Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
HWY 318: THE SOUTHERN LOOP
This route covers an eight-day itinerary from Lhasa to Rawok Lake and back along bumpy
Hwy 318. From Lhasa until Medro Gongkar the scenery looks much the same as you fol-
low the Kyi-chu River upstream: rolling hills of scrub with patches of green.
After Medro Gongkar there is a noticeable change to a more tree-filled landscape and a
more temperate climate. After climbing to the top of the near barren Pa-la pass, and des-
cending, the trend continues with forestland predominating the further east one travels. In
the approach to Bāyī, the landscape is one of thick evergreen forests and broad river val-
leys. A small grove just past the town contains some of the oldest cypress trees in China.
The climb to the Serkym-la pass travels through pretty undulating meadowland bloom-
ing with azaleas in spring, before the fast descent into Lunang Forest, the largest in Tibet.
The road then drops to the Rong-chu Valley. Here is one of the most bucolic rural land-
scapes in Kham, with charming stone Tibetan villages, and fields of rapeseed, corn, pota-
toes and barley cleared from surrounding forests of pine and white oak.
Between Tashigang and Tangmi the road condition deteriorates as the Rong-chu Valley
narrows. The hillsides here are scarred by numerous landslides and are often hidden in
subtropical fog. Washouts are common on the road, and there are plenty of treacherous
bends and sheer drops. But this is a spectacular route, with first the Rong-chu river and
later the Parlung Tsangpo river foaming and running wild below (though, interestingly, in
different directions). Just past tiny Pelung (a community of Mongpa people) the two rivers
meet and turn southeast to join the Yarlung Tsangpo. This marks the lowest part of the
Sìchuān-Tibet Hwy (around 1700m).
Along this section you will likely come to admire (and maybe envy) the hundreds of ex-
hausted, wet, mud-splattered Chinese cyclists who have been on the road since Sìchuān.
Give them a
jiayou
(literally 'add gas' but with the meaning of 'go, go, go!'). They've
earned it.
Just before Tangmi is a one-way bridge that can take hours to cross because the Chinese
military permits only a single car at a time. There's a poor-quality side road heading 23km
northwest up to the Yigong-tso (elevation 2150m), a stunning but hard-to-reach lake that
was created by a landslide in 1900, but getting permits to the area is difficult.
Past Tangmi the tarmac returns and the road follows the bank of the ever-widening
Parlung Tsangpo. By the time you reach Bakha the river is over a kilometre wide and
