Camping and Accommodations

Some hiking trips in Sichuan normally need multiple days of camping. Most of the campsites are very good you can easily set up your tent and they are open to everyone. While planning you are suggested to know places that you are not allowed to camp. Most of the multiday trekking will involve camping in the nature at very high altitide at over 3500m or even over 4000m. In general, camping in the popular trekking places such as Minya Konka, Mt. Yala, Mt. Siguniang, Yading and Genyen are safe.

Where To Camp

The campsites are in the total wildness except in the lower part of some parks that also take mass tourists such as Yading Park and Siguniang Park. In China there are no laws against any camping. Normally people want to camp by where the views are beautiful. The wild trekking places in Sichuan include Minya Konka, Mt. Siguniang, Mt. Yala and Tagong, Yading Park, Genyen and beyond. These places often are far and high by elevation and no lives inside the wild valleys where the views are the most amazing and some requires multidays of hiking to see its full beauty.

Campsites

Most campsites have no electricity available. Most campsites have no cell phone reception nor internet. It is the same as you are hiking at most of the wild places in Sichuan. For the popular trekkings, most of the campsites are very good campsites considering the easy access to water and they are quite flat. You can always use the flat patch used by former hikers but normally you need to move the yak dunes before you set up your tent.

Using a Hut

For some treks, there are permanent huts and shelters set up by local people and most of them are not for hikers to use. You may see some nomads’ tents or huts with local people live in at campsites in Minya Konka herding season. Considering comfortibility and privacy you are suggested to use a camping tent for yourself but these huts can be used as emergency shelter. The huts that are mostly set up for hikers we only see in Siguniang Dafeng and Erfeng base camps. The rest of the treks when you see huts, mostly they are used by local people and not set for travelers to use.

Water Source

Water is not an issue by most places in Sichuan while hiking. You may find it hard to get water from nature while you are at higher part of a trek when you are walking over a long pass for example, Riuqi of a Gongga Trek or Kazigou pass of Siguniang Trek. The rest of the time you are safe with running water either from the main river by the valley or streams from side valleys. Most of the time you will be walking in the valleys where you can easily get access to water from side streams. Hiking during winter time many of the streams will dry up but the main river will still have water even though sometimes it maybe frozen. Smaller rivers from side valleys will still have running water in winter if they are not frozen. Most of the multiday treks are in wild places. The water is still recommended to be treated or cooked before drinking. It is not necessary to bring bottled water for multiday hiking all the way. Streams from springs or side valleys are the first choice of water to use. If inevitable you have to use the water from main river, try to get as higher range as possible while taking water from the main river in the main valley.

Animal-related Issue

Animals include wolves were found in western Sichuan at the hiking destinations. But the wolves do not come close to the human campsite. Other dangerous animals are bears but there are rarely seen near humans. Be aware of the yaks while camping. The hiking season in western Sichuan is usually the herding season by local nomads. There are a lot of yaks around a campsite normally. The yaks like your food and they are not afraid of trying to get into your tent if they smell something. The yaks are not aggressive but it can cause trouble for example, destroy your gears or waste your food. Also remember to set up your toilet not too close to your tent as well. The yaks like the smell of the toilet too. The yaks are basically afraid of humans. You can easily scare them off by using stones or making sounds like local horsemen do. If you are hiking with porters, the horses sometimes can be a trouble as they sometimes have a bell on their neck and they all don’t sleep too much during night. So if the bell sound will annoy you, try to set your tent that is without too much fresh grass where it will not interest the horses.

High Altitude

Please note camping in the treks of Sichuan willl have night sleeping at high atitude. We strongly recommend you to take it slow while trekking/camping in Sichuan on the beautiful treks. Normally we recommend you to sleep by around 3000m for first night before moving to around 3500m and idealy have one extra nignt to acclimate. Try to avoid sleeping first at around 4000m which can be risky. For people without camping experience need to be extra careful: if you find camping uncomfortable, you will likely to find camping by high altitude much more uncomfortable.

Camp Fire

While hiking in western Sichuan, camp fire is not allowed anymore since 2019.

• Camping in Mt. Siguniang
• Camping in Daocheng Yading
• Camping in Minya Konka
• Camping in Kangding Mt. Yala