Travelers are visiting Deqin to admire the beauty of the snowy mountains of the Meili ridge (charming in Chinese).

Meili snow mountain

One of the peaks of the Meili ridge-Mount Kava Karpo is revered by the Tibetans. It is the second sacred mountain of Tibet after Kailas. Around it Tibetans make a ritual roundabout (Kora). One slope of the mountain is in the territory of Yunnan Province, and the other in Tibet, therefore, for the making of Kora, foreigners should get the permit to visit Tibet.

Nearby, just 10 km from Deqin, is the village of Feilasy, from where open wonderful views of the snowy mountains .

Usually tourists are offered to to get by taxi to the Mingyong village, from where they track up to the Mingyong glacier. Ticket at the checkout costs 80 RMB. As it turned out, there are several glaciers in the vicinity of Kava Karpo. I was traveling by motorcycle, and being free to get anywhere on two wheels, had wish to explore something «off beaten tracks»

Carefully peering at the map of Meili aria, I noticed another glacier in the vicinity of Kava Karpo.

The glacier is called Sinong, and it lies 300 meters above the Mingyong Glacier. The road towards both glaciers is the same which splits just after the bridge on the left bank of the Mekong.

Before bridge there is the ticket office, where I asked how much the trekking to Sinong glacier is. At the checkout, workers at the barrier, seeing me on a motorcycle, were somewhat surprised that I was interested to hike up there. Then they looked at me, smiled, and said «free».) Then I drove to the village, where I left my iron horse, and started to ascend by path towards the glacier. Opening views were amazing with their beauty and natural magnificence. I walked along the gorge, where at a depth of more than 1 km a turbulent mountain river ran, and sought to connect with the one of most renown rivers in Asia-Mekong.

From the trail, sometimes I could see snow peaks, to which my feet carried me easily, with the frenzy of a pilgrim, which having desire to come in contact with these miraculous temples of nature. On the way, I met a few Tibetan woman, returning with bags from the woods to the village.

In the bags they carried some «fruits», which, perhaps, were collected for the preparation of the decoctions of Chinese-Tibetan medicine.

Also along the path were several wooden houses without windows and doors, which served as a shelter for shepherds and fruit pickers. In them it would be possible to spend the night-inside, despite the dilapidated logs, there was a wooden floor, log walls and a roof.

But I decided to go further, because it was still bright, and after a couple of hours I found an even platform for setting up a tent in the forest. The next day I managed to reach the glacier and enjoy the blessed atmosphere in the vicinity of the sacred mountains of eastern Tibet. On the same day, already dark, I returned to the village, where a hospitable Tibetan family invited me to spend the night in their house. Returning to Deqin, I made a few more photographs of the snow ridge, the mountains and the adjoining valleys that touched my heart.

In the north-western Yunnan three great Asian rivers-the Yangtze, the Mekong (Lanzang), and the Salween flow parallel to each other. Three rivers run along three long mountain ranges, some peaks of which are reaching more than 6000 m. The rivers flow through deep and narrow gorges, with an average height from the waters of rivers to the peaks of the walls of the gorges of 3000 m. These factors create a geographic miracle with tower-like snow mountains, long Glaciers, dense forests, clear mountain lakes, vast alpine meadows and karsts. Thus, this area is an important center of China’s biological diversity.