zFestivals & Events
Saga DawaRELIGIOUS
(hMay or Jun)
The festival of Saga Dawa marks the enlightenment of Sakyamuni, and occurs on the full-moon day of the fourth Tibetan month. In the Kailash region the highlight is the raising of the Tarboche prayer pole in the morning. Monks circumambulate the pole in elaborate costumes, with horns blowing. After the pole has been raised, about 1pm, everyone sets off on their kora.
4Sleeping & Eating
Most travellers spend a night in Darchen before the kora. Many guesthouses offer basic accommodation (no running water, outdoor pit toilets). Bigger places can be fully booked with large groups of Indian pilgrims during the summer months of June, July and August.
Supplies on the Mt Kailash kora are limited to instant noodles and beer, so stock up on snacks in Darchen's supermarkets before heading off.
Kailash and Holy Lake Guest HouseHOTEL$$
(神山圣湖宾馆, Shénshān Shènghú Bīnguǎn %136 2891 8072; dm ¥50, d ¥200-240)
One of the best options in Darchen, this is the first hotel you come to as you enter town from the south. It's far from perfect – the wi-fi only really works in the lobby and you should check the plumbing before accepting a room – but the hot water is pretty reliable and rooms are spacious. It's next to the Himalaya Hotel.
The simple dorm rooms are out the back in a glasshouse-style building.
Markham TeahouseTIBETAN$
(芒康藏餐, Mángkāng Zāngcān dishes ¥15-30)
A cosy and friendly Tibetan teahouse whose comfy sofas beckon for sweet tea, breakfast omelettes, noodles and fried dishes, all easy to order on a picture menu. It's on the upper floor, above a shop, on the southwestern corner of Darchen's central crossroad.
8Information
Almost all hotels and even restaurants offer free wi-fi. On the kora you can use your cell phone's 3G connection to go online.
8Getting There & Away
Darchen is 3km north of the main Ali–Saga road, about 12km from Barkha, 107km north of Purang, 330km southeast of Ali and a lonely 1200km from Lhasa.
Lake Manasarovar མཚོ་མི་ཕམ་ 玛旁雄错
Elev 4560m
Sacred Lake Manasarovar (མཚོ་མི་ཕམ་; Mapham Yum-tso, or Victorious Lake, in Tibetan; 玛旁雄错; Mǎpáng Xióngcuò, in Chinese) is the most venerated of Tibet’s many lakes and one of its most beautiful. With its sapphire-blue waters, sandy shoreline and snowcapped-mountain backdrop, Manasarovar is immediately appealing, and a welcome change from the often forbidding terrain of Mt Kailash.
Most visitors base themselves at picturesque Chiu village, site of Chiu Monastery, on the northwestern shore of the lake. Indian pilgrims often drive around the lake, immersing themselves in the sacred waters at some point. You'll also see Tibetan pilgrims walking the four-day kora path around the lake.
The lake area has a one-time admission fee of ¥150 per person (the Mt Kailash fee does not cover this).
Tashi GuesthouseGUESTHOUSE$
(吉鸟扎西宾馆, Jíniǎo Zhāxī Bīnguǎn %138 8907 3536; dm ¥60)
This is probably the most popular of the half-dozen guesthouses lining the Manasarovar shoreline at Chiu. Rooms are simple, with pit toilets outside, but there's a cosy dining room.
Chiu, at the northwestern corner of the lake, is 15km south of Barkha junction, from where it is 22km west to Darchen or 22km east to Hor Qu. The only way to get around is to have your own transport or hike around the lake.
Understand China
China Today
With a mix of optimism and deep-rooted social and economic problems, China continues to position itself at the centre of world trade – but will it last?
History
China has, for much of its history, been in conflict either internally or with outsiders.
People of China
China is a huge cluster of different ethnicities, a consequence of sharing borders with more than a dozen nations.
Religion & Philosophy
Although each faith is distinct, some fascinating cross-pollination goes on between Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and even Christianity in China.
