Sichuan Province, China
14th April to 18th May 2006
Dave Sheils and Steve Anyon-Smith
Executive summary
The Plan Dion Hobcroft, a good friend and natural historian par excellence recommended Sichuan Province in China as a top class birding destination. Dion suggested we contact Ms Jia Min, the manager of the Chengdu-based travel agency BirdsChina. So my long-suffering travel companion and notable chick magnet Dave Sheils and I quickly organised a 26 day foray that took us to some of the best wildlife habitat that China has to offer. Happily these places coincided with mind-bending scenery. The mind-bending aspect is due to a problem with stretching your neck far enough to see the top of much of it, as the mountains are so steep. And best of all, most of the itinerary took us into the minority ethnic regions of the Qiang and Tibetan folk, with all the associated architecture and culture. Yes, okay, the architecture that the ※Cultural Revolution§ failed to destroy, which happens to be quite a lot as it turns out.
Some have written or said that this ※tour§ is the most physically demanding of birding tours. Well, maybe, but a lot of birds could be seen without extreme effort, but the extra effort proved rewarding. We deliberately spent more time in the region than the up-market birding tour groups generally spend, because:
1. we could afford to (our per day cost being around a quarter of that of the up-market alternatives),
2. the travel days could be diluted with more field time,
3. we are not all that good at identifying birds by call or sight, and
4. we wanted to spend some time meeting people, drinking alcohol and exploring non-wildlife places.
I came away with the firm view that 26 days was perfect for our itinerary (see below), although our timing was too early for many migratory birds 每 something we suspected before we left. However, this period of the year also has much less rain than a journey that might start a month later. Fortunately we did not lose one minute in birding time due to rain. The trade-off between seeing fewer summer migrants and having perfect weather was a valuable one. One other advantage was that there were a number of winter birds still present. This boosted our waterfowl list as well as adding small passerines like the bluethroat. Itinerary (as executed 每 a couple of minor changes were made after we started) This itinerary took in the low fertile ※Red Plain§ area around Chengdu, the foothills (not there are too many foothills as such given the vertical nature of the mountains in these parts), broadleaf and the more coniferous montane forests, the high mountains above the tree line, and the almost flat river valleys on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau around Hongyuan. In Malaysia we visited Taman Negara National Park, a vast area of lowland tropical evergreen forest in addition to the cooler montane forest at Fraser＊s Hill 每 lying at around 1300m asl. General comments on sites visited are included in the Diary section (below). Day zip (14 April): Depart Sydney at 2220 on Malaysia Airlines MH142 Overnight in plane Day 1 (15 April):
﹞ Arrive Kuala Lumpur 0640
﹞ Depart Kuala Lumpur 0920 on Malaysia Airlines flight MH 350
﹞ Arrive at Chengdu at 1350
﹞ Visit Cheng Du Panda Breeding Centre. Overnight Lhasa Grand Hotel. Day 2 (16 April):
﹞ Early morning excursion to Du Fu's Thatched Cottage
﹞ Transfer to Emei Shan via Leshan Buddha Overnight at Emeishan Hotel at the foot of Emei Shan. Day 3 (17 April):
﹞ Transfer by Green Bus to Jieyin Dian. Ascend to Golden Summit. Overnight at Golden Summit Hotel (I think it was actually some other place). Day 4 (18 April):
﹞ Descend to Jieyin Dian ※by leg§, playing with the Tibetan stump-tailed macaques along the way
﹞ Continue by Green Bus to Wannian Monastery car park and catch cable car to the monastery
Overnight in Wannian Monastery. Day 5 (19 April):
﹞ Descend to Emei Shan City and transfer to Wawu Shan
Overnight at Gongtong Hotel
Day 6 (20 April):
﹞ Birding in Wawu Shan.
Overnight at Gongtong Hotel Day 7 (21 April):
﹞ Birding in Wawu Shan.
Overnight at Gongtong Hotel Day 8 (22 April):
﹞ Transfer to Wolong
Overnight at Panda Inn Day 9 (23 April):
﹞ Walk up to Wuyipeng Research Station
Overnight at Wuyipeng Research Station Day 10 (24 April)
﹞ Birding in Wuyipeng in the morning
﹞ Return to Wolong
Overnight at Panda Inn Day 11 (25 April):
﹞ Go to Balang Shan Pass
Overnight at Panda Inn Day 12 (26 April):
﹞ Excursion in the Valley of Death
Overnight at Panda Inn Day 13 (27 April):
﹞ Back to Balang Shan Pass
﹞ More valley trekking
Overnight at Panda Inn Day 14 (28 April):
﹞ Transfer via Balang Shan to Siguniang Shan (Rilong town)
Overnight at Xinhong Hotel Day 15 (29 April):
﹞ Visit Tibetan side of Balang Shan Pass
﹞ Go for a long plod up a very pretty valley, avoiding monks along the way
Overnight at Xinhong Hotel. Day 16 (30 April):
﹞ Transfer to Maerkang
Overnight at Maerkang Hotel. Day 17 (1 May):
﹞ Full day excursion to Mengbi Shan.
