I was excited to learn that the
Geological Society of Hong Kong (GSHK) determined to organize a field trip to
It was a trip of seventeen days
(from 12th to
I had prepared to live in the
Tibetan way of life one month before departing for
a).
A few topographic maps of major cities of Tibet showing major roads,
historical information of major monasteries, lakes with details of size &
altitude etc. It was not easy
to browse geological maps of
l
What is High Altitude Sickness
l
What would we feel when suffer from High Altitude Sickness
l
What preventive medicine we should take before and after we suffer from
High Altitude Sickness
l
What we should do to help others who suffer from High Altitude Sickness
b).
I brought glucose candies, high-energy bars (for recovering from fatigue
in very short time), panadol for curing sore throat / headaches
and pills (Acetaminophen) for prevention of high altitude
sickness. Drink plenty of water
if situation permits (one will need a toilet in the middle of the journey if he
drinks too much). The simplest way
but most effective way to prevent from suffering ¡§High Altitude Sickness¡¨ is
try not to be excessively excited when one sees beautiful scenery, folded
mountains, snowy peaks of Mt. Qomolangma etc.; not to respond too quick for
everything. We had a good lively
example which will be mentioned later in this report. I had sufficient psychological
preparation as if I were to climb the
However, I had brought excessive
clothes (summer & winter) in fear of the extreme temperatures at high
altitude regions. Due to the
extra-strong ultra-violet rays at high altitude regions, suntan preventive
items including my lovely hat with 270-degree coverage were the pre-requisites.
The newly bought reliable camera with convenient zoomed lenses was one of my
good companions in the trip which recorded every bits
and pieces in our ample experience of traveling in
We met everyone at the ¡§meeting
point¡¨ at Shenzhen train station early in the morning on
There were no facilities for taking
bath on the train and the toilets were always choked. Pitched black at
The train passed
places like Lanzhou, Xi Ning (¦è¹ç), en route at Gulmud
(®æº¸¤ì), Wu Duo Leung (¤¹D±ç), Kekexili Nature
Reserve (¥i¥i¦è¨½), Tuo Tuo River (ªbªbªe), Tanglhashan Pass (ð¥j©Ô¤s¤f), Nagqu (¨º¦±), Damxung (·í¬õ), Namtso (¯Ç¤ì±¹), Yangbajiain (¦Ï¤K¤«), Lhasa
(©ÔÂÄ).
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Loess could be seen along the
way in the next morning on 13th August when the train was
approaching
Changes were observed in terms of
houses and people all the way from the south to the north regions of the
country (i.e.
Due to
less oxygen content in the air at high altitude, we sometimes suffered from
headache, asthma etc. on the train.
However, we recovered from it very soon when we saw the magnificent snow
mountains, glaciers, lakes, cattle, sheep etc. Our train arrived in
We had
dinner and were officially welcome by our tour escort (Jian-yang) and the
driver (Chi-yan) at the restaurant, each of us was gifted with a hatha.
The condition of hotel (©ÔÂijͩԴµ»«À]) was acceptable except the
undesirable water pressure for taking bath. Despite the advice of many people not to
take shower at arrival in
The place for
breakfast in the hotel was furnished in Tibetan style with colours generally in
red, yellow and blue. The food provided
was of western style with Tibetan tea (Ĭªo¯ù). We then visited Norbulingka (ù¥¬ªL¥d) and the Mining Resources
Museum (¦aÄq³Õª«À]).
