Day 2 of 稻程亞丁tour

 Today was the longest bus day: DAY.02 Xinduqiao—65km Yajiang—130km Litang—225km Daocheng (420km in total/about 8 hours by car/2700 meters above sea level). 

After breakfast, we Crossed Gaolsi Mountain to Yalong Riverside Kangba Small County [Yajiang], and then Continued to cross two mountains at an altitude of 4659 meters [Jianziwan Mountain] and 4718 meters [Kazila Mountain]. At noon, we arrived at the plateau pearl world's highest city [Litang] 理塘at an altitude of 4014 meters, and had Alpine Snow Fish Hot Pot for lunch. Then we visured the largest Gelugpa (Yellow Sect) 黃教temple in Kang region - [Changqingchun Keer Temple] 長青春科爾寺 [Letong Ancient Town] 通勒古鎭。I really appreciate the delicate buddhas and paintings in the temple, and wish I could photo any of them. You need to visit it and see them yourself. 

The temple houses various types of gold-plated bronze statues of Sakyamuni, Buddhist classics, saddles used by the third Dalai Lama, murals from the Ming and Qing dynasties and other precious cultural relics. In the Tibetan area, it is said that "there are three major temples in Lhasa on the top, Anduo Taer Temple on the bottom, and Litang Changqingchun Keer Temple in the middle". 

Letong Ancient Town is the largest traditional Tibetan village community in the world: it has more than 4,000 traditional Tibetan houses. The Tibetan village was first built during the Tang and Yuan Dynasties, and it developed greatly with the establishment of Changqingchun Khor Temple by the Third Dalai Lama during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. The smooth flow of the Han-Tibetan Tea Horse Road in the Qing Dynasty made the Tibetan village flourish. It has the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple on the 318 line, Changqingchun Keer Temple, the rare Rinkang ancient house of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in Tibet, more than 9 micro-museums and multiple provincial, state and county-level cultural relics protection units. The style is well preserved and it is still the best choice for exploring Tibetan culture and Kham style.

Then we continued to cross the rabbit-shaped [Tuer Mountain] and passed the largest ancient ice body relic on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, namely the "Daocheng Ancient Ice Cap" with an average altitude of about 4,500 meters [Haizi Mountain Nature Reserve] 海子山自然保護區。We checked in a hotel in Daocheng] (named Daoba, meaning the open place at the mouth of the valley), and had dinner.