Introducing Kāngdìng (Dardo)
Once a one-horse kind of town, Kāngdìng since the mid-1990s has become a bustling – for these parts – tourist town, though now more Chinese than Tibetan. Ensconced in a steep river valley at the confluence of the swift Zheduo and Yala Rivers (known as the Dar and Tse in Tibetan) and towered over by mighty Gònggā Shān (7556m), Kāngdìng is famous throughout China for a popular love song that the town’s surrounding scenery inspired. If you’re en route to western Sìchuān, chances are you’ll end up overnighting here.
Advertisement
The town has long been a trade centre between Chinese and Tibetan cultures, with the exchange of wool, herbs and bricks of tea from Yǎ’ān wrapped in yak hide. It also served as an important staging post on the road to Lhasa, as indeed it does today. Kāngdìng was historically the capital of the local Tibetan kingdom of Chakla (or Chala) and later, from 1939 to 1951, the capital of the short-lived province of Xikang, when it was controlled by the opium-dealing warlord Liu Wenhui.
Last updated: Feb 17, 2009
Thorn Tree forum discussion
Recent posts
-
Re: backpacker to chengdu
by scujulian 01 July 2010
Jiuzaigou is a very nice place, and comparatively less people are there due to the Expo. The west like underexplored places in Kangding…
-
Hwy info in Kanding County
by mrcjonesy 23 July 2009
OK...so this question is rather obscure but very important to me right now!! Does anyone have a decent map handy or knows exactly where…
-
RE: help with 1 month itinerary, sichuan-yunnan-guangxi
by travelingislife2008 29 June 2009
Kangding 1 day trip is enough and go further to The TOP 2 of China's Ten Most Beautiful Mountains: Mountain Gongga or Minya Konka in Luding,…
In our shop
Bags feeling light?
Coffee table looking bare?
Get your guidebooks, travel goods, even individual chapters, right here.
Advertisement
