Traveled in august 2016, Alex Tang
Yading Middle Kora refers to the hiking around the three holy mountains of Yading in a clockwise way. Middle Kora of Yading has very beautiful views. It is considered a hard trek but it provides stunning views that one even doesn't see in a normal visit to Yading. A kora trek in Tibetan culture also has its religious significance and is considered a holy conduct.
This trek we did is a 10-day trip from and back to Chengdu with total 5 driving days and 5 trekking day's. Now the driving way is better and can save total around 2 days. From Yading by the end of the trek one can also fly back to save the long drive.
On day 1 we arrive Xichang, a southwest Sichuan city that its main residents are Yi ethnic people. There is also a traditional slow train that departs Chengdu every day but a bus takes actually a shorter time. Xichang is overall an interesting place and it has very good climate and probably one of the best cities in Sichuan in terms of sunny days.
After 1 night in Xichang, we continue for another day's drive to get to Muli County for around 7hours drive. The road was okay. Muli is a super interesting place in Sichuan. It is under the precinct of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture due to geological reasons: Muli is geologically more connected to Xichang and other Yi places in southwest Sichuan however it's strong cultural relations with Tibetan Garze are shown in many ways including its temples, language and people. People in Muli are Tibetan people or mixture of Yi people and they peak mainly Tibetan language. For different parts of Muli you see different levels of mix with Yi people. Due to the blockade of the big mountains by its north, Muli is now more connected with it's South and East Yi neighbors. This part of Sichuan is officially infrastructure nightmare due to the summer floods and landslide areas.
Way to Muli
Muli
Muli
Muli
From Muli we use this to go further
As a small place by Southwest edge of Tibetan Plateau Muli has probably one famous thing to provide is its historical Renpoche from Muli Grand Temple that his photo was put on the cover of American Time Magazine by explorer Joseph Rock.(This trek we did is also called "the rock route" in China , attributing to the great explorer that introduced these places to the world.)
On day 3 we started from Muli and used local offroad Jeeps to go to our hiking starting place called Dulu Village. This trek is weather-wise available from June til November each year. Summer is a good time to do this trek but also with higher chance of rainfall, flood and landslide that could cause changes of plan. We were lucky with the weather for most of the time in August. The drive from Muli to Dulu is by distance not far but takes a full day for around 7-8 hours. The road was not good. It was basically countryside basic track and we had to go over mountains usually with big drops on one side.
The drive on day 3 is from Muli River to Shuilo Valley. Muli is by the Muli River Valley. (Note Upper range of Muli River is Litang River, which originated from another massif of mountain called Genyen in Garze Tibetan Prefecture of West Sichuan) . While Shuilo Valley the Shuiluo River goes directly into Upper Yangtze River which is called Jinsha River. South of this place is the Lugu Lake by the border of Sichuan and Yunnan Province, a famous tourist attraction in China.
Dulu Monastery in Muli
Shuiluo
Shuiluo Valley
Shuiluo River Valley
Baishui River
Baishui Camp
Dulu is a small village by Shuiluo River Valley. Dulu is also called Dongla. From Dulu we walked for around 15km and up into the side River Baishui. Dulu is at elevation of around 2400 meters and first night camp is at around 2900meters. With half of the hiking on a drivable country track, the second half of hiking is on small trails going up gradually in the forest. By the river junction where we turned into the side valley of Baishui River, there used to be a gold mine.
Baishui Camp Above
From second day of hiking we ascended a lot and went above the tree line to over 4000 meters at Zambie Yak Ranch. It gets drier and windier by higher altitude. There are huts built by local seasonal nomads people and we can use one of them to make good and as a shelter. By Zambie there are plenty of places to set up tents and views are open. From this campsite we can see Mt Chenardorje East and Mt Jampayang NE. That's almost 2000m difference and it is closer than from its west side from the park of Yading. On the east side of Chenardorje there is less snow and few glacier is spotted in summer.
Zambie Yak Ranch
Mt. Chenardorje in the Mist
Zambie Yak Ranch
Zambie Yak Ranch
From the Zambie camp it starts to show us the best of the trek: mountain views every day and you can always see the big valley below, some glaciers and big highland lakes.
The trek from Baishui to Zambie starts to become challenging due to the elevation gain. The whole middle kora trek is a challenging trek considering its daily distance need to be walked and it's high elevation, hard evacuation and remoteness.
