Free tours of Zhagana may become a thing of the past. Don’t ask me why. I can only say that now is the right time to go.

文图/乐克儿

Diebu means "thumb" in Tibetan.

"The place pressed open by the mountain god" is the imagination of poets, and the inspiration originated from Zhagana——

90 years ago, an Austrian-American botanist The geographer and explorer Joseph Locke explored Diebu and walked into Zhagana. All the wonderful things about Zhagana aroused Locke's enthusiasm for poetry. So when he completed his "homework" for the American "National Geographic", he wrote a poetic endorsement for Zagana - "I have never seen such beauty in my life." The scenery. If the author of "Genesis" had seen the beautiful scenery here, he would have placed the birthplace of Adam and Eve here..."

From Locke's poetic conception to reality, Zha Na actually It is a group of villages in a Tibetan area and the accompanying mountains, canyons, forests and even modern glacier ruins.

In Gannan, many scenic spots are inseparable from the word "Ga", such as Zhagana, Laga Mountain, Gahai, Jianaga... If you look closely at the Chinese character "Ga", it is actually a Tibetan phonetic translation, which is related to the word "Ga". The meaning of "small" in Chinese has nothing to do with it. The "Ga" in Gannan Amdo Tibetan language has completely different meanings in different contexts. For example, the word Ga in Laga Mountain means liking and loving; the word Zha in Zhagana means stone wall or cliff in Amdo Tibetan; Ga’ani means box...

The word Zhagana means " The title "Shi Xia Zi" comes from the special geographical location of this village - a village and a temple are surrounded by tall and steep mountains. If there were no modern roads connecting them, it would be impossible for the world to know that there are still other places in the world. There is such a poetic and wonderful human habitat.

90 years ago, Diebu only had a simple road leading to Aba, Sichuan. There was no road from the current S313 provincial road branch into Zhagana. The current Jiangdie Highway from Diebu County to Zhagana (starting from Jiangke River in Zhuoni County in the north and ending in Dianga Town in Diebu County in the south, with a total mileage of about 198 kilometers, and is now a section of National Highway G248 Gansu Province) has only been developed in recent years. built. So here comes the question: How did Locke walk into Zhagana and discover this "New World"? Records say that Locke set out from Zhuoni along the current Jiangdie Highway (which was a horse road at that time) and walked nearly 200 kilometers before discovering Zhagana. Therefore, this road is also called "Locke's Road" by locals.

How beautiful is this road? Copying Locke's serious recommendation to National Geographic: "...Diebu shocked me. The vast forest is a botanical museum, absolutely a virgin land. It will become a place for people who love nature and all tourists "A resort for tourists." - This road is also the focus of this article, as detailed below.

From Diebu County to Zhagana, take a few kilometers of S313 provincial road and then turn into the winding Diela section of Jiangdie Highway, which is nearly 30 kilometers from south to north.

Zhagana consists of four villages and a Tibetan Buddhist temple, Lasang Monastery. These four villages are all built on the mountain from the north to the south, with layers of terraces surrounding them. These four villages, from low to high, are Dongwa Village, Yeri Village, Dari Village and Daiba Village. Lasang Temple is located on the hillside at a higher altitude on the north side of Dongwa Village. These four villages still have half of the original Tibetan-style couch houses (the other half have been rebuilt into hotels and Tibetan restaurants) stacked one on top of another, with smoke rising from cooking stoves, and cattle and sheep dotted in the valleys. If there were not the vehicles of self-drivers from all over the country and the bustling tourists of all kinds, this place would be a paradise in the mountains and valleys.

When the villages of Zhagana were selected at that time, they were really "impregnable" - there were Naga in the south, Zhagana in the west, and Guanggai Mountain in the north. There were three towering stone gates, and there were more towering stone gates in the east. It is a canyon with thousands of ravines in the sacred mountain of Nyangandawa, backed by a gray-white naked mountain that shines at sunrise. No matter which direction you enter from, you have to pass through the confrontation between the two peaks. These passages between the giant peaks are very small. If there is an invasion from a foreign enemy, rolling a few stones from the top of the mountain will make the invading enemy vulnerable. In an instant, people were on their backs!

The aforementioned Zhagana is an Internet celebrity and many people know it. However, what many people don’t know is that Zhagana is currently just a general term for the natural and cultural scenery here. In addition to the earliest known four Tibetan villages and one temple, there are also two roads leading to the scenery. The true poetry and distance to Zhagana—this is the essence of Zhagana’s newly-appointed National Geopark in February 2018.