Norbulingka was the
summer Palace of Daila Lama. The
Palace was big with lots of paintings of flowers and traditional Tibetan
decorations. Visitors were not
allowed to take photographs inside the Palace. It was the last day for celebration of
the Shouton Festival (³·¹y¸`) which lasted for 7
days. Many local people gathered
with
The walls of the
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We were anxious to go
to the Mining Resources Museum (¦aÄq³Õª«À]) since we were fond
of rocks and minerals. The officer
of the Museum looked very professional who briefed us details of the mined
products in the Tibetan regions especially the three rare elements of Buddhism
(¦ò±Ð¤TÄ_) namely ¡§Tin Chu (¤Ñ¯])¡¨, Turquoise (ºñªQ¥Û) and Red Coral (¬õ¬À·ä). He introduced us how to identify the
real and fake ¡§Tin Chu¡¨. We were
surprised that he brought us upstairs to a large concord where we could
purchase the treasures of
We had lunch at Da
Lin Restaurant (¤j³s¤p®üÂA), there were plenty of fresh vegetable
as if they were just un-rooted from the fields. We all liked the deep-fried fish. Near the end of the lunch, we discovered
a modern ¡§mah-jong¡¨ table with new technology which was able to mix the
mah-jong tiles. It was interesting
to see our fellow members to play mah-jong for fun near the roof of the world,
God won!
Jokhang Temple (¤j¬L¦x) was our next stop. Jokhang Temple had a memorable story of ¡§Princess
Wen Cheng¡¨ (¤å¦¨¤½¥D). In the vicinity of
Mr. Ba Zhong (Chief
Ba), the renowned geologist in
Chief Ba explained
the geological features on the way including the glacial denudation features of
funnel shaped depressions (¦B¤æ); the ¡§Iron hats (ÅK´U)¡¨ which featured
red-coloured iron-rich rock at the top of hills which were rich in haematite.
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We met some Tibetan
people who were worshipping their God in Tibetan way in the middle of the road
and they were very nice and greeted us with friendly smile. At last, we arrived at Basum Lake (¤ÚªQ±¹), which was an ancient ¡§quake-lake¡¨, before dark. We did not take long
to see the island around the lake where an old monastery was built on it.
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We rushed to Bayi
Town (¤K¤@Âí) and stopped at check points for inspection of
identity documents because we were entering Nyingchi (ªLªÛ) region. We arrived at a local restaurant for
dinner at around
Dripping of rain was
heard outside the hotel. After the
simple breakfast, our bus brought us on the road in the regions near Nyingchi (ªLªÛ) town where most of
the
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They were very nice and living happily
as could be seen from their faces. Leaving the Lamaling Monastery, Chief Ba
brought us to another smaller but prominent monastery (¦â®Ú
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When we arrived at
Lulang Forest (¾|®ÔªL®ü) at about 2200 mPD, we knew
that we could be easier to breathe in air with high oxygen content because there
were a lot of trees and grassland. We naturally forgot the risk of having high
altitude sickness. We had a feeling
to ¡§wash our lungs (¬~ªÍ)¡¨ here at Lulang Forest.
We inspected a
section of rock slope by the roadside, there were large-scale
boudinage structure in probably migmatite. On the way to Nyingchi (ªLªÛ), we could see the Namche Mawa Peak («n{¤Ú¥Ë¤s) in the cloud from a distance
vaguely.
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This was a long day
that we had to make our way from Bayi Town (¤K¤@Âí) to Tsedang (¿A·í) on the Provincial
Road S306 climbing up Mila Pass at 5020 mPD where we saw the magnificent view
and lots of ¡§streamers (¸g¼n)¡¨ across the road near the high
points. There was always strong
wind that we felt very cold at that height. We then shouted out ¡§Soh Soh¡¨ which
meant ¡§safe arrival at
A new road was
constructed not long ago (only rubbles and aggregates) from this point in the
direction to Tsedang (¿A·í).
The condition of the
road was certainly not satisfactory for our bus that we alighted
the bus in order to reduce the weight for the bus passing through the most
unfavourable section of the road; that was the time we looked for our place of
convenience. It took at least three
to four hours to get through this horrible road, and then we reached snow
mountains (Wo Tak Guan Kit) at 5996 mPD ¡V the father of snow
mountains. ¡§Glacial tongue¡¨
and terraced deposits were also observed in this unique landscape. We stopped at Gungdeling Grassland (°^¼wªL¯óì) for some rest and
enjoyed the atmosphere of nature where a large piece of barley field was found
at the foothill. We were excited to
see the barley field which was so close to us and we could actually touch
them. The people of this small
village survived with their barley fields.
