Start your enquiry 
Trekking / Wild Sichuan in-depth hiking tour
Private guided journey
Twenty-four days from Chengdu through the far west of Sichuan — four big mountain areas, the monastery towns of Dege, the Genyen massif, Yading and a full circuit of Minya Konka. The deepest line we run.
Ask about this itineraryThe Dopu valley, Dege · among the remotest country in China
Siguniang, Yala, Genyen, Yading, Minya Konka, Chola
the Riuqi Pass, in the final week
simple village stays in the far west; no camping
a once-only journey for travellers with the time
Why this route
Twenty-four days is not a longer version of a shorter trip — it is a different country. West of Tagong the roads thin, the valleys empty and the monasteries keep the names of schools of painting and medicine. This journey crosses all of it: the farming villages of Danba, the nomad towns of Ganzi, the Degeprinting house country, the Genyen massif at the edge of the Litang plain, the lakes of Yading, and finally the full west-and-north circuit of Minya Konka.
The walking is woven through the driving: roughly fifteen real walking days, from village paths and pilgrimage circuits to the 4,950-metre Riuqi Pass. Nights are in hotels where hotels exist and in simple, family-run guesthouses where they do not — that is part of what far west means.
It is a private guided journey on your dates, shaped to you. Almost nobody does this line in one piece; those who do describe it as the trip of a lifetime, and for once the phrase is earned.
The route
West to Danba and Tagong, far west to Dege and the Dopu valley, south through Genyen and Yading, and home through the Minya Konka circuit. A full crossing of Kham.
Day by day
Grouped into the journey's natural chapters. The full day-by-day, with every overnight altitude, comes with the outline.
Siguniang → Danba
The road west over Balang Pass to Rilong, an afternoon boardwalk in Shuangqiao Valley, then south to Danba for an unhurried day on the hillside paths of Zhonglu — stone houses, orchards and watchtowers on a sunny slope. Overnights at 3,100 and 2,300 metres.
Tagong
Up to the Yala park for the walk to Yala Yumtso at 4,050 metres under the north-face glaciers, then a full Tagong day: the monastery, the Anigongma nunnery and great mani wall, and a 15-kilometre grassland walk with the whole range on the horizon. Both nights at 3,800 metres.
Ganzi
A driving day north through the Bamei badlands and the Longdeng grassland to Ganzi — with the Ganzi Monastery at the end of it — then a walking day in the Gangga valley below the mountains: river paths past herders' camps toward glaciers and waterfalls, ten to twenty kilometres by appetite.
Manigango · Dzogchen · Xinluhai
North through the red-sandstone park below the Chola range to Manigango at 3,900 metres. A walking day on the grassy ridges above Dzogchen monastery — one of the great Nyingma seats, with 6,000-metre peaks behind it — then the lake day: the circuit of Xinluhai (Yilhun Lhatso) at 4,100 metres under the hanging glaciers of Mt. Chola, twelve kilometres and more.
Dopu valley · the temple day
Into the Maisu (Dopu) valley — among the remotest inhabited country in China — walking its river trails toward the foot of a 5,550-metre peak, sleeping in a family-run village guesthouse. Then a day of the great monasteries by road: Dzongsar with its school of medicine, Palpung with its painting tradition, and Katok, the Nyingma mother seat, on the way south to Baiyu.
Batang · Tsopu
A long driving day south to Batang on the Yunnan border, then the walking day in the Tsopu valley: the park's grassland, its 700-year-old monastery, and the pilgrim trail toward the holy lake at 4,600 metres under the sacred peak — seven kilometres each way, with a gentler grassland option when the day calls for it.
Genyen
The Genyen massif, 6,204 metres, from both flanks: a west-side valley walk from the new road to open-air hot springs beneath the main peak, then the south side — from the new Lenggu monastery to the old retreat hermitage and the Gongba pasture under the summits. Nights in a village homestay and in Litang, the highest town on the trip at 3,900 metres.
Yading
A gentler driving day over the Haizi Shan plateau to the Yading country, then the big walking day: Chonggu, the Luorong pasture, and the climb to Milk Lake and the Five-Colour Lake at 4,500 metres — the strongest day of the journey's middle. The night is in the park village at 3,950 metres.
Xinduqiao
The long road back north over the G318 passes to Xinduqiao, then the west trail day: above 4,000 metres on the horse tracks under the whole Minya Konka range, eighteen kilometres of it at full effort — the trip's most demanding open-mountain walk after the passes to come.
Gongga Gompa · base camp
Over the Zimei Pass to the trail into the gompa valley: seven kilometres of forest path up to Gongga Gompa at 3,750 metres, sleeping in the monastery dormitory with the summit overhead at sunset. The next day walks the glacier valley to the base camp below the mountain at 4,200 metres and back — the hardest single day of the twenty-four, and the closest approach to Gongga Shan.
Langgatso · Kangding
Out of the gompa valley and over the Zimei Pass with the full west face in view, then the afternoon climb to Langgatso at 4,500 metres — the lake that holds the whole range in its surface. The next morning walks the Huayantan calcium terraces before the road east over Zheduo to Kangding for the last night in the mountains.
Kangding → Chengdu
Four hours back to Chengdu, arriving at your hotel in the afternoon. The journey ends there — twenty-four days, four mountain areas, and the far west of Sichuan seen end to end.
Along the way
The emptier the country, the wilder it gets — the far-west weeks walk through genuinely untouched valleys.
Dopu · Tsopu · Genyen · the Konka circuit
In the Dopu and Genyen valleys meeting nothing is also possible — but these are the valleys where the rarer animals still hold real ground.
Chances are field estimates for the season, not promises. The far west is wild country and the animals are wild with it.
What's included
Guide, road, tickets, beds and the plan are in the price, end to end.
Arranged and paid for before you arrive.
An English-speaking guide, all 24 days
From the Chengdu pickup to the drop-off.
Private transfers throughout
Your own vehicle for the whole crossing.
Entry tickets
Every park, reserve and monastery that charges one.
All 23 nights' accommodation
Hotels where they exist; simple family guesthouses in the far west, as described.
Arrangement and logistics
The plan, the permits and the people behind it.
Yours, or yours to ask us about.
Meals
Outside the quote; arrangements assisted, and Sichuan food can be tuned vegetarian or mild.
Airport transfers in Chengdu
Yours to book.
Single room supplement
Quoted with the booking where singles exist.
Optional activities
Horses and the like, paid on the day.
Tips and personal expenses
At your discretion.
Far-west conditions are real: simple rooms, basic toilets, unpredictable roads. The route flexes with the season and access — the outline states every overnight so you know exactly what you are signing for.
Enquiry
Tell us your window and how many of you there are. We will come back with the full 24-day outline — every day, every overnight altitude — and a price.
Read next: The Yading hiking & photo tour · The Gongga in-depth trek · How it works · The Kham year, month by month · The tea-horse road runs under these trails · The springs under Genyen
Enquiry sent
We reply within one business day. A copy of what you sent has gone to your inbox.
Need to add something? Write to inquiry@chinadventure.com.
Back to the itinerary