Chinese Cuisine
Some people visit China for the food alone. We can't blame them.
Arts & Architecture
China is the custodian of one of the world's richest cultural and artistic legacies.
China's Landscapes
China is home to the world's highest mountain range, one of the planet's hottest deserts and a colossal web of waterways.
Martial Arts of China
Chinese martial arts are deeply impregnated with religious and philosophical values – and perhaps a morsel of magic.
China Today
A highly idiosyncratic mix of can-do entrepreneurs, inward-looking Buddhists, textbook Marxists, overnight millionaires, the out-of-pocket, leather-faced farmers, unflagging migrant workers and round-the-clock McJobbers, China today is as multifaceted as its challenges are diverse. From the outside, China’s autocratic decision-making may suggest national uniformity, but things are actually more in a state of controlled, and not so controlled, chaos.
Best on Film
Still Life (Jia Zhangke; 2005) Bleak and hauntingly beautiful portrayal of a family devastated by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.
Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou; 1991) Exquisitely fashioned tragedy from the sumptuous palette of the Fifth Generation.
In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai; 2000) Seductive, stylishly costumed and slow-burning Hong Kong romance.
Best in Print
Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip (Peter Hessler) Hessler's amusing and insightful journey at the wheel around the highways and byways of China.
Tiger Head, Snake Tails (Jonathan Fenby) Compelling account of contemporary China's myriad challenges and contradictions.
Diary of a Madman & Other Stories (Lu Xun) Astonishing tales from the father of modern Chinese fiction.
The Economy: Speed-bump or Cul-de-sac?
China's eye-watering growth appears to be nearing the end of its blinding three-decade run, although experts remain divided over long-term implications for its US$11 trillion economy. Confrontingly high levels of debt, chronic overcapacity in manufacturing, a constellation of real-estate bubbles dotted around the land and a stock market prone to sudden dives, mean the days of easy, double-digit growth have given way to more sober forecasts. The economy may not be coming off the rails, but China's ambitious proposals in its current five-year plan could take a bruising, including its commitment to hugely expand social security and feed the country's large and demanding military budget. The latter expenditure is perhaps most crucial, to satisfy a growing domestic appetite for a strong nation when rivalries within the region and with the US are at their keenest. While a bust is perhaps unlikely, China may need to prepare for a period of middle-income blues with fewer jobs, reduced expectations and the days of double-digit growth a thing of the past.
China goes Travelling
China's crashing stock market seems to have done little to stop the Chinese from joining the top league of travelling nations for the first time in their tumultuous and predominantly inward-looking recent history. So while the world goes to China, China is increasingly going to the world. In 2015 a record 120 million (a bit less than the population of Mexico) outbound visitors left China. In the same year, Chinese arrivals to the UK were up by 40% in the first nine months of 2015. Chinese travellers spent a staggering US$215 billion abroad in 2015 (more than the GDP of Portugal), up 53% on the previous 12 months, while Chinese tourism is predicted to account for 14% of worldwide tourism revenue by 2020. Relaxed visa rulings from several nations, including the US and UK, have helped get Chinese feet into their outbound travelling shoes. It doesn't quite mean you'll find China deserted when you get there – the Chinese are more actively travelling around their home nation too: Běījing is hoping that domestic travellers will outlay �
�5.5 trillion on travel around China by 2020.
Troubled Waters & Restive Borderlands
China’s dazzling economic trajectory over the last three decades has been watched with awe by the West and increasing consternation by the Middle Kingdom’s neighbours. By virtue of its sheer size and population, a dominant China will ruffle some East Asian feathers. The long-festering dispute between China and Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations over the control of waters, islands, reefs, atolls and rocky outcrops of the Paracel (Xīshā) and Spratly (Nánshā) Islands in the South China Sea worsened in recent years when China unilaterally began reclaiming land around, and building on, contested reefs. China has attempted to enforce a 12-nautical-mile exclusion zone around these reefs, which has been tested by the US Navy conducting 'freedom of navigation' exercises. The possibility of miscalculation, that could lead to conflict, has never been greater. Meanwhile, the seemingly intractable spat over the contested and uninhabited Diàoyú Islands (Senkaku Islands to the Japanese) continues to sour relations between China and Japan. While keeping an eye on maritime issues, at home President Xi Jinping has had to deal with unrest in Xīnjiāng province, where Uighur disquiet has prompted an increasingly harsh security clampdown from Běijīng, which may threaten to inflame sentiments further.