They were also the main food for the Tibetan people. ¡§Gangdese Batholith (±^©³´µªá±^©¥)¡¨ was another famous
rock in Tibet which existed along the Yarlung Zhangpo River.
After riding the bus on
the long winding and sloping road, the brakes of the bus were overheated. The driver (Chi-yan) stopped the bus by
the roadside and some of our enthusiastic members help collect water from the
nearby stream to cool down the brakes.
From a distance, we could see the ¡§Wo Ka Spring
and power station¡¨ where there used to be a place for spring water
bathing. The power station was a
type of hydroelectric power generating electricity for the nearby villages and
towns.
We arrived at the
important town in Shan Nam (¤s«n) region of Tibet, Tsedang (¿A·í), along the Yarlung
Tsangpo River in the afternoon at around 2:00 and we were anxious to see the
town and shop. We went in groups to
hunt for souvenirs and things that
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It was mainly
arranged for sightseeing today. The
first spot we visited in the morning was Tombs of Tibetan kings at Qonggyai (Âäý¹Ó) where we climbed up
to the top of a hill overlooking the group of tombs of the ancient king.
About a kilometer or
so to the mid-level of a mountain on the opposite side, there were the ruins of
the empire and their people nowadays settled at the foothill where lots of
loose boulders were observed on the slopes above their village.
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Yungbulakang Palace (¹l¥¬©Ô±d) was our next stop before
noon. It was said to be the first
monastery built in
We visited Tradruk Temple (©÷¯]¦x) in the afternoon
where there were plenty of treasures with historic value: the most valuable one
was the famous ¡§TongKa (ð¥d)¡¨ comprising 29,000 pearls that Princess Wen Cheng (¤å¦¨¤½¥D) had involved in making
it. We were lucky that it was a
clear blue sky while we were there.
We then arrived at Tsedang (¿A·í) and had our first Tibetan dinner since arriving in Tibet and had plenty
of ¡§tibetan tea (Ĭªo¯ù)¡¨
The restaurant was renovated nicely in Tibetan style. The food was spectacularly nice and
colourful. Yummy.
20th
August 2010
It was a long day travelling from Tsedang (¿A·í) to Gyangtse (¦¿§¶) along Yarlung
Tsangpo River. We had simple
breakfast ¡§Cup Noodle¡¨ and set off at
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We were excited to
see the extraordinary scenery of high mountains with its shadow in the peaceful
water which was incised by the boat.
The boat took all of us on board with a few local people. Amongst the passengers, there was a
lovely lady member wearing a mask indicated that she was different from us ¡V
sick. She then visited the Tibetan
doctor next to Samye Monastery.
Another bus was
waiting on the opposite river bank to pick us to the Samye Monastery. Hundreds of sheep/goats were our
companions using the road. The
deposition of sand was observed at least at the mid-level of the mountains, it
was formed when loose sand was blown in the air by strong wind. We could imagine the strength of the
Mother Nature.
Samye Monastery was
the monastery that was important in the history of Tibetan
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On the way to Yamdrok Lake (¦Ï¨ô¹l±¹), we passed by the Yarlung
Tsangpo suture zone along the river, folded Upper Cretaceous strata, mullion
structure on the road side, Jiaangsanglamu Glacier (ªÊ®á©Ô©i¦B¤t) and Karo La Glacier
(¥dY©Ô¦B¤t).
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The scenery was magnificent and you would be able to take more beautiful
photographs at the landmark of these scenic spots if you prepared to pay a
few dollars to the ¡§local people¡¨ who occupied the place.
No doubt that
We had a long discussion at the restaurant after
dinner on the fossils that were collected by some of
our members during the day. We
stayed at the Hotel (±^°í¶º©±) at Gyangtse for one night.
The restaurant at the hotel was small but cosy and decorated in Tibetan way. The young girl who served us was very
friendly and she was always bearing a smiling face. With a little chat to the hotel owner
before breakfast at the lobby, we realized that he
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We climbed to the
highest point of the castle and imagined the ancient brutal battles of the
Tibetan army against the English army from
There were gorgeous
views from the Castle where we could see Parlkor Monastery from a distance.
