Long March 6 Begins!

Actually, it began some time ago and I've only now got the online wherewithal to put some pix up and tell you a bit about what's going on. Yang Xiao and I are back on the road, putting the finishing touches to last year's effort. This report comes from Xiangcheng County Town, just over the border from Yunnan into Sichuan.

As many of you may recall, when we finished NLM2 last October we were already planning this summer's expedition, which covers the route taken by the 6th Army Group from Shangri-la north to Ganzi （hence Long March 6）. Last year we follwed the 2nd Army Group's trail from Shangri-la, which took us along the border of Tibet through Derong, Batang, Baiyu and Xinlong counties to Ganzi. This time we are further east - from Xiangcheng we walk to Daocheng, then to Litang in time for the great horse-racing festival, and finally to Xinlong and Ganzi at the end of August. The route is approximately 800 km long. And just to make things a bit different, this time we are accompanied by two mules, who will be introduced properly below.

And here we are, pale and plump after several months of city life, making a tourist stop at Tiger Leaping Gorge on the way to our jumping-off point in Shangri-la - or Zhongdian, as it used to be known.

Before getting started, we took several friends to see the sites in northwest Yunnan. Here's Jo Zhang and Emma Spearman refusing to pay 121 yuan to get into the Three Pagodas attraction in Dali. Jo is responsible for putting these pix on the server, so hats off to her.

Emma pumps Ed up for the challenge of Long 6.

Emma's dad Tom Spearman decides the sun is over the yardarm, while long-term Long March supporter Kath Naday sticks to the soft stuff. This was Kath's third Long March visit. She reckons it's rip-offs like the Three Pagodas - more expensive than the Forbidden City or the Terracotta Warriors - that keep a lot of tour groups away from Yunnan.

And just to complete the family, here's Emma's mum Laura.

Laura was resolutely unimpressed by this site, which we made a special trip out of Shangri-la to see. Yang Xiao and I walked along that road on the far side of the Jinsha River last year, but we weren't exactly sure where this bend was at the time - the river winds so much that we put it several kilometers too early, so when we actually reached it we weren't looking any more. This is the view from the road where it climbs to the top of a ridge just beyond the small town of Benzilan in Yunnan. The other side of the river is Derong County in Sichuan, where the nearest town is Waka, a couple of km off the right hand side of this photo.

Now, as to the preparations proper, here we are in Shangri-la testing Mule no.1, whose name is Huami. He cost 3,500 yuan and we have no idea what his name means - he comes from an Yi village and we don't know any Yi people who can enlighten us.

Mule no.2 is the chestnut. His name is Shajima - another Yi appellation of unknown significance - and he cost 3,700 yuan. Also with us here is Wang Dui, who looks after the pasture where last year's horse Khampa now lives in happy retirement - so happy that he had disappeared into the mountains for the last 10 days and we never got to see him. We'll be back in Shangri-la in September, though, and hope to catch up with him then.

Yang Xiao measures his home-made bridle. He's been itching to make one of these ever since last year when some Yi villagers in Guizhou showed him how. Danny the Dog couldn't care less.

And we're off. Former Prefect and now Party Secretary of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Qizhala presented the ritual hada and wished us well as we set out from the gate of the new Long March Museum in Shangri-la. We originally planned to leave the same day the museum opened, but they're a month behind schedule. The museum will now open on August 1. On the other side of the square will be the new Diqing Prefecture Museum.

We were the first mule train to walk through the streets of Old Zhongdian for many years. Zhongdian was once a trading post on the South Silk Road, or the Tea-Horse Road as it's called in Chinese. Its relative wealth was one of the main reasons the Red Army got a relatively warm welcome here - the Reds were flush with cash after taking several important towns in northern Yunnan, and some of the Zhongdian locals made small fortunes selling them provisions.

On the road at last. This is Pasa Pass, 30 km north of Shangri-la - at this point we were accompanied by two friends, Mu Shuang and Ma Lei, hence the three tents.

Qilin Gewang, 52, was looking after his herd at Pasa. He had heard about us on the local radio and was keen to chat - his mother had met the Reds when they stayed in her house in 1936. They were very well behaved, she said. At the time, Qilin's family was quite wealthy - after the Revolution they were classed as landlords and persecuted, hence Qilin's lonely summer on the mountain with the animals. Interestingly, the Party leader who persecuted Qilin's dad was the father of the current Party leader, Qizhala, pictured above.

Lost already. It only takes a few months in Beijing to forget everything you ever knew about route-finding. From Pasa Pass I took us completely the wrong way up a loggers' path, at the top of which Shajima's saddle broke - leading him to freak out completely and drop half our gear.

Lucky we had Gear Guy handy to fix the saddle. By the time we got back down into the valley, we were glad to find a herder's hut and book in for the night.

And this is what I dreamed of. Xiao Mao approves of my nephew Gabriel's rendition of my Beijing household.