Songpan Horse Trek part 13 Songpan Town 松潘

Central covered Bridge on Main Street, looking south.

South Gate, looking south from central covered bridge.

Tibetan shopkeeper with amber hair decorations and turquoise and coral silver jewelry.

Red coral and amber hair decorations and a traditional friendly greeting - sticking your tongue out.

Even monks like a little walkabout to check out the action and shop a little. 

Sonpgan is about 20-30% muslim.

Teahouses along the Min River are as much for drinking tea as for playing mahjong. 

Bread! A delicacy in China.

On the way to school - a baozi a day keeps the doctor away.

Yinyue Bridge, renovated with kind donations from local Songpaners in 1986.

The Chinese princess Wencheng (Wénchéng Gōngzhǔ 文成公主, Tib. Mung-chang Kungco) passed through Songpan during the Tang Dynasty (ca year 640 or 641) when she was travelling to Lhasa to wed the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo in a peace agreement between the two nations. She was a niece of Emperor Taizong and died in 680. I must admit I am not sure who is the man beside her, surely not Songtsen Gampo as Wencheng was transported to Lhasa by a high official and was rumored to actually be pregnant with his child by the time she arrived in Lhasa almost a year later. 

Songpan Horse Trek part 12 Travel tips

"Songzhou", the old name for Songpan on the north gate ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Most people visit Songpan only as a springboard for a horse trek or a drive-by on the way to Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou. Little Songpan doesn't deserve quite such a cold shoulder. This town of about 70,000 people has a unique history that deserves closer scrutiny. Indeed places like this in China are rapidly disappearing so if you want to catch a last whiff of a town with a "frontier" feeling please spend at least one day exploring its back alleys. 

When I first visited Songpan over 20 years ago it was half the size it is today, there were only a few  remnants of the city wall left, the bus station and its attached "hotel" rooms were some of the filthiest, grottiest in China. The bus ride from Chengdu took two 11 hr days and it was the only journey in China where I actually hit my head on the ceiling of the bus, the roads were so bumpy, bad and dangerous. Whenever I was in Songpan I was either exhausted and dirty myself from a recent trek or horseride and usually also just "passing through" to other areas. But I did spend time there and truly enjoyed the rough-and-tumble Wild West feel of the town. It was a great place to see Tibetans dressed up in their "city" finery: leopard-skin trimmed long coats, amber, coral and turquoise decorated hair, gold teeth and brilliant smiles. People rode horses up and down the streets and the shops were all wooden two-stories with oxblood red trimmings and warm yellow facades. Just as today there was a strong muslim influence with a lovely neat and tidy mosque, ladies with their hair covered and halal butchers. It was a touch of the Silk Road, Lhasa and frontier trading-post-China-of-the-past all thrown into the same mix, ready to be savored along with some dried yak beef and a loaf of bread. 

Songpan has existed since the Tang Dynasty and has seen numerous battles and wars in its role as an important and strategic military post. Situated at a crossroads between Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan it has also served as a vital trading center for tea and horses. Songpan suffered heavy damage during the Ming Dynasty and it was from the Ming that the remaining city walls date. Volatile relations between local Tibetans and Muslims have also witnessed numerous tragedies in the past but today one could say that relations are quite stable and peaceful.

Transportation

There are numerous daily flights from Chengdu to Jiuhuang Airport that is about 1/1.5 hour from Songpan. Buses leave daily from Chengdu and normally take 8-10 hours to arrive. Since the May 12, 2008 earthquake the road via Wenchuan-Maoxian has been in serious disrepair so the road can not be guaranteed. The road via Mianyang/Pingwu/Huanglong however is in perfect condition and takes about 9 hrs by private car or rented bus. Songpan is easily accessible from Huanglong (1.5 hr) and Jiuzhaigou (ca 2-3 hr). There are no buses from the airport to Songpan, quickly grab a taxi from the airport, hopefully you will find other people to share the cost. We rented our bus from Sam's Travel (2nd fl Holly's Hostel) in Chengdu, very economic, great driver. 800 y a day plus a sum for the driver's lodging and meals. You can seat 14 people in the bus including one row reserved for luggage. A bargain if you have enough friends to split the cost. 