Parlkor Monastery was the only monastery bounded by a wall all over. During the walk, we observed some
geological features like en-echelon structures, cross-bedding of sandstone and
with a small fault cutting through it.
Some slate pieces, used as building stones, were also observed along the
path, the ruins of the ancient toilets by the side of the path were also the
convenience place for us.
We went to inspect the red coloured radiolarian chert at Bainang (¥Õ®Ô) next to a secondary
school. We found no signs of chert
but some serpentinized basalt and minor intrusion. The bus driver brought us to Shigatse (3900
mPD) near dawn. We grasped the free
time and went shopping along the streets before dinner started. The hotel (±^°í¶º©±) was believed to be the best hotel we had stayed so far since arriving
in Tibet.
As usual, we set out early in the morning to visit ¡§Na Dong¡¨ Printing
House (¨º·í¦L®ÑÀ]). There were
thousands of wooden plates carved in tibetan
characters placed in neatly organized shelves inside the printing house.
Properly we arrived a little early in the morning that not much activity in the
printing house area could be seen.
There were plenty of geological structures observed at both sides of the
cut sections along the highway, such as the Cretaceous recumbent folds, a minor
fault displacing the kink-folded sedimentary rocks and many large scale
alluvial fans.
We had panorama views of scenery along the highway with no man-made
structures observed but plenty of yellow flowers. We also visited GangJan Monastery (±^´Ü¦x) at an altitude of 3860
mPD. Our driver (Chi-yan) strongly
advised us not to go inside the monastery nor collect any rock samples from
there as he believed that they would bear bad luck. The religious belief of this monastery
was obviously different from others generally in
After lunch at the restaurant (¦°¤t), we headed to Sakya Monastery (ÂÄ{¦x) . About 30 minutes walk on rubble path from where the bus stopped; we arrived at the edge of rock slope instead of visiting Sakya Monastery. We were anxious to see if there were any signs of significant geological features on the rock slopes; we observed a few open folds with a large anticline, some quartz veins intruded the fold limbs.
Unfortunately, one of our members, Mrs.Mak, was injured due to falling
from loose rocks. She suffered from
back pain and bruise. A monk
dressed in deep red robe, rushed down from a monastery, tried to give her some
relief from pain by practicing his way ¡§Chi Gong¡¨ (I guessed) and she instantly
felt better. She was then
carried to the hospital near the
entrance of the village called ÂÄ{¿¤¤H¥ÁÂå°| hospital,
During this short trip, Mrs.
Mak was very calm and brave. She
could not sit on the bus as it would hurt her back, so she stood all the way
leaning on the escort stand for an hour or so. In the next few hours, she had a better
arrangement by lying on the bus floor with an air-filled mat and that was the
only way she could feel easier. We
arrived at the hotel (¤é©w¨ó®æº¸¥ÕÔÅ»«À]) at around mid-night.
Fortunately, she recovered from the pain after taking rest at Tingri for
two days and joined us on
We had early breakfast at
The road was built on
glacial deposits winding up to the lookout area for
Rebecca, our lovely
young lady, suffered from high altitude symptom at around 4000 mPD. She had difficulty in breathing, headache,
cramps etc. After she consumed a
bottle of oxygen and our heartful comfort, she got it through eventually. However she missed the great scenery of
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However,
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When the bus
reached the base-camp at approximately 5,124 mPD, toilets were our first
place to visit (I tried not to call it washroom because there was no water). We tested our cell phones if they
worked at such high altitude (5124 mPD) and the results were amazing. We then had lunch at ¡§Bai Ma Everest
Love Friend Hotel¡¨ in tents, we all had egg fried
rice. I
At times,
The two young girls
working in the ¡§Bai Ma Everest Love Friend Hotel¡¨ were beautiful and nice. They communicated with us in
Potunghwa. Their tent would be
dismantled and they would move back home at a lower altitude in October because
the weather at the base-camp would be very severe.