Overnight at Maerkang Hotel. Day 18 (2 May):
﹞ Transfer to Hongyuan
Overnight at Hongyuan Hotel. Day 19 (3 May):
﹞ Day at Hongyuan
Overnight at Hongyuan Hotel. Day 20 (4 May):
﹞ Transfer via Chuanzhusi to Jiuzhaigou
Overnight at Youyue Grand Hotel outside Jiuzhaigou entrance. Day 21 (5 May):
﹞ Excursion inside Jiuzhaigou park.
Overnight at Youyue Grand Hotel outside Jiuzhaigou entrance. Day 22 (6 May):
﹞ Excursion inside Jiuzhaigou park.
Overnight at Youyue Grand Hotel outside Jiuzhaigou entrance. Day 23 (7 May):
﹞ Morning excursion behind road mender＊s hut outside Jiuzhaigou entrance
﹞ Drive to Guanxian for Mt Qin Cheng or ※Green City§ Mountain.
Overnight Minjiang Hotel outside of Green City Mountain. Day 24 (8 May):
﹞ Birding on Green City Mountain
Overnight Minjiang Hotel outside of Green City Mountain. Day 25 (9 May):
﹞ Morning birding outside Green City Mountain
﹞ Drive to Chengdu to get new air tickets seeing the folk at Malaysia Airlines cancelled our flight
﹞ Buy a large amount of DVDs that cost 85 cents each 每 just how do they do it for the price＃＃＃.?
Overnight at Lhasa Grand Hotel Day 26 (10 May):
﹞ Drive to Chengdu airport to leave Chengdu for Kunming at 1030 on some China Airways thing
﹞ Catch the 1420 Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur
﹞ Transfer to Hotel Malaya
Overnight at Hotel Malaya Day 27 (11 May):
﹞ Catch taxi to Crowne Plaza Hotel to arrive by 0845
﹞ Depart KL for Taman Negara at 0900
﹞ Arrive Taman Negara Resort
Overnight at Taman Negara Resort Day 28 (12 May):
﹞ At Taman Negara
Overnight at Taman Negara Resort Day 29 (13 May):
﹞ At Taman Negara
Overnight at Taman Negara Resort Day 30 (14 May):
﹞ At Taman Negara
Overnight at Taman Negara Resort
Day 31 (15 May):
﹞ Catch the 0900 boat to Tembeling Jatty
﹞ Catch taxi to Fraser＊s Hill
Overnight (regrettably) at Puncak Inn Day 32 (16 May):
﹞ At Fraser＊s Hill
Overnight at Puncak Inn Day 33 (17 May):
﹞ Catch various buses to KL
﹞ Buy even more high-quality DVDs at prices that amaze＃..
Overnight at Hotel Malaya Day 34 (18 May):
﹞ Transfer to KLIA for 0955 MH 141 to Sydney
﹞ Arrive Sydney at 1950 BirdsChina
We used the services of BirdsChina for all our transport, accommodation and guiding needs in China. Our contact was the very professional Ms Jia Min. Min quoted us a very reasonable rate. She was always keen to help us with answering questions and allowing changes to her suggested itinerary, both before we left, and during the trip. It should be noted that Min＊s company arranges the ground content for many of the international birding companies that travel to Sichuan. Most importantly, Min arranged for a fabulous English-speaking guide, the more than competent Mr Zu, and the ever-cheerful and largely competent driver, Mr Lee. Our vehicle was a Mitsubishi Pajero 4WD. Min＊s company is highly recommended. She can be contacted at chinabird@tom.com. I don＊t believe trying to organise and pay for such a trip independently would return any significant savings. Our Guide Zu, our licensed guide, spoke conversational English without hesitation. He proved to be skilled, generous, affable and best of all he trusted us to wander off by ourselves at times, both in the parks and in towns and cities. Zu is not an expert birding guide and was not promoted as such. His job was to act as interpreter and be a Mr Fix-it when anything threatened to go pear-shaped. Zu＊s major advantage over most guides is that he has broad wildlife field experience. He has acted as the local guide for many travel agencies from British and U.S.A and others. |
Steve Sichuan report 2006
