Our 20-day self drive tour of the West Sichuan Province ( the historical region of “Kham”) kicks off at Zhengzhou (郑州). A year before I’ve planned this great trip joining one of my former college classmates – Mr. Chen Weixiang’s couple team for a self-guided drive tour from Zhengzhou to the Western Sichuan Province covering such dreamy places as Daocheng, Yading, Kangdi, Danba, Hailuogou, Siguniangshan and more.
Yesterday afternoon I took the 3-hour high speed train from Beijing West Railway Station to Zhengzhou East Railway Station. The first class cabin was quite spacious with two soft and large seats for one row, quiet and less crowded.
Taking advantage of the precious 3 hours to cram up for travel and geographical knowledge for this long trip, I flipped over the related pages of the travel guide book “Lonely Planet” and the newly bought “West Sichuan Tourist Atlas”.
Arriving at Zhengzhou East Railway Station, I interchanged for Subway Line 1 and got off at the station of Green City Plaza. At the exit I was met expectedly by Mr. Chen Weixiang and Song Yuan, the only two former college mates in the city. My hotel was just a ten-minute walk from the subway station, not far from Mr. Chen’s residential block.
After a quick check-in at our lodging hotel in Zhengzhou, we soon found us at a nearby Sichuan food restaurant, very clean and a bit noisy, a typical Chinese restaurant. Mr. Chen brought a dozen of canned beer from home. Life was so beautiful with two of my former college classmates sitting before me, eating, drinking, talking about the past, present and future. Do we have future as a man over 50? Just forget the question and enjoy the present life!
It was a dinner for the former classmate get-together, a dinner for wishing the success and smoothness for our coming self-drive trip starting next day. We hated to part for the night, but there is no never-ending feast. A little bit dizzy, I walked back to my lodging hotel and fell a sound sleep.
Waked up by the sunrise glow coming between my hotel hotel window curtains, I feel lucky at the site of the beautiful sunrise in a city often shrouded in smog. The sunrise glow is possibly a good sign for our coming 6000 km round trip to the West Sichuan Province.
Follow us to explore the West Sichuan Province. Any questions, just drop a line!