Shunjiang Nianqing Kezhan, a regular "motel" that you can drive your car into at night.

Accommodation

We stayed in spotless double-rooms with attached WC/hot shower at the Shunjiang Nianqing Kezhan right behind the horse trekking company and Emma's Kitchen in the northern section of town, not far from the North Bus Station.  120 y a night. Hot water all the time if there is electricity in Songpan (!). There are of course both cheaper and more expensive hotels in and around town.

Massage

There is a great massage centre (Snowland Tibetan Medical Massage Centre) located right beside Emma's run by Henanese Dong Li Xia (Lisa) and her Tibetan husband Hago Tenzin Wangyal. They also employ a local blind man (Mr Mi You Jun). High quality massage and nice, cosy atmosphere. Tel 13678372990. Email: tibetanmassage@163.com/tdgonkatsang©hotmail.com.

Teahouses

Best teahouses and cosiest atmosphere on a sunny day is along the Min River near the south end of town, the old wooden Yinyue Bridge and the Guanyin Fort (Guangyin Ge).  

Sightseeing

There are two mosques and a muslim center in town, the finest is located behind Emma's in the northern end of town. Don't miss the two beautiful old wooden covered bridges. The Guanyin Ge on a SW hillside, the old city gates and reconstructed city wall, the kitschy historic-romantic statue of Princess Wencheng outside the north gate. The main street has lots of shops and good people-watching. Around the mosques you can buy the best China-famous dried yak and beef meat (great for treks). Local honey, mushrooms and medicinal herbs are also a very good buy. Outside Songpan on the way to Huanglong is a quite grotesque, over-the-top monument to the Long March, that supposedly passed this way (debatable as to whether they actually went this way) in the 1930s. You can't miss the huge statue of a soldier holding a rifle surrounded by some very clunky statues at his feet.

Horse trekking

The two former horse trekking companies are now combined as one: Shunjiang Horse Treks (Shunjiang Luyou Madui), office on Shunjiang Beilu beside Emma's in N Songpan (tel 723 1201) just south of the bus station, east side of the road.

Problems

Songpan often suffers from lack of electricity (= no hot water), bring a flashlight. Be prepared with patience when this happens - think of the people who have to live with this every week of the year. Altitude: 2835 m, which can cause headaches for those having just arrived by air. 

Songpan Horse Trek part 11 Emma's Kitchen

Emma (Li Guirong) at her café, May 2008 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

A large part of any successful travel experience is meeting and connecting with interesting people along the trail, fellow travellers of course but most important in my opinion are the local people that actually live in the places you visit. They are not just props that colour your travel experience more vividly but people with real lives that if you can communicate in a mutual language (or are clever with body language and show them genuine empathy) often make your experience one of great warmth and depth. 

As you can see from the posting below we really had a great time with our horsemen but let me tell you a little about a person that most people probably remember best from a visit to Songpan: Emma of Emma's Kitchen. I have to admit that I actually knew Emma before this visit to Songpan (she is the sister/sister-in-law to friends in Chengdu) but she is such a special person that I want to give her a "promotional plug" all on her own. Emma was born in Songpan and has lived there her entire life. She is one-quarter Tibetan/three-quarter Han Chinese (her Chinese name is Li Guirong), speaks fantastic English, knows every single person in Songpan and the surrounding valleys and has since the early 2000's welcomed foreigners into her café with one of the warmest smiles in China. She has energy and gusto like few others and during peak season works 20 hours out of a 24 day. She barely stands "five feet off the ground" but is a powerhouse of organisation and positive energy. Her entire family is like this: her little brother David helps out in the kitchen with her, her mother is often seen behind the counter, there is another sister somewhere and her brother Mike Li used to run one of the horse trekking companies in Songpan (before Emma opened her café she worked in the horse trek company). 

During last year's earthquake Emma generously took care of all the foreigners stranded in Songpan and she will gladly help you in any way she can. She has very interesting ideas on how tourism can expand and benefit the Songpan area and helped very importantly when I put this family horse trek together. If she has the time she will gladly tell many interesting things about life in this very unique part of China. 

