Garze

Hi,
I'm going with a friend to China and we're planning on going to Western Sichuan for around 10 nights (10 days). We'll both start and finish our trip in Chengdu. Note that it's 10 nights but 10 days since the last day we're taking a flight early in the morning from Chengdu. We've seen some documentaries, check forums, read travel guides but it's hard to know how reliable the information is (specially when it comes to distances between towns). The fact is that we have 2 possible routes, but we don't really know if they could work or which ones is better, so I'd like to know your opinion!

Day 1: Chengdu to Kangding

Option A
Day 2: Kangding to Tagong

Day 3: Tagong to Ganzi
Day 4: Ganzi and surroundings
Day 5: Ganzi and surroundings
Day 6: Ganzi to Litang
Day 7: Litang and surroundings
Day 8: Litang and surroundings
Day 9: Litang to ?? (we'd like to do a stop over in a town between Litang and Chengdu)
Day 10: ?? to Chengdu

Option B:
Day 2: Kangding to Dege (I've read there is a bus that departures at 6am and arrives in Dege at 8/9 pm).
Day 3: Dege
Day 4: Dege to Ganzi
Day 5: Ganzi
Day 6: Ganzi
Day 7: Ganzi to Litang
Day 8: Litang
Day 9: Litang to ??
Day 10: ?? to Chengdu

Thank you!

So based on my exprience in the area, which was 7 years ago....

Day 1: Chengdu to Kangding
Day 10: ?? to Chengdu

You do not HAVE to go through Kangding. Danba is a lovely little town(well the villages around it are).

Day 2: Kangding to Tagong

Kangding to Tagong is actually a rather short ride. Tagong is not super interesting. I would consider pushing on to Luhuo. From Luhuo you can get to Dege is a day.

Day 2: Kangding to Dege (I've read there is a bus that departures at 6am and arrives in Dege at 8/9 pm).

This bus sounds like hell. I did Kangding to Ganzi, in one go. It took 18 hours and was extremely painful. Going all the way to Dege on a slightly better road(I am hoping) sounds pretty bad.

Those long trips on sleeper buses aren't so bad. Beats sitting up the whole way.

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