The Beauty of Tibet on Horseback

The mountains outside Songpan, where northern China gives way to old Tibet, are some of the most beautiful we’ve visited.

Alpine meadows give onto vistas of snow and ice.

Green fields giving onto mountains in Songpan, near Tibet.

When the soft snow began to fall, the glade where we camped with the horses transformed into a twilight wonderland.

Snow clad glade at twilight.

We rode to Ice Mountain through heavy snow that burdened the pine trees and deadened the horses’ hooves.

Riding through heavy snow in Songpan.

We built snowmen and tobogganed down a snowfield, those splendid mountains stretching out ahead of us, only the occasional yak and low-eaved house punctuating the emptiness.

Songpan snowscape.

Returning after two nights in the snow, winter gave way again to autumn, with snow dusting the ripe berries on the hillsides.

Descending from the heights in Songpan.

This tiny Tibetan temple in a village marked our return from the wilderness to civilisation.

Tibetan temple outside Songpan.

After Lijiang, Songpan is the most beautiful place we saw in China.

Here’s more on horse trekking in Songpan and camping in the snow.

28 Responses

  1. MaryAnne says:

    Ah, no wonder Shanghai was underwhelming… Those are beautiful photos!

    • Theodora says:

      Thank you, sweet lady… We liked Shanghai in the end — and I MUST email Fiona!!! — especially the museums (and, to be fair, a lot of the — modern — buildings), but it’s definitely our least favourite of the Chinese cities. Which is weird, because I thought I’d really fall in love with it…

      • MaryAnne says:

        It has taken me about 3 years of living here (and hiding out in the cozy french concession) to feel a tinge of fondness for this city. Maybe it grows on you, one of those places you can buzz through. It’s kinda cruel and sterile without friends and a solid home to retreat to- at least for me.

        • Theodora says:

          I think part of it is the disconnectedness of it — or at least it feels disconnected when you’re getting around by subway, popping up in one place, descending, then popping up somewhere else again. I love the architecture of Shanghai (and stuff like the museums &c) but I think you’re right about the sterility. Which I’d put down to the sense you get of constant obliteration of history, the tricksiness by which what looks old may well not be. What is really odd is that I preferred Hong Kong to Shanghai, and I thought I was going to hate Hong Kong… But, yes, i think if you’re living in a nice place in the French Concession and can walk round to friends’ houses on the weekends, I think you’d find a neighbourly soul which sort of eludes you when you’re staying outside of there.

  2. Laurence says:

    This looks absolutely stunning. I spent some time in this area some time ago, and remember it being beautiful, but the snow just really makes it. An incredible adventure 🙂

    • Theodora says:

      It was amazing, Laurence. You feel so far from civilisation, incredibly remote. I don’t think the countryside will have changed much since you were there, although Songpan’s shop frontages have been prettified…

  3. Stuart says:

    Beautiful. It looks so peaceful and such an incredible, remote and changeable mountain environment to travel through. I’d love to do something like this and I’m curious about where you stayed, if you had a guide and whether you had ridden horses before?

    • Theodora says:

      I actually wrote a bit more about the details of this a while back — links here, if you’d like to read more: http://travelswithanineyearold.com/2011/11/13/horse-trekking-songpan-1/ and http://travelswithanineyearold.com/2011/11/24/horse-trekking-songpan-2/.

      But as regards your question: we camped, we had a guide, and we had ridden horses before. I’m certainly not proficient and Z’s only done a couple of days on horseback a while ago plus a couple of fun rides. The horses are essentially pack horses so follow the leader and respond to voice commands from the driver *most of the time*. That said, I wouldn’t recommend it for children who don’t have the strength to rein back a horse, or anyone who’s not ridden before, because the slopes are steep, rocky and very skiddy in places, and at one point one horse bit another horse and both of ours bolted.

      The other point worth bearing in mind is that they don’t have helmets, so you’d probably want to arrange your own. They did dredge up a motorbike helmet for Z, but it was split, so we went without, which wasn’t great when the horses were bolting by a precipice, and a little bit nervewracking when they were skidding on snow melt and stumbling on slippery rock.

      We arranged it through the place in Songpan down from the bus station towards the town gate, same side of the road as the bus station and just before the alley before Emma’s restaurant — probably about 100-150 yards from the station. I’ll try and dredge up the details if you’re interested in doing it. Let me know…

  4. wow – incredible photos, and an extraordinary journey!!

    • Theodora says:

      Thanks, Jessie! I wish I’d written up the journey a bit more but I am sooo far behind, it’s untrue.

  5. Erin says:

    Horse riding is such a great way to explore a place. It looks like an amazing experience, but not sure I could cope with the cold.

    • Theodora says:

      Well, they gave us Tibetan cloak type things which worked wonders. On top of coats, thermals, waterproof trousers, two pairs of socks, and the like…

  6. Dalene says:

    That is the nice/pretty kind of snow, where it just falls gently and makes everything sparkly! I know too much of the awful kind of blowing-sideways snow that makes me vow to never spend another winter in Canada.

    Looks like it was a pretty magical experience!

  7. Wow, what amazing scenery!

  8. Wow stunning photos! I never thought of Tibet as a horseback destination – my dream has always been to ride horses in Mongolia

  9. Love the shots you captured! Beautiful landscape indeed! We’re going to be visiting Mongolia next summer… sounds like horseback riding is something we should look into!

  10. Rahul says:

    Woow…Spectacular landscape….I been to high Himalayas in India/Nepal but Tibbet is heaven… loved this photoblog…

  11. Don Faust says:

    Looks amazing – I’d love to see the mountains there.

    • Theodora says:

      I’d love to get further up into the hinterland, too. Maybe later this year?! The problem is that it’s impossible to visit the Tibetan Autonomous Region without a tour booked, so I think Everest may have to wait a few months or so.

  12. What a cool experience. Beautiful pictures.

  13. Would love a guest post about your experience on http://www.writinghorseback.com Love your gorgeous photos. What a trip!

  14. Leigh says:

    What fun to travel by horseback with your son. And I LOVE the photos. My life seems quite ordinary in comparison.

    • Theodora says:

      It was great fun, Leigh. With one moment of panic when his horse bolted after another one bit it. There were no helmets but one cracked motorbike helmet in the whole of town, and he’s not what you’d call a skilled rider. But he reined the horse back OK.