Walking up the Pass
Walking up Zabala Pass
Zabala Pass
Over the Pass
Excellent Views over the Pass
South Yading
From Zambie we walked over our first mountain pass Zabala at aroubd 4700 m. This is what I think the most beautiful day on middle kora trek. The valley has a bid drop on south side and by it's north side you can see the glacier of Jampayang is very close. It is indeed a long day trek from Zambie to Xingo but the views are totally worth. Up to the Zabala pass is steep and long but the way down from the pass is gradual and easy. It is almost that you are walking in a fairyland. Sometimes the cloud is below you. Being above the tree line you have views that stretch far.
Xingo Camp
Xingo Yak Ranch
The camp site Xingo is also a yak ranch that has huts built by local Tibetan people. Xingo is like a separated land from anywhere it is probably one of the most secluded places in Yading. The trail gets up here is steep and small. Xingo is a flat part by side of the mountain but not the bottom of the valley. There is a big drop by its south side. It's surrounded by mountains from three sides. From Xingo we can see Mt Jampayang SW at a very close range. Jampayang from this side has much less snow or glacier, this is the same as Chenardorje. There is a wall of mountain by the north of Xingo Camp, a very amazing view.
It rains by night but by day for most of the time we had good weather. At high altitude place in summer the weather usually changes after midday and rain by night. We make good use of good weather in the morning by starting early each day and try to arrive camp early. The fourth day of trek from Xingo to Snake Lake is the longest day of trekking at around 18km with ups and downs. On this day we walk into the heartland and the remotest parts of Yading with stunning mountain views. All day the elevation is higher than 4000m and campsite is at 4300m by the side of Snake Lake, from where we had great views of westface Jampayang and its glaciers.
Jampayang Southface
Packhorses
Jampayang South
Stunning Valley
Mt. Jampayang
The big Slide
Walking on the Slide
Yading South
Yading Circuit Trek
Jampayang South Big Wall
Jampayang South Glacier
It is very unique experience walking on the endless mountain slide before arriving to the pass. South to the mountains are the much lower valleys that stretch to even lower places where there is warm air moving up and form the foggy and possibly rainy weather while by the north there are high mountains that are around 6000 meters. This is why we often see more moist weather by the south and drier air by the north. After the pass there are sections of gradual and flat terrain where we saw very raw and original formation of rocks and mountains. Formation such as folding of layers of rocks, especially when it is above tree line so everything looks primitive. Before arriving Snake Lake camp, there is a small pass where gives one of the best views on this trek: glacier of Jampayang and Chenrezig, below these is the biggest lake of Yading the Snake Lake.
Butterfly Rock
Central Yading
Snake Lake
Snake Lake
Central Yading - Mt. Jampayang
August is actually a good season to do such treks in Sichuan when the weather tends to be drier and the mountains are in prime green color. For years we have seen august being a better season than july to do trekkings in Sichuan. Total 5 days in the mountain we experienced 2 nights rain total, and 1 half day’s mild rain during day time. We later had a trip in early October and weather was similar but less foggy of course.
Last day of trek was easy. It was a mere 7km walking up Songduo Pass, one of the 2 passes that you will trek in a small kora trek. Down the Songduo Pass is the famous Milk Lake and 5-color Lake. From above and far the Milk Lake looks much nicer than one would normally see from a normal visit when looking the lake at very close range. Down the pass we walked directly to 5-color lake instead of Milk Lake because we get to look the Milk Lake from above and didn’t have to walk up again for 5-color Lake. From the 2 lakes we walked into the “official part of Yading Park” where most of visitors to Yading will visit. And of course we saw lots of people on the way down. We had a short detour to Pearl Lake after arrive at Chonggu.
Central Yading - Mt. Chenrezig
5-color Lake
5-color Lake, Wuse Lake
Milk Lake
Mt. Jampayang
Around a bit after mid-day we arrive at Chonggu Bus terminal and used the tourist bus to go out to Shangrila Town and used bus to Daocheng and from there back to Chengdu.
I’ve personally done this Middle Kora Trek a few times now and I think the best part is from Zambie, on to Xingo, and Snake Lake and then Milk Lake, 5-color Lake, and of course the mountains you will see while at these places. People who didn’t expect hard walk can do the normal visit to Yading in one or two days. For people who want to get into real wilderness and a longer and harder trek can definitely consider the middle kora. Although the 2-3 days drive to Dulu is not worth therefore from 2021 a better planning of a Yading Middle Kora Trek is as follows. It involves more walking and it's a full kora.
There is also a shorter version of the above 9-day plan, see follows
The issue for this plan is the deal with park people, which makes the packing more complicated. See our Yading Kora Trek Tour.
Route: Chengdu - Siguniang - Tagong - Yading - Xinduqiao
Route: Daocheng - Yading - Daocheng
Route: Daocheng - Yading - Daocheng