Population
1.37 billion
Area
9.6 million sq km
GDP (PPP)
$19.51 trillion
Labour Force
804 million
Highest Point
Mt Everest (8848m above sea level)
History
The epic sweep of China’s history can suggest prolonged epochs of peace occasionally convulsed by sudden breakup, internecine division or external attack, yet for much of its history China has been in conflict either internally or with outsiders. The Middle Kingdom’s size and shape may have continuously changed – from tiny beginnings by the Yellow River (Huáng Hé) to the subcontinent of today – but an uninterrupted thread of history runs from its earliest roots to the full flowering of Chinese civilisation.
From Oracle Bones to Confucius
The earliest ‘Chinese’ dynasty, the Shang, was long considered apocryphal. However, archaeological evidence – cattle bones and turtle shells in Hénán covered in mysterious scratches, recognised by a scholar as an early form of Chinese writing – proved that a society known as the Shang developed in central China from around 1766 BC. The area it controlled was tiny – perhaps 200km across – but Chinese historians have argued that the Shang was the first Chinese dynasty. By using Chinese writing on ‘oracle bones’, the dynasty marked its connection with the Chinese civilisation of the present day.
Sometime between 1050 and 1045 BC, a neighbouring group known as the Zhou conquered Shang territory. The Zhou was one of many states competing for power in the next few hundred years but developments during this period created some of the key sources of Chinese culture that would last till the present day. A constant theme of the first millennium BC was conflict, particularly the periods known as the ‘Spring and Autumn’ (722–481 BC) and ‘Warring States’ (475–221 BC).
The Chinese world in the 5th century BC was both warlike and intellectually fertile, in a way similar to ancient Greece during the same period. From this disorder emerged the thinking of Confucius (551–479 BC), whose system of thought and ethics underpinned Chinese culture for 2500 years. A wandering teacher, Confucius dispensed lessons in personal behaviour and statecraft, advocating an ordered and ethical society obedient towards hierarchies and inclined towards ritual. Confucius' desire for an ordered and ethical world was a far cry from the warfare of his times.
Evidence from Han tombs suggests that a popular item of cuisine was a thick vegetable and meat stew, and that flavour enhancers such as soy sauce and honey were also used.
ANCIENT ICONS
Tick off the most iconic sights dating from the very birth of the Chinese nation through the nation’s imperial heydays.
Army of Terracotta Warriors Silent and awe-inspiring emissaries from the dawn of China’s imperial past.
The Great Wall Snaking across north China, mounting peaks, plunging into valleys and collapsing splendidly into ruin.
Forbidden City Ornate and privileged bastion of the Ming and Qing dynasty emperors at the heart of Běijīng.
Mògāo Grottoes China’s most splendid collection of Buddhist art.
Early Empires
The Warring States period ended decisively in 221 BC. The Qin kingdom conquered other states in the central Chinese region and Qin Shi Huang proclaimed himself emperor. The first in a line of dynastic rulers that would last until 1912, later histories portrayed Qin Shi Huang as particularly cruel and tyrannical, but the distinction is dubious: the ensuing Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) adopted many of the short-lived Qin’s practices of government.
Qin Shi Huang oversaw vast public works projects, including walls built by some 300,000 men, connecting defences into what would become the Great Wall. He unified the currency, measurements and written language, providing the basis for a cohesive state.