Zhagana, as the essence of the National Geopark, is located on the roads to the east and west of Zhagana Village -

To the east, a road enters from Nian Gandawa Sacred Mountain Park, where tourists Spending 40 yuan (round trip) to take a public transport is actually only seven or eight kilometers, and the rest is a hiking trail for travelers. From here, you can walk to the Qibu Gorge in the Dayugou Scenic Area in Zhuoni County. The whole journey is 80 kilometers. It is said that it takes 4 days to climb 5 passes with an altitude of 4,000 meters and 13 passes with an altitude of 3,50 meters. It passes through canyons, snow-capped mountains, forests, pastures, and rivers along the way, with tectonic peak forest landforms and karst landforms as the main features. It is said that the scenery is magnificent... In December 2016, the China Mountain Marathon Series and Mountain Outdoors were held in Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province. At the sports development promotion conference, this mountain crossing track from Nian Gandawa Sacred Mountain Park to Dayugou Banxia Gorge in Zhuoni County won the "Most Beautiful Plateau Track" award from the China Mountaineering Association. To be favored by the China Mountaineering Association, it must have special skills that make it stand out from the crowd.

In addition to food and accommodation, this is also the only place that currently charges for travel in Zagana (horseback riding is voluntary). I lined up to enter this park under the scorching sun, and my immediate impression was - if you want to take aerial photography, give up the idea as soon as possible, because even if there is an open space for taking off in the canyon, there is no GPS signal. Even if you use the OPTI visual mode to take off, there are huge eagles circling on the top of the mountain, watching eagerly. , do you dare to fly?

It is also difficult to take pictures of scenery with a camera, because the canyon is too narrow and the mountains are too high, so the pictures have no taste. The only thing that can be taken with a sense of feeling is the Zhaga River in the canyon.

It is not recommended for the elderly to enter. Except for places that can be reached by battery cars, all the remaining scenic spots are all on foot like mountain climbing. The starting point is high in altitude, and there is no formal walking plank road, only the rocks walked by horse gangs. The trail climbs higher and higher, which is very exhausting for physical strength. If you have high altitude sickness, it is probably even more annoying. The scenery is unless you look up, but after looking up for a while, you will become tired of aesthetics - besides mountains and forests, there are still mountains and forests. It is said that after walking to the scenic stone forest, the scenery is completely different and beautiful, but it is difficult for ordinary tourists to reach it by foot. Go horseback riding, starting from the battery car terminal, 260 yuan/horse, if you start from Fairy Beach, it will cost 600 yuan - -The fees are so expensive, and naturally the mountains are high and the roads are steep and difficult to navigate.

To the west, it is the continuation of the Jiangdie Highway that turns from S313 into Zhagana. This road winds along the road from Dongwa Village (2,652 meters above sea level), which is the lowest among the four Tibetan villages, to Dari Village, which is 3,160 meters above sea level. Continuing forward, there is the Dari Village Observation Deck, offering a bird's-eye view of the four Tibetan villages and the and the steep mountains surrounding them. Continue forward and cross the Guanggai Mountain pass (there is a natural round hole on the top of the mountain, which is very magical), and you will find a beautiful canyon with an average altitude of 3,700 meters. Winding along the winding road of this canyon, surrounded by mountains, is the Zhagana summer pasture, named Naheika, with an altitude of 4,000 meters.

It’s nothing to see flowers all over the place. What’s strange is a kind of cow that has never been seen before. It has the sturdy body of a yak and the simplicity of an ox. The herdsmen said that if you look at it from a distance, don't get close, as it will attack strangers.

This place is rarely visited by tourists. It is about 30 to 40 kilometers away from the "downtown area" of Zhagana. It is the most tranquil high-altitude and ethereal place in the bustling world of Zagana during the peak tourist season...

Adjacent to the Naheka Ranch at an altitude of 4,000 meters is the rare ancient Zhagana glacier ruins in China!

The glacier ruins that can be reached by vehicles are also at an altitude of 4,000 meters. If you look up at the glacier here, you won't see much of anything unless you hike to the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain is about 4,560 meters above sea level. It's not easy to climb up. Unless you pay to ride a horse, it costs 180 yuan per horse.

Thanks to carrying an aerial camera, you can clearly see glacial valleys and mixed glacial accumulations above the snow line. Types include horn peaks, blade ridges, cirques, ridges, glacial troughs and valleys. Wind-eroded landforms such as sheep's back stones and glacial grooves are very unique and beautiful. However, standing at an altitude of 4,000 miles, no matter how steep the cliff is, the effect of aerial photography is only three stories, haha.

In 2010, the Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a joint survey on this area.

The investigation conclusion shows that the Zhagana Glacier landform is a remnant of Quaternary glaciers. The ice age began between 2 million and 3 million years ago and ended between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. It is distributed over a wide range, leaving traces of ice on the surface. A large number of glacial relics, their landforms are fully developed, and their unique formation causes are rare in China and rare in the world!

The Zhaga section of "Locke Road" cannot be said to be most beautiful when, because spring, summer, autumn and winter all have their own unique beauty. Tranquility, transcendence, purity, blue sky, white clouds, wind and rain, thunder and lightning... It seems that all subjective knowledge and objective existence are its own colors.

Heaven is far away, Zhagana is very close...