The second night of this road trip, we finally parked the van at Deqin. I finally got the access to Internet and Gesang bought me beer at a Tibetan bar. Tibetans are extremely friendly, we barely knew each other, and I simply couldn't resist the way he shows his hospitality. Gesang introduced me to his friend, Mr. Lu, who works with The Nature Conservancy Deqin Office, another nature conservationist. It turned out that this Lu used to be merely a costumer of Gesang! This is Gesang's, or rather, Tibetans' philosophy of friendship: Fate brought strangers together, to treasure the relationship, nonetheless, is nothing to do with fate any longer, but with personality. Gesang told me about his job, his affair with a Canton woman, his 5-year-old daughter, his wife and the life in Shangri-La.
The boss of the hotel said we would see the snowy mountain top of Meili if the weather were to be fine. Without any luck, it rained the next day, anyway, I comforted myself with the concept that the raindrop was from the very mountain top.
The road taking us to Shangri-La, the Yunnan-Tibet Road, is as hazardous as the road we took to Deqin. Along the road we had to drive over Baima Xueshan, the highest altitude we passed is 4,292 meters, at which we stopped, taking a leak, and it was freezing to take advantage of the elevation.
Two interesting things we came across on the road: Yaks and the governor of Yunnan. We were only forced to stop the van at the encounters of these two.
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