Following a tour of the farmlands, and a couple of seminars in Beijing, I was off to the airport headed for Tibet. There is no direct flight to Linzhi, Tibet where we were to do some field work. Thus we had to connect through Chengdu (the capital of Szechuan province).
Spent one night in Chengdu. How could I have never heard of this city? I feel so ignorant. It is a very modern city of 10 million people. Reminds me of Manhattan. The local food is highly spicy (Szechuan cuisine), the best of all food I had in China. This is also the place to visit if you're interested in the Giant Panda, as they live in a few mountain ranges nearby.
The next morning flew to Linzhi, Tibet. This is the lowest elevation in Tibet - 3000 m above sea level. It's highly recommended to spend a day or so here before heading to higher elevations. Yes, breathing was a challenge. Always short of breath, heart beating fast and headaches.
The goal was to collect soil and plant samples along this elevation gradient. The different zones are clear in this picture. Bottom (mixed deciduous forest), above that (conifer forest), above that (shrub highland), above that (meadow highland), above that (no sampling-exteme environment).
Our field vehicles. Sampling starts from the top (at 5000 m above sea level). Very difficult to work, as oxygen is much lower. Walking and moving very slow. I only lasted half an hour before collapsing in the van for a nap. And even though we were so high, the Hymalayan peaks in the distance were a reminder that we weren't really all that high after all. That's Namjagbarwa Peak in the distance (at about 8000 m above sea level, not that much below Everest which was nearby. On the other side of those mountains - India.
5 comments:
Wow, you sound so cavalier about your experience with altitude. The possibility of death is quite terrifying to me. It seems very beautiful there. How was the Yak soup?
I find myself wanting to say yet again, "WoW--so COOL!" I know I say that every pic but it is true. I SO want to go to Tibet--but I'll pass on the yak soup.
Great pictures and commentary! What the heck part of the Yak is the server lifting out of the soup?
Awesome pictures! I'll stick to greek Easter gut soup instead! :)
All the food was quite good. But in Tibet, the selection is small. There are no local veggies, it's too high up, so mainly you eat yak meat, yak milk and highland barley. If you can't handle that, you starve.
As for what part of the yak is in the soup, all I can say is that the Tibetans (and chinese) have figured out how to cook EVERY part of an animal....a result of thousands of years of experience. No waste.
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