Establishing a trend that would echo through Chinese history, a peasant, Liu Bang (256–195 BC), rose up and conquered China, founding the Han dynasty. The dynasty is so important that the name Hàn (汉 漢) still refers to ethnic Chinese and their language (汉语; Hanyu; 'language of the Han'). Critical to the centralisation of power, Emperor Wu (140–87 BC) institutionalised Confucian norms in government. Promoting merit as well as order, he was the first leader to experiment with examinations for entry into the bureaucracy, but his dynasty was plagued by economic troubles, as estate owners controlled more and more land. Indeed, the issue of land ownership would be a constant problem throughout Chinese history to today. Endemic economic problems and the inability to exercise control over a growing empire, coupled with social unrest that included an uprising by Taoists (known as the Yellow Turbans) led to the collapse and downfall of the Han. Upheaval would become a constant refrain in later Chinese dynasties.
Han trade along the Silk Road demonstrated clearly that China was fundamentally a Eurasian power in its relations with neighbouring peoples. To the north, the Xiongnu (a name given to various nomadic tribes of Central Asia) posed the greatest threat to China. Diplomatic links were also formed with Central Asian tribes, and the great Chinese explorer Zhang Qian provided the authorities with information on the possibilities of trade and alliances in northern India. During the same period, Chinese influence percolated into areas that would later become known as Vietnam and Korea.
So far, some 7000 soldiers in the famous Terracotta Army have been found near Xī’ān. The great tomb of the first emperor still remains unexcavated, although it is thought to have been looted soon after it was built.
Disunity Restored
Between the early 3rd and late 6th centuries AD, north China witnessed a succession of rival kingdoms vying for power while a potent division formed between north and south. Riven by warfare, the north succumbed to non-Chinese rule, most successfully by the northern Wei dynasty (386–534), founded by the Tuoba, a northern people who embraced Buddhism and left behind some of China’s finest Buddhist art, including the famous caves outside Dūnhuáng. A succession of rival regimes followed until nobleman Yang Jian (d 604) reunified China under the fleeting Sui dynasty (581–618). His son Sui Yangdi contributed greatly to the unification of south and north through construction of the Grand Canal, which was later extended and remained China's most important communication route between south and north until the late 19th century. After instigating three unsuccessful incursions onto Korean soil, resulting in disastrous military setbacks, Sui Yangdi faced revolt and was assassinated in 618 by one of his high officials.
The features of the largest Buddhist statue in the Ancestor Worshipping Cave at the Lóngmén Grottoes outside Luòyáng were supposedly based on Tang female emperor Wu Zetian, a famous champion of Buddhism.
RUINS
&
nbsp; Many of China’s historical artefacts may be in a state of perpetual ruin, but some vestiges get top-billing:
Ruins of the Church of St Paul in Macau China’s most sublime architectural wreck.
Jiànkòu Great Wall (后箭扣长城; Hòu Jiànkòu Chángchéng ¥25; hno official hours; g916快, then, g862, then, gH25) No other section of the Great Wall does the tumble-down look in such dramatic fashion.
Great Fountain Ruins Sublime tangle of Jesuit-designed stonework in the Summer Palace.
Shàngdū (Xanadu) A vivid imagination is required to conjure up impressions of Kublai Khan’s pleasure palace.
Ming City Wall Ruins Park (明城墙遗址公园; Míng Chéngqiáng Yízhǐ Gōngyuán GOOGLE MAP ; Chongwenmen Dongdajie; 崇文門东大街 h24hr; bChongwenmen) Běijīng’s last section of Ming city wall.
The Tang: China Looks West
Tang rule (618–907) was an outward-looking time, when China embraced the culture of its neighbours – marriage to Central Asian people or wearing Indian-influenced clothes was part of the era’s cosmopolitan élan – and distant nations that reached China via the Silk Road. The Chinese nostalgically regard the Tang as their cultural zenith and Chinatowns around the world are called Tángrénjiē (Tang People Streets) to this day. The output of the Tang poets is still regarded as China’s finest, as is Tang sculpture, while its legal code became a standard for the whole East Asian region.
Lonely Planet China Page 196