Gateway to Yubeng: Dancing Road to Xidang

Feilaisi 飞来寺, literally translated as Flying Here Temple, is renowned for its majestic view of Meili Snow Mountain or Meili Xueshan 梅里雪山. Visitors travel long hours to Feilaisi just to enjoy the mountain views. But the town is also the nearest spot to stay for the night before embarking on the journey towards the magical Yubeng Village 雨崩村.

This is a short post documenting our lucky endeavours to reach Yubeng Village from Feilaisi. We left Shangri La the morning before, intending to reach the trailhead of Yubeng – Xidang – the next day. We prebooked nothing, improvised, and relied on locals there to get from one place to another. Knowing how to hold a dialogue in Chinese helps. If not, get a translator installed on your smartphone!

I visited Yubeng and Feilaisi in April 2019. This post may be updated periodically.

Pingche/ Carpooling from Feilaisi to Xidang

Pingche 拼车 Pīnchē, which means carpooling, is a convenient, affordable and comfortable way to travel in China. Even more so than the crazy buses. The hotel we stayed in Feilaisi connected us to a driver who was looking for two more passengers to Xidang. That saved us the trouble of finding other travellers ourselves, and reduced our transport cost to 30 RMB each.

Hikers travelling to Yubeng usually leave Feilaisi before 9 am. It is harder to carpool in the late morning. Alternatively, you could save yourself from all that trouble by paying 150 RMB for a private chauffeur.

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The Journey

From Smooth to Wild

The first part of the route was on the tarmac, which was as smooth as it went until we turned out of the highway, and all hell broke loose. The path thereafter was full of potholes that shook the car violently. I could feel your loose body parts jiggling as the car manoeuvred down the road. But that journey sure does do some good to my abdominal muscles. Heh heh.

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A Lone Hiker

Along the way, we saw a lone hiker with a big backpack and hiking sticks on the road. Is he walking from Feilaisi to Xidang? That is as unimaginable to me as the cyclists I saw pedalling beside jeeps and trucks on a congested mountainous road towards Ladakh, India last year. The guy was trodding over loose gravel, and sniffing in all those nasty exhaust fumes.

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Tickets

Before the dancing roads, our car stopped at the ticket station. Entrance into Yubeng Village was 60 RMB. Along with the ticket, which had a beautiful backdrop of Meili Xueshan, was a receipt indicating the cost we had paid and the 50K RMB death and disability insurance. Keep the ticket with you at all times! They were used as verification in the village for accommodations and random spot checks by the rangers in the area.

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Ending

And that is all for my sweet and short recount of the journey to Xidang. Our car dropped us at the carpark next to the entrance of Yubeng. A wooden map at the gateway indicated the trek we would be doing next, which began with a long and painful steep ascent. The story continues in Yubeng Village!