From their eyes and
their expressions, they wished to see large cities. We left
On the way back from
The hostel was simple
at local standard with one light bulb in a room of ten beds. There was another smaller room for our
three lady members (they had candles instead of light bulb). Electricity went off at around ten and
never lighted up in the morning.
Water that provided for tooth brushing seemed not reliable. I wondered if the dogs barked
over the night only because of our stay in the hostel or they did for every
night. It was a long night for all
of us.
After Margie¡¦s
negotiation with the tour agent for arrangement of providing proper transportation
for the remaining journey (with some difficulties though), the touring company eventually
only provided a relatively small bus (17 seats to accommodate our 23 members)
which brought us to the hotel at Tingri (©w¤é) before noon. Her great efforts should be recorded for
appreciation.
We had only 30 minutes to pack
our baggage and loaded them onto another bigger bus, which could accommodate 37
persons which brought us to Shigatse and
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Surprisingly, we saw
him at Shigatse (±^°í¶º©±) the next day. He told us that he used the powerful ¡§Hatha
(«¢¹F)¡¨ in the form of braided ribbons replacing the damaged leather
belt as a contingency. The bus had unbelievably
travelled several hundred kilometers through the hilly and bumpy roads with maximum
altitude of over 5000 mPD and arrived safely in Shigatse. He drove the bus to
The first lace to visit in the morning was at Shalu Monastery (®L¾|¦x) which was built at 3849
mPD. We were welcome by cows and
dogs, some kids were sitting aside with their shy faces staring at us as if we
were the strangers to them. We made
a long walk in the direction towards the mountains to look for the cherty
rock.
It took more than 45 minutes walk along the narrow road with rice fields
on both sides but it seemed that the rock outcrops were still miles away. Luckily we were allowed to get on a lorry
of which the driver took us to the outcrops of cherty rock to save our time and
energy.
The cherty rocks were reddish brown in colour,
individual grains were too fine to be identified by naked eyes or even with the
help of hand lens. The
micro-organism (radiolaria) bearing chert from the sea floor was pushed up by
tectonic process to the present altitude through the process of orogeny.
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At least, we were pleased to witness the evidence of the building of
the ¡§roof of the Earth¡¨.
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A village woman carrying her child was curious on our topics and she
greeted us with a friendly smile.
Our replacement bus driver did not allow us waste a minute and he
dashed the bus to
Most of us had the same thought early in the morning that we anxiously
went for a walk in Barkhor Street (¤K¹øµó). There were already crowds of people
(worshipers) walking in an orderly manner generally in a clockwise direction
around
Many people were turning the ¡§pray
wheel¡¨ (¸g½ü) and ¡§praying¡¨ while they
were walking. The people we saw in
the streets seemed to be doing the same thing. Occasionally there were a few¡¨ army
people¡¨ wearing camouflage uniform marching among the crowds of people in the
streets. The buildings were not tall, they were only two to three storeys high. There were plenty of attractive
souvenirs in the shopping stalls by both sides of the
At ten minutes to eleven, we gathered at the car park and anxiously
waiting to enter the
We were a little disappointed to learn that we could only stay in the
Palace (the red building) for one hour due to our escort¡¦s arrangement. That meant we had to walk fast enough to
complete the tour inside the Palace.
We had therefore inevitably to visit the points of interest
selectively. Nevertheless,
After lunch at (¤j³s¤p®üÂA) restaurant, we visited Sera Monastery (¦â©Ô¦x) which was well known to
tourists and there were monk debate shows every day.
We had free time in the evening to go shopping and try local food in
groups. We were delighted to have
dinner in a Tibetan restaurant in the city. We loved the food and
Tibetan tea (Ĭªo¯ù)¡¨. We treasured
the atmosphere that we talked and laughed freely in this restaurant because we
were the only customers for the whole evening.