Emma's Kitchen (Xiao Ouzhou Xicanting/trans. Little Europe Western Café) is the only really authentic backpacker's café in Songpan and she serves both Western and Chinese food. She also gives all sorts of advice and travel information for free. You can contact her via her email and she will gladly help you: emmachina@hotmail.com. The café is located in the northern end of town (Shunjiang Beilu), next to the horse trekking office (Ma Dui) and the horse trekking motel (Shunjiang Nianqing Kezhan). Give her a hug from me when you meet her in Songpan!

Spider in my bra

Sign at Indian Museum, Calcutta, India ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Finished dinner a few minutes ago and picked up a basket of fruit, the homemade basket we bought a few days ago from an old man on the street in Pingwu. Hugging the basket I felt something large fall into my cleavage, DAMN, a jumping spider was lodged in my bra. Lickety-split off came the shirt and the bra, to the hilarious laughter of my children.  

That reminded me of a scene from my childhood when my family lived on a sailboat in Central America, my mother suddenly thrashed out in a hysterical dance and ripped her clothes off in front of us: a cockroach had crawled into her shirt. 

Which made me think of a friend whose mother had put on her underwear one day in Arizona only to be bitten in the worst place by a scorpion having a cosy nap in her knickers. 

Burton then related the story how he the other day took a deep drink from his water bottle only to find that he had a large (drowned) cockroach in his mouth. 

Which reminded me of a story my Cuban grandmother told me when I was little. She shared a bedroom with her sister in Havanna and one morning she woke up to shrieks: her sister, who like Emy had extremely long hair that had never been cut, slept with it tied up in a braid. During the night a python had snuck into the room and proceeded to eat up her braid, centimeter by centimeter, until the greedy snake finally choked himself to death. The sister woke up with the dead snake stuck to the back of her head, thus the shrieks..... 

Songpan Horse Trek part 10 Our horsemen

The horsemen that lead your trek are as important as safe, strong, stable and reliable horses. They know the personalities of their horses inside and out, they stay close to you if you are insecure, let you be independent if you prove yourself to be a good rider, set up camp for you, make your bedding, cook your food, sing you mountain songs, boil water for your coffee and tea, drink moonshine with you if you like and generally are salt of the earth, rough and ready guys that live very hard lives but are full of laughs and smiles if you give then half a chance. A horseman/groom/stable lad is called a mǎ fū 马夫 in Chinese, (the name also means pimp or procurer!) and we had 11 along on this trip. They were great guys and kept us safe and happy the entire time. They were especially attentive to the needs and safety of the children.

The youngest one (not this guy, who said hardly a word the entire trek!) was teased and taunted by the other younger horsemen, one of the mafu looked just like David Niven with a thin moustache (sv. "tangorabatt"), one of them suffered from terrible asthma and weezed up and down the mountains, but also smoked cigarettes. The two oldest men - 59 and 60+ - were quiet and sage about everything; the muslims mock chided the Tibetans often about how quarrelsome and problematic they were as an ethnic group, but reassured us that in the Songpan area the different peoples just tried to get along without too much trouble. Songpan has a very strong muslim presence and in the past centuries horrible, murderous fighting has gone on between the two dominant groups. The muslims in our group gladly drank wine and spirits but were very firm (all the horsemen actually) that we absolutely not let any of our pork sausages come near their cooking pots or into the cookhouse. 

The oldest horseman, 60 something. 

Break in the sunshine while the tea water is boiling. The horseman to the right took every breaktime to catch a lie-down.

Most Tibetan men in the countryside carry knifes. In the larger cities this is usually not allowed although many still do. Since the troubles last year all knifes in the Tibetan shops in our street in Chengdu have been taken away and are not allowed to be sold (even small pocket knifes). This horseman is carrying a beautiful knife, probably a family heirloom, handcrafted in silver. 

