This year a University from Canada, decided to partner with Extravagant Yak for a portion of one of their travel studies. Extravagant Yak organized 7 days for them between Chengdu, Lijiang, and Shangri-la.
The travel study started in Chengdu where they visited a few businesses in and around the city. Extravagant Yak (and our sister company Simple Bikes) hosted the group at our office to introduce our business(es), values, and answer the students’ questions as they related it to what they were learning in their courses (predominately focused on human resources and marketing).
They had several other company visits in Chengdu (through some of their own connections), but they also had a little time to have fun. They spent their second morning at the Giant Panda Research Center, which is an iconic stop before leaving Chengdu.
As the students had visited a few businesses in Chengdu already, we planned some activities for them to do in Lijiang that took them beyond the classroom and their business visits. On the day they arrived in Lijiang, we took the group to watch the Lijiang Impression Show in the afternoon. The Lijiang Impression Show is a cultural performance which demonstrates the traditions and lifestyle of the Naxi, Bai, and Yi ethnicities in the area. Afterwards, the students got to explore Lijiang Old Town before settling down to dinner.
After breakfast, we took them to Jade Mountain (approximately 4400 meters high). Some of students had never been this high before but they overcame the change in altitude and enjoyed the sights of Jade Mountain. In the afternoon, they drove to Shangri-la, with a stop at Tiger Leaping Gorge along the way.
Still being business students, they visited Nixi Pottery to learn how these locally made products are bringing benefit to local people through enhancing the tourism industry. The students not only learned about the pottery business, but also had a little experiential learning as they tried their hands at making pottery cups.
In the afternoon, they visited Songzan Lugu Lodge and had another business visit there. The general manager (ZhangLing) of the lodge shared Songzan’s business development to date, and their vision for the future. She also answered the student’s questions about HR and marketing in their local business setting. After a big day of presentations and discussions, the students enjoyed dinner at this wonderful lodge to see a little of this business in action!
In the morning, the students visited Benzilan Wood Bowls production sites, followed by a visit to the Shangri-La Beer factory. Students had a tour of the beer factory and got to see some of the steps it takes to produce food products in a factory setting. The founder of Shangri-la Beer shared his story about being an entrepreneur, some of the business challenges, and plans for future. Students were particularly interested in the sales and marketing this company has done to become a nationally recognized product.
In the morning, they visited Arokhampa Boutique Hotel. The founder Tapa shared how he started the business, and how he’s working to introduce and preserve Tibetan culture through the hotel industry. Both he and the students appreciated discussing HR, staff management, and marketing topics, etc. The group enjoyed lunch at Arokahampa, to further see the culture and service of this boutique hotel.
After lunch, they visited a handicraft shop managed by Tashi Reqing. Tashi has been working in the handicraft field for a long time, so he was a great local professional to ask due to his history in the local business setting. He walked the group through how his work and his team benefited the local Tibetan community through their business ventures.
Overall, we only got to show this group from Canada around for a week before they continued on to other parts of China, but we enjoyed every minute that we got to spend with them. There’s something really exciting about watching others learn – particularly when it’s in a setting we’ve come to know well. Extravagant Yak has known for quite some time that there are some Tibetan small business gems that are flourishing in the communities around us, so to have a group of business professors and students come here to see, encourage, and learn from our Tibetan neighbors was a joy!
Curious about Student trips and Travel study programs? Get a taste of what we have to offer and email us your questions.
Something is wrong. I can tell by the flight arrival board that my photo tour group has arrived long enough for them to go through customs and get their bags. By now they could have even stopped for a leisurely meal. I’m standing on tip toes and craning my neck just in case they didn’t go to the other exit gate.
Then I see him by the baggage carousels—Ron Nickel, the Digital Media instructor for Prairie College in Alberta, Canada, waves his hands. He approaches. The rope barricades keep about 40 feet between us. Ron yells, “our bags didn’t make it.” (Not a great way to start a tour in Tibet). We fill out forms and cross fingers (that the bags arrive before we leave Chengdu in two days). Then, our fourth annual Prairie Digital Media Eastern Tibet Photo Tour commences as we head to the hotel. Despite missing their bags because of a too-tight connection in Beijing, the group is in high spirits.
The hotel is warm, welcoming and serves an amazing international buffet breakfast. So, after a good sleep and hot shower, the group is cheerful and excited for the Giant Panda Research Breeding Center tour scheduled for the morning. Throughout the day our operations manager calls the airport every couple of hours. Still no bags. We plan to leave the next morning for Kangding.
We hit Jinli Walking Street for hotpot and Sichuan Opera dinner-theater style. Even after seeing it dozens of times, the face changing performance amazes and bewilders me. Just like that, we are kids again at a magic show. Delighted and slightly overwhelmed by the sensory overload of the Jinli commercial atmosphere, we weave through tens of thousands of tourists who have descended upon Jinli for the May 1st holiday. My phone rings. The bags are at the hotel. Relief.
The next morning, we load the van and sing “The Greatest Showman” tunes on the way out of Chengdu. Spirits are very high. A Million Dreams and expectations flutter through our imaginations of what we may encounter when we reach Eastern Tibet.
Thanks to a newly constructed highway from Ya’an to Kangding, our driving time is kept to under four hours. This is Ron Nickel’s fourth trip and he and I are the only ones who know how fast four hours is. Four years ago, the same leg took 13 hours due to a landslide and traffic accident. The song Come Alive keeps us dreaming with our eyes wide open as we pull into Kangding.