We had an early breakfast (simply
with an egg, bread and preserved vegetable) and set out at
We could see Mount
Nyainqentanglha (©À‹Äð¥j©Ô¤s) (7162 mPD) at a distance. There were
glacial deposits over Namtso (¯Ç¤ì±¹) region at
approximately 4,700
mPD. The cost for a person to enter
this region was $120. We could see
the Tertiary red conglomerate and lithium bearing slate around this region, also we could see the karstic scenery of the
Jurassic limestone underlying conglomerate.
Our bus was driving
along the straight road towards the Giasiduo Peninsula (¤ã¦è¦h¥b®q) built on the land
which once was the lake bed. The
sides of the road became places for herding of sheep and yaks, a few tents were seen on the
grassland. The lake in the past was
much wider and the water was deeper.
Water had now been regressed to the present level leaving a few palaeo-traces
of ancient lake banks due to uplift of the Tibetan region. The lake was once part of the old
Namtso is the most beautiful lake
which looks as if we were going to touch the blue sky. It is the highest salt-water lake in the
world. I had tasted the water and
found that it was not very salty.
The water was so clear that we could see every single pebble on the lake
bed. We had a walk along the ¡§Giasiduo¡¨ peninsula and inspected the karstic scenery
and found that there were many caves and according to Chief Ba that every cave
had a story (tale) but I could hardly remember all. A reverse fault was observed on an
outcrop facing the lake that the rock had been under compressional stress.
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Being the last day of
the trip in
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Luckily our
scheduled flight from
Apparently, we were
getting farther away from
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Conclusion
This was a trip that
we visited many places which were ¡§must-go¡¨ as geologists or people interested
in nature topics. We actually had
not spent much in respect of money but we had rewarded much in life experience,
Tibetan landscape, culture and people¡¦s life style, religion with many
monasteries, the beautiful and breath-taking high altitude scenery.
We visited many monasteries en
route to geological spots including the
It was amazing that our Tibetan
driver (Chi-yan) manuovred his huge bus in the narrow drive-way of the first
hotel that there was no spare room for turning around, not even a couple of
inches though. He insisted picking
us up every day at the hotel. He
looked special because he had his curly hair, tanned skin and strong voice. He was great. Sometimes he was reluctant to let us alight the bus at some scenic spots because we took more
time than he scheduled. His
familiar voice (¡§Go lah, Go lah¡¨) and the hound of the bus refreshed our memory
of him.
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We had been to the
base camp of
We also encountered
some exciting and unforgetable moments during the trip:
1.
The bus broke down after travelling for 12 days due to damaged leather
belt for the engine. We ended up staying
in a local hostel for a night (near Tingri) and we all squashed in a smaller
bus back to Tingri the next morning.
Miraclly, we met our original bus at Shigatse again. It survived by using three braided ¡§Hatha¡¨. The bus (with Chi-yan as our driver)
continued to serve us in
2.
Every one of us was excited but worried about suffering the high
altitude sickness from the beginning of the trip. Unfortunately, Rebecca had suffered it when
we went up
3.
An incident occurred when we were climbing a slope to trace the
geological features on rock outcrops adjacent to Sakya
Monastery. Mrs. Mak slid down from the slope when
she was climbing and suffered from ¡§minor¡¨ injury. We were frightened because nobody knew
how bad she was injured. A Lama
came down from a nearby monastery and used his way to alleviate her pain. We appreciated his assistance and
gratitude.
4.
Lastly, our gratitude to those members who arranged the trip with
success, particularly to Dr. Margie Chen (President), Mr. Felix Lee; Mr. K. W.
Lai, Mr. P. S. Nau and Mr. Ba Zhong who provided comprehensive geological
information of Tibet and briefing during the trip. After all, thanks to all the members who
provided assistance and entertained each other during the trip.
At the time of
writing this report, I did not intend to treat it as an anniversary gift to the
Members of the Geological Society.
Actually, there are too many bits and pieces of the trip that I do not
want to leave behind my memory, I may have missed out some of them though. I have to post this report as soon as
possible because I am probably running against my Alzheimer¡¦s disease that I
might have.
More photos can be viewed here : Dennis KM Yuen - GSHK Tibet 2010 photo album
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