Plan for the day
The plan was to rest and relax at ZhongLu Village. We could hire a car and visit other Tibetan villages but thought it would be unnecessary as they would be just like ZhongLu village.
By the end of the day
We had a wonderful relaxing day. In the morning we spent our time on the 4th level open air balcony enjoying the view. In the afternoon we were cosied up in the tea room on the 2nd level catching up with internet reading and communicating with our friends and family. In the evening we went out for a stroll at another part of the village.
Breakfast
Breakfast at ShengDi YingXiang Cultural Theme Hotel was as bad as all the other hotel breakfasts, watery porridge, nuts, hard boiled eggs, oily vegetable. Unfortunately we had eaten all our instant noodle and there were no eatery and restaurant near the hotel so we just had to made do with the unappetising SiChuan breakfast. My problem with this sort of breakfast was instead of getting accustomed to it, I dread it so much that I was eating less and less each time.
Relaxing in our hotel
One great thing about our hotel was its open balconies. They gave such wonderful views of the surrounding and we did not have to leave our hotel to enjoy the scenery. In the morning we went up to the fourth level to enjoy the view. We saw a metal ladder that went up to the fifth so we climbed up then on the fifth level we saw another that went up to the sixth level. The fifth and sixth levels were flat roof tops that gave us 360° view of the whole area.
view from the roof top
All around the village the trees and bushes were still in there “green” color, if we came here 10 days later this scenery would be very different. There would be more autumn colors. This place would be more vibrant.
We spent a long time on the 4th level open air balcony, sitting back on one of the many comfortable chairs admiring the scenery, hearing the “village sounds” and enjoying the cool air. Lovely!
Lovely view from the roof top of our hotel
When the sun got too hot for us to stay out in the open balcony we moved on to the cosy lovely tea room on the 2nd level. The tea room was a glass room with Tibetan style long seats and tea tables with tea sets. We spent the afternoon surfing the internet, reviewing our photos, looking out of the window, enjoying the peacefulness of this place and drinking tea.
Tea room at Shengdi YingXiang Cultural Theme Hostel
An evening walk in the village
At about 5.30 pm we went for a walk in village, this time we turned right from our hotel main gate. The walk took us to more Tibetan houses, farm lands and watch towers. Along the ways we met more cows than humans.
One of the many watch towers in the village
We walked for about an hour before turning back. There was no street/road lamps in the village so we wanted to be back in our hotel before the daylight disappeared.
Tibetan Farmland
bACK AT THE HOTEL
We had our dinner at the hotel again. It was not much different from the dinner the day before. Three dishes (2 vege and one meat) and rice. The meal costed RMB¥70.
Dinner at the hotel
As the night deepened the air got pretty cold. It was too cold for me to stay out long in the open as for Yat Thong he was having fun photographing the night sky to notice the cold. There were many stars in the sky and many more that were not obvious to the naked eyes. But by “long exposing” the camera lens to the sky, million of stars became visible. So amazing.
Starry Night at ZhongLu village