idea that being young is the best oxygen tank! I regretted it after an hour.

Don’t make big movements while playing on the glacier. Otherwise, you’ll quickly experience altitude sickness, significantly reducing your time to appreciate the glacier.

I’m from Kunming, which is over 1800 meters above sea level. Before going up, I thought I would be fine, having grown up on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. However, after almost an hour, I felt obvious chest tightness!

My roommate, a native Sichuan girl, didn’t feel any discomfort at all! I underestimated it (stamping my feet)! The glacier wasn’t as cold as I imagined, but it was much grander. The glacier was so white that it blinded me! So, you must wear sunglasses when going up, otherwise, you’ll find it hard to open your eyes! The glacier is large, but the area we could move around in was small, with many areas blocked off.

I wanted to go to Naizigou (meaning beautiful, prosperous, and peaceful in Tibetan), but the driver didn’t seem to know it well, so we could only admire the colorful forests by the road.

October and November are great for visiting places with colorful forests. A local told us that this year’s colorful forests were not as beautiful as last year’s. He said that it’s like that, last year is good, this year is average, and next year should be great.

But for us, this year’s colorful forests were already very beautiful. Even if they weren’t the most beautiful, our hearts were already the most beautiful.

The first two pictures were taken at the highest temple in Heishui County. We stayed at a Tibetan family’s home, where there are many such guesthouses. The couple was very kind. The temple is on a mountaintop, and you have to drive up. This trip cost 100 yuan, and while the mountain road was indeed winding and seemed to take a long time, it still felt a bit expensive.

When traveling to places without public transport, without a car, the transportation costs alone take up a lot of the budget! For example, the two days we went to see the colorful forests and the Dagu Glacier, it cost 150 yuan per day and 50 yuan per day. The temple was closed that day, and this old man took us through the side iron railings. The temple was very empty because there were no monks. The back of the temple was filled with prayer flags of various colors, which were very beautiful. At that time, I thought that one day I must go to Seda. I don’t know what the last pancake is called, but it was for breakfast, served with porridge. The porridge here seems to have lard mixed into it. At night, there are people dancing in a circle in the town square, and there is roasted whole lamb. The nightlife is also fantastic (laughing)!

The temperature difference between day and night is quite large in the plateau region, truly embodying the saying: “Wear a cotton jacket in the morning, a thin shawl in the afternoon, and eat watermelon by the stove.” You can wear a thin jacket during the day, but you’ll need an electric blanket at night. Also, the sky there is really blue!

My fellow college students, don’t wait until you graduate and start working to visit these places during the crowded Golden Week holidays. The value of travel is no less than certificates or GPA.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you have places you want to go, don’t wait any longer. Just make up your mind, pack your bags, and let your body or soul hit the road!