Danba (pop: 30,000) is a small county in the mountain valley of the Kham Sichuan and the landscape varies from high-altitude snow-capped mountains to low-altitude grasslands. The population is primarily ethnic Gyarongs/Jiarong (“Jah-row”) Tibetans that wear completely different clothing from the Khampas we’d seen up to now. Danba is not “off the road least traveled” but a popular Chinese tourist site because most of the Gyarong/Jiarong “fairy tale villages” are located around 10km/6.2 miles from town perched on the mountainsides.

Driving in, we not only saw the different styles of Tibetan clothes but here, the people were wearing funnel-shaped baskets on their backs…similar to the Sapa, Vietnam area. It was beginning to look like rain by the time we pulled up in front of the Old Castle Hotel…View image…and stood in the lobby while passports were xeroxed for the zillionth time, swaying back and forth from today’s extremely rough and long ride.

approaching Danba on the rushing Dadu River, Sichuan, China 

carrying a Vietnamese-looking basket in Danba, China 

Gyarong/Jiarong woman wearing her version of a Grateful Dead t-shirt in Danba, China
Upstairs, our bathroom had water dripping from the toilet, shower and wall pipes – - what else is new. Keep repeating, at least there is a ..western toilet…western toilet…western toilet.

 leaky hoses in Chinese bathrooms
Forget the leaks. This was the first opportunity in a week to Internet and the four of us left Old Castle Hotel on an Internet manhunt through Danba’s steep streets. It would have been almost impossible to find the Danba internet without their help. Down a street, up a few flights of cement stairs following Chinese writing on walls, along a dark hallway and there it was. A huge room filled with kids playing computer games. Internet usually runs around 3 yuan for 1 hour, you must show identity paper and often give a deposit which is given back to you when you’ve finished. Again, you cannot Twitter or view You Tube.

a typical narrow and steep Danba street in China
All caught up on e-mails, dinner (what else) and a torrential downpour began. I began to wonder how the considerable rain was going to affect tomorrow’s sightseeing of Danba’s “fairy tale villages”.