Our horsemen all live in villages around Songpan. The horses we were riding were their own horses and the mafu's ages ranged from around 19 to somewhere just over 60 yrs old. Most of them were Tibetans, the rest Hui Muslim and even a few Han Chinese. When they are not working for the horse trekking company they are farmers or herdsmen. They split the horsetrekking fee about 50/50 with the trekking company and when there are lots of tourists (i.e. no earthquakes or political problems that close off the Songpan area to travelers, particularly foreigners), they can make a fairly decent wage if they work many treks a season. None of them wore proper footwear (in our eyes) usually only simple sneaker boots or leather shoes. They had on thin jackets and coats, easily ran up and down the mountains if needed, slept around the mess campfire at night and were up early in the morning, cooking, gathering firewood, getting drinking water and calling down the horses from the mountains. 

This horseman (the same guy as the first shot above), 59 years old, was severely kicked in the foot by his horse on day 2. Bob L is a doctor and is inspecting his swollen foot for any serious damage. All the other horsemen were very curious and as soon as they knew there was a doctor in the group they gathered around, helped interpret (from Chinese into Tibetan) and one even showed a cut finger and shyly asked for a band-aid.

My horseman Meng Jun and me upon arriving back in Songpan. His name means "Mongolian Soldier" and he is a Hui muslim. He has been riding horses since he was four years old, now he is 24, married and has a 4 month old little girl. He's a great guy and was sort of the leader of the mafu, probably because of both his leadership ability and that he could speak both standard Chinese (some of the Tibetans only spoke rudimentary putonghua), a little English and could communicate well with all the ethnic groups among the horseman. An all-round great guy.

At the end of the second day he and I raced our horses back to camp at breakneck speed. I won but I have an inkling that Meng Jun just might have let me win on his lead horse Blackie. When the others got back to camp all the horsemen and my kids gave me the "ultimate awesomeness" riding award. I felt elated afterwards but also glad I didn't fall and break every bone in my body. Not to be recommended!

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Songpan Horse Trek part 9 Return to Songpan

One of the three largish Tibetan villages (Shang Zhai, Zhong Zhai and Sanlian) in the Munigou Valley. In the foreground a pile of mani stones and prayer flags. 

Six year old Tuva Appelquist riding all by herself with her ever attentive horseman. 

Heading home on Day 3. The first hour was spent riding for a little over an hour on the main, paved road from Erdaohai past Shangzhai village. We then headed up into the mountains, following paths past fields and farm houses. The weather was brilliant with clear blue skies and views of distant villages and snow-clad mountains. The distance between our camp just below Erdaohai back to Songpan was covered in about 3 1/2 hours.

Burton Booz. 

"Sleepy" taking his usual lie-down. 

View from the pass over the city of Songpan with a distant Xuebaoding (5583 m) (the highest peak of the Minshan Range) in the middle of the picture. Spring has arrived and the mountainsides are quickly turning green in this first week of May.

At the pass. 

It is in villages like this that some of the horsemen live. 

Walking down from the pass (too steep to ride), Songpan in the far distance. 

Just above Songpan walking the horses down the last part of the mountain path. In the background a part of the ancient Ming Dynasty city wall and the reconstructed city wall and main south gate can be seen.

Our triumphant return to civilization was straight through the main streets of Songpan. We all rode with straight backs and happy smiles on our faces, the kids were particularly proud of themselves (rightly so!). My horse Blackie, of course, could hardly contain himself and I had to fight hard to keep him from galloping all the way back to the trekking company. I shouted back to Meng Jun behind me: "Which way? Which way?" and he shouted back "Don't worry, the horse knows the way!" All around us were cars, trucks, bicycles, tourists, vendors, music, tooting and noise, noise, noise. What's good about cities: hot showers and good food. Bad? Crowded spaces and.....NOISE!

Another group photo of the Songpan Wild Bunch on the last day before we ride back to Songpan, see how happy we look!!! L to R, front row - Ingrid Booz Morejohn, Su Wen Bo (our great driver from Sam's Travel, Chengdu),  Zoe D, Isaac G, Burton Booz, Charles D, Maya L, Heidi W, Emy Booz, Sam G with mum Catherine P, Tuva A with two horsemen. Back row: interspersed among the mafu: Isabelle D, Meng Jun, Bob L, Arnaud D, Paddy Booz, Ethan G, Kattis and Nicklas A. (Missing the four Belliers, Staci and DJ Latoison who returned to Chengdu earlier and Ingrid Sr who stayed in Songpan during the horsetrek). 

