Tibetan Grasslands of West Sichuan
Giant & Red Pandas, Tibetan village & monasteries

The largest of China's panda conservation reserves, Wolong, has over 60 pandas at the research and breeding center and a highly successful breeding program. There are also pandas living in the wild in the reserve, however the chances of seeing one are virtually non-existent.

A vast grassland area surrounded by sacred mountains festooned with prayer flags, home to Tibetan herdsmen. A family homestay in the small village of Tagong is a fantastic place to get a taste of nomadic Tibet. The town’s small Sagyapa monastery is said to be one of the outer ring of geomatic temples radiating out from the Jokhang built in the 7th century to pin down the ogress that underlies the Tibetan landscape. The Jokhang chapel contains an image of Jowo Shakyamuni which locals claim is the original statue that Princess Wencheng set out with to bring to Lhasa.

Once the capital of the largest and most influential of the five independent kingdoms of Kham, Dege Gonchen is still its cultural heart. It is the site of the celebrated sutra printing house, Dege Parkhang. With hundreds of workers they produce over 2500 prints each day, supplying monasteries of all traditions, including Bon, throughout Tibet with sutras still printed traditionally from hand-carved wooden blocks.

Litang occupies a vast grassland on the high ground between the Yangzi and the Yarlong (Brahmaputra) Rivers and is one of the highest towns in East Tibet (3900m). Its large and important Gelukpa Monastery was commissioned by the 3rd Dalai Lama in the 16th century and both the 7th and 10th Dalai Lamas were from Litang. Litang's horse racing festival is one of the biggest in Tibet with thousands flocking to the town to compete and watch.