Wild Western Sichuan Danba to Yading

Down into the Danba valley, home of the Gyarong Tibetans, stopping at the Wori manor, the former residence of a local hereditary chieftain.

Then Jiaju, a village of red, white and black stone houses scattered across a steep hillside, named by a Chinese travel magazine among the most beautiful in the country, and Zhonglu at sunset, with its old stone watchtowers and orchards. Around 110 km and two and a half hours of driving.

A morning at Suopo, where tall stone watchtowers, some centuries old, rise above the village houses. Then up onto the plateau to the Huiyuan Temple, built in 1729 under the Qing, where the 7th Dalai Lama lived for several years in the 1730s.

On to Tagong and its grasslands, with the gold-roofed Muya Monastery, Gyergo nunnery and a great field of mani stones. On a clear evening, the snow peaks of Gongga Shan and Zhara Lhatse light up at sunset. Around 165 km and four and a half hours of driving.

A morning at Tagong Monastery, whose statue of the Buddha is said to be a companion to the Jowo in Lhasa, with Zhara Lhatse, 5,820 metres, rising behind the town.

Then south-west through Xinduqiao, with a view of Gongga Shan, 7,556 metres, on a clear day, to Litang, at around 4,014 metres one of the highest towns in the world. Visit Litang Monastery, founded in 1580 by the 3rd Dalai Lama, and the old house where the 7th Dalai Lama was born. Around 225 km and five hours of driving.

South over the high Haizi Shan plateau, a landscape of granite boulders and small lakes, to Sangpi Ling, the great Gelug monastery of Xiangcheng, built by traditional craftsmen and rich in murals, thangkas and carving.

The afternoon is spent in Qingde, where Tibetan farmhouses built of stone and whitewashed stand out among the fields along the river, and at Buji, where a fortified family house said to be over 300 years old is now a small museum. Around 215 km and four hours of driving.

A beautiful drive along road S216 to Riwa, gateway to the Yading reserve. (Riwa is also known as Shangri-La Town, not to be confused with Shangri-La city in Yunnan.)

In the afternoon, by park bus into Yading to Chonggu Monastery, at around 3,900 metres, and a walk across Chonggu meadow to Pearl Lake below Chenresig, the northernmost of the three sacred peaks. Around 115 km and two hours of driving.

A full day in Yading, whose three peaks are named for bodhisattvas: Chenresig, 6,032 metres, and Jambeyang and Chana Dorje, 5,958 metres each. Park buses and trails lead to Luorong pasture, at around 4,150 metres, where the explorer Joseph Rock photographed the mountains in 1928.

For those with energy to spare, the trail climbs on to Milk Lake and Five-Colour Lake, at around 4,500 and 4,600 metres, a demanding extra four to five hours with some of the finest views in western China.

The long drive north through Daocheng, Litang and Yajiang to Xinduqiao, at around 3,460 metres, a small town on grasslands where the northern and southern roads to Tibet divide.

If the evening is clear, the viewpoint above town looks across to Gongga Shan. Around 417 km and seven hours on the road.

Over the Zheduo pass, at around 4,300 metres, with views to Gongga Shan in clear weather, and down to Kangding, the old tea-trading town and capital of the Garze Tibetan prefecture. Its prefecture museum holds a fine collection from across Kham.

On to Luding and its iron chain bridge over the Dadu, built in 1705 and known too for a famous crossing by the Red Army in 1935, and then through Ya'an back to Chengdu. Around 355 km and six hours on the road.