main cities of sichuan: chengdu , leshan , jiuzhaigou , dujiangyan , kangding , emeishan .
sitting 2500 meters above sea level, kangding is cradled in a narrow gorge along the raging zheduo river. the river's continual rumble can be heard in its alleyways where nomads from the west come to sell tibetan herbal medicine, khampa knives, traditional tibetan garments, and the ever popular yak butter tea. for centuries the town has held the status of 'gateway to tibet' (regardless of current political boundaries) while serving as a demographic border that separates han china from the predominantly tibetan and qiang populations to the west.
like any border town, kangding has an interesting mix of cultures. the city's thriving market (da shichang) sells blocks of ya'an tea and electronic equipment from china's eastern seaboard alongside a variety of tibetan goods like prayer flags and leather saddles. a mosque for the growing hui minority population and a catholic church built by french missionaries in the nineteenth century stand amidst tibetan buddhist temples and lamaseries.
the two main lamaseries, the anjue lamasery and the nanwu lamasery, both belong to the yellow-hat sect of tibetan buddhism. although nanwu is a much bigger structure that houses close to 90 monks, anjue is older, with a history all too similar to that of many tibetan monasteries. first constructed in 1654 under the direction of the dalai lama, the lamasery used to house 300 monks on a large plot of land in the old city's center. all this ended during the cultural revolution when the entire structure was destroyed. now the monastery is a simple structure with a small courtyard that houses only twenty monks. new renovations and additions, however, will be completed at the end of this year.
on the southern edge of kangding is paoma mountain (paoma shan), the subject of a famous sichuanese folksong and site of the annual 'walking around the mountain festival' (zhuanshanjie) which takes place on the 18th day of the fourth lunar month (may 10, 2001; may 29, 2002). this is reputedly the best time to visit kangding -- tibetans from all over the region set up tents on the hillside to watch and take part in trading, wrestling matches, tug-of-war contests, folk dancing, and horse racing. besides hosting this festival, paoma mountain offers visitors a spectacular view of the city and the surrounding mountain ranges. on exceptionally clear days, it is possible to see mount gongga (gongga shan), sichuan's highest peak (7556m), from paoma's summit.
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