The next day we hear there is a monk who has recently graduated from Harvard and is keeping the temple on top of Paoma Mountain. Through Kris, our friend at Zhilam hostel, we schedule a time to interview him, but the climb up the mountain stairway proves that most of us do not yet have our “altitude legs” under us.
We arrive over an hour late to our appointment. But Shamba is still smiling as we arrive haggard and catching our breath. Shamba is a handsome man in his late twenties and graciously forgives our tardiness. He gives us a brief tour of the temple and then takes us up to the roof for a breathtaking view of Kangding. It feels like we’re Walking a Tightrope. Shamba turns out to be an avid photographer. Ron and he geek out for a bit on camera bodies and lenses and then he sits for a quick photo shoot.
The next morning we rise early (4:30am!) to drive up to the Yajiagen pass for a sunrise shoot of the mountains. Negotiating lack of sleep for the promise of great time-lapses in the cold feels a bit like getting the short end in The Other Side, but proves to be totally worth it! That afternoon, the staff at Zhilam hostel help us arrange a couple of Tibetan models to sit for a photo shoot.
We find a beautiful, old, abandoned, broken-down house that works really well for a backdrop. It starts to rain just as we get set up, so we quickly run down the hill to a new Tibetan guesthouse below the monastery. The glassed-in atrium is a perfect plan B.
After two days in Kangding, feeling full and acclimated, we drive out to Tagong in search of our next adventure. The pass takes us up past 4200 meters. Come Alive beckons us to reach for the sky and to keep dreaming with our eyes wide open. With our eyes wide open, we see Mt. Gongga on the horizon. The peak emerges for about 40 seconds from surrounding thunderclouds—enough time to snap a few pixelated iphone shots.
We zoom past an old man on the side of the road and Ron yells, “Stop!…Turn around. I want to talk to that man.” I obey and somehow turn my 8-passenger van around on the narrow road with ditches on both sides. The man is a 67-year-old Khamba nomad and is selling yoghurt.
I translate for Ron, “These photographers would like to pay you to take your photo. Is that ok?” The man smiled an enthusiastic yes and quickly shuffled into his little hut. “Where is he going?” Ron asks. “I don’t know,” I reply. After a few moments, the old man comes out wearing his sheep wool Tibetan coat. Now Ron is smiling, “Perfect.”
The next morning, we rise stupid-early, to catch the sunrise over the golden-roofed temple in Tagong. Somehow, Never Enough echoes through my head as we hike up the Tagong hill in the brisk cold of the dark morning: “towers of gold are still too little…”
Khamba Cafe proves to be an excellent spot for a western breakfast. Orders of fried eggs sunny-side-up, toast, bacon, and crepes show up on our table accompanied by steaming cups of hot tea and coffee. A most welcome breakfast. We are all sunny-side-up now.
On our way out of town, we stop by the Black Stone Forest National Park. The park has only been open for one year. The wooden bridge walkways still appear new and carry us right into the heart of the Emyn-Muil-esque forest of purply rock outcroppings. Every angle is a beautiful photo op.
We hop back in the van and continue toward Danba. About an hour outside of Danba, we stop beside a swimming hole. We discovered the spot last year and Ron says it was one of his highlights. He came prepared this time with a bathing suit.
Nervous about undressing my less-than-chiseled frame in front of others, I remember the lines to This is Me, “I am brave, I am bruised [or chubby around the waist], this is who I’m meant to be,” and finally work up the courage to jump into the still-thawing snow melt…and then immediately yelp like a six-year-old girl as I clumsily scramble out of the water before hypothermia sets in. The shock and the rush of blood to my extremities gives me a sense of relaxed euphoria. We dry off, hop back in the van, and play Come Alive again. Totally worth it.
Danba is a little slice of heaven. It’s the good life. For a farmland town perched high above a river valley, the view is heavenly; the people, hearty; the food, healthy. Ageh, our guesthouse proprietor assures us there are no GMO’s, no harmful pesticides and no hormones given to animals. We believe him because the food leaves you feeling refreshed and satisfied with no sluggishness afterwards.
In the course of a meal, our appetites get recalibrated. Who knew that a day in Danba would redefine “food” for us. Ageh’s sister-in-law agrees to be a model for a photo shoot at dusk on the rooftop. The photographers each have their turn shooting and holding flash umbrellas.
Our last full day is spent in Four Sisters Mountain Town in a newly developed boutique tourist section. Newly renovated boutique guesthouses, hostels and restaurants line the streets—all with a wood-log facade that reminds us vaguely of Whistler ski resort town in British Columbia. It’s cute. And still in development.
We catch private vehicles up to a ridge where you can see every snow mountain in a hundred miles in every direction. Some of us hike up to 4,500 meters for an even better view. It is both literally and figuratively the summit of our amazing ten-day journey through Eastern Tibet.
As we drive back to Chengdu, we sing From Now On, “And we will come back home. We will come back home…Home Again!” The four-hour drive goes quickly. We reward ourselves with a hefty meal from the Blue Frog in Taikooli. And, yes…it gives us all a food coma and fogs our memories of the heavenly manna from Danba.
After a light lunch the next day, we head to the airport, say our farewells and our see-you-next-years. The Extravagant Yak-hosted Prairie Digital Media photography practicum hits another home run and looks forward to doing it again in 2019.
If you’re interested in joining an Extravagant Yak photo tour, exploring any area of Tibet, or just singing The Greatest Showman on repeat on beautiful mountain roads, contact us at info@extravagantyak.com.
Want to explore these areas yourself? Drop us a line at info@extravagantyak.com.