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Songpan Horse Trek part 8 Wuzuogou

In the early mornings the horses were called down from their morning grass munch on the surrounding mountains for a breakfast of last night's vegetable leftovers and broad (fava) beans which are also called horse beans in English (hú dòu or cán dòu in Chinese). The horsemen had special high-pitched calls to bring the horses in, most came willingly but a few had to be chased on foot. 

Beautiful muted Tibetan colors of a saddle pad.  

Day 2 was a ride up a side valley slightly south of Erdaohai that was a geological extension of Erdaohai called Wuzuogou (Five Lakes Valley). We reached this from our camp just below Erdaohai by riding for a short distance on the paved road then taking a path heading east. There was a small tractor path up into this side valley which local villagers used to collect rocks for building material, firewood and get access to camps where they herded yak. We rode the horses through the water to cross. 

Wuzuogou has many strange geological formations where you can literally witness how the surface skin of the earth has been pushed, twisted and shaped into the landscape we see today. Cars can't come this way, only those on foot, horseback or small tractor or motorcycle. At the very end of this valley are five small interconnecting lakes and a rock formation called Kuashi (Collapsed) Cliff. Unfortunately we never made it that far because of an incident with one of the horses. 

Logs were laid across the river for those crossing on foot. Some of the horses could walk over this way but one of the horses fell through the logs and almost broke its leg. It had to be lifted out by its tail. Luckily it wasn't injured and no one was hurt. Later another horse kicked its horseman badly in the foot and tried to bite and kick another horseman. 

Folded over and over again, you can literally see the formation of the topography here (click to enlarge). 

Tibetan camp with yak hybrids out to pasture. The camp was guarded by tied up dogs, best not to get too close. 

Because of the seeming irritability of the horses today and the various mishaps we experience getting this far (and lot's of small children) we decide to give everyone a rest and a wonderful laze about in the sun. We break for coffee, tea, chocolate and gorp (or "CRAP" as Ethan G called it: cranberry, raisins, apples and peanuts). The horses calm down after this and we still have a wonderful day out in beautiful nature, sunshine, perfect quiet and pristine air.

Tea time!

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Songpan Horse Trek part 7 Food

Inside the cookhouse all hands pitch in frying up a batch of morning yóu tiáo 油条 (deep-fried dough/breadstick, a kind of Chinese dounut that you can dip in sugar or just eat the way it is). The food is included in the cost of the trek. It is tasty, abundant but very simple and can be perceived as quite monotonous by some picky foreigners: potatoes, pumpkin, rice, tomatoes in sugar, cucumber and squash, dry tofu (dòufu gan) in a tasty broth (yum!), breadsticks, horse tea (see below), Songpan bread etc is pretty much it. There is no meat included in the price. You can order a goat to roast but this costs about 600 yuan per goat. 

I did this trek the first time a little over 20 years ago and the food hasn't changed or improved one iota since then - this is one of the things that most foreigners complain about during the trek. So if you are a stickler for meat or good munchies and are heading out for several days (like up to the Ice Mountain Lake) bring extra delicacies from Songpan or Chengdu (where you can buy just about any delicacy under the sun). Songpan is famous for its various dried and cured meats, these can be easily transported in plastic bags and eaten with bread. 

Boiling up water for tea, hot chocolate and coffee on Day 1. 

Mr Booz has to have his morning tea, horse tea isn't good enough, has to be Lipton's!

Day 2 Burton spent too much time close to the fire last night roasting marshmallows and has swollen eyes (or maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the sleeping bag this morning). He's hugging our huge box of trail mix/gorp.  

Maya L warming her hands with a mug of hot chocolate. 

Potato and pumpkin stew, yummy but not to the taste of the kids unfortunately. They preferred dough sticks dipped in sugar or whatever goodies their parents had stashed away for them from Chengdu. 

Even horses have to eat! Mush is served out of cut off basketballs that can be tied to their bridles. Whatever we and the horsemen hadn't finished for our meals they ate mixed with chewy broadbeans. 

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn