Songpan (松潘)
16 June 2019.
From Langmusi to Songpan, one will need to take a bus to Ruoergai. From Ruoergai,, there are buses to Chengdu, Songpan amongst other destinations and if you are intending to travel onwards to Songpan, you will be able to reach the city by noon.
My morning got off to an interesting start. I was informed that the bus to Ruoergai would leave at 0700 “down the road”. There is no bus station in Langmusi and to ensure that I had enough time to pinpoint its exact location “down the road”, I was all set and ready to go by 0615. The wooden doors of the hostel were locked though. I had forgotten to inform the boss that I would be leaving early that day and I wasn’t aware of any back door for me to slip out from. Fortunately, I had a companion in this sticky situation, a middle aged lady had also gotten up early for the bus to Ruoergai and we were both stuck behind the main doors. Everyone was still fast asleep, the hostel was dark and we had to find the boss to open the lock although it was rather tough on the boss to be crudely awakened by his guests who had forgotten to inform him of their early departure beforehand. The boss slept downstairs somewhere in the hostel cafe and one of us tapped around on the walls in the dark to find a door we could knock on whilst the other held out the torch. It took a lot of calling and knocking as discreetly as we could before we heard a yawn from behind one of the walls. I didn’t even remember where the boss emerged from in the dark, there was a fumbling of keys, a frantic rush of thank yous and we were off to hunt for the Ruoergai-bound bus at 0645.
Langmusi is a small town and it was easy to spot any vehicle along its main road. There was no bus in sight yet. With 15 minutes to spare, we went to get breakfast nearby and I casually asked if the bus to Ruoergai would be picking up passengers at this particular spot.
“The bus to Ruoergai has already left!”
“It leaves at 0700, no?”
“No, it leaves at 0630. It just left from our shop’s doorstep!”
The middle aged lady and I looked at each other in horror. We knew there was only one daily bus to Ruoergai from Langmusi.
“Does that mean we can’t get to Ruoergai today?” we asked the dreaded question.
“You wait.” the boss of the breakfast pau shop made a call on his phone. He was Hui Muslim, and a Tibetan man having breakfast at the shop overheard our conversation. They seemed to know what to do. It turned out that the Hui Muslim boss knows the driver of another bus going to Ruoergai from another nearby town (红星镇) and had called him to wait for us. The Tibetan man meanwhile, would immediately drive us to that town for 30 yuan. We were just so glad that we could leave for our next destination as planned and went with it.
Boarding the bus we would have missed without the help of locals to Ruoergai. 0700 hr.
The ride to Ruogergai was short and we reached Ruoergai at 0835 where the middle aged lady bought a ticket to Chengdu whilst I bought an onward ticket to Songpan. I had slightly over an hour to kill before my 1000 bus to Songpan and I was surprised we could wait in the driver’s longue of the bus station which was extremely inviting as it was rather cold outside. There was a kettle over the fire in the driver’s longue and a television where we sat and warmed our freezing hands whilst watching a Chinese drama. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen, the drivers slurping on their noodles.
Arriving in Ruoergai. 0849 hr.
Purchasing my ticket to Songpan at 0840 hr. Meanwhile, we rested in Ruoergai’s Driver’s Lounge while waiting for the 1000 departure time to Songpan.
The bus to Songpan left exactly at 1000 and we were surrounded by an endless stretch of Ruoergai’s grasslands for one and a half hours straight. Songpan, a small northern Sichuan Town in Sichuan’s Aba region only housed banks like Sichuan Rural Credit and Agricultural Bank of China. I had intended to stay at Songpan for two nights but reduced it to one as I was only left with tens of dollars in Chinese yuan after my last withdrawal at my Chinese bank in Xiahe. Although one can easily withdraw cash from the ATM machines of other banks for a small transaction fee, I was using an international card which limited my withdrawal to be strictly at a designated bank. I had to get to Chengdu as soon as possible, where there will be ATMs I would be able to withdraw cash from.
Cancelling a night’s stay after making a two night reservation on booking.com would incur an additional 20% of the cost of the cancelled stay. My hostel this time was extremely convenient, literally a three minute walk away from the local bus station. Each dormitory of four had its own bathroom and two blankets were provided at each bed as the temperatures were still rather low.
Arriving in Songpan. 1242 hr.
The 4 bed dormitory.
I spent the entire day strolling around Songpan’s Ancient City. There was a temple at the top of the hill which lit up at night I had discovered it only in the evening and there was no time to attempt a climb before dark. Songpan was personally the least memorable place throughout my entire journey although I believe it was simply a matter of luck and circumstance. There were too many private drivers waiting around for passengers at the bus station, so many haggled after alighting bus passengers to offered tours to Huanglong, a famed scenic area accessible from Songpan. It is also known that foreigners can only pay by cash over the counter for bus tickets and I went around asking to change my Singapore dollars to Chinese Yuan as there was no bank in Songpan I could withdraw money from with my card. The experience was made unpleasant when I was met with a rather off hand replies of “Sorry, we are closed.” The matter was only resolved when I later approached the boss of my hostel.
Lunch at Songpan Ancient City. 1531 hr.
From Xinjiang to Songpan, the buildings have changed significantly from dried mud and brick dwellings to concrete and ceramic tiles. Along a small quiet lane is a stairway leading up to a hill top temple that reminds one of those seen in South-Eastern China.
Songpan Ancient City at night. 2045 hr.
17 June 2019.
Early next morning, the private drivers were waiting at the bus station again and they were again asking if I was interested in any of their private tour packages. I simply replied that I was going to get breakfast and two of them followed, cutting the chase only when it became obvious that I was a departing passenger who simply wanted to get some paus before leaving Songpan.
Songpan Ancient city was surrounded by cool mist at 0700 which was rather serene to look at. There was no time to walk through the Ancient Citythough. The bus journey to Chengdu took us through Wenchuan, an area devastated hit by the earthquake. Everything was up and running, I wouldn’t have noticed I was passing by Wenchuan if not for the location on Chinese Amaps. Some sections of the road seemed to be under repair though, we stopped at one point along a bend for an hour amongst a long snaking line of other vehicles.
Breakfast on the bus to chengdu. 0658 hr.