After breakfast we visit the Litang Monastery (also known as Ganden Thubchen Choekhorling Monastery), the biggest monastery of the Yellow-Hat-Sect of Tibetan Buddhists in the Kham area. The monastery was founded in 1580 by the third Dalai Lama Sonam Gyatso on the site of an older Bön monastery. There are three main temples in the compound. You can view several chambers and a bedroom in which the 7th Dalai Lama is said to have resided. Many famous and influential personal figures were born here, including the 7th and 10th Dalai Lama.
Afterwards we drive across the Litang grassland, descend to the Yarlung Valley and cross Gao’ershi Mountain (4’678m). After having driven across the Xingduqiao Grassland and Zheduo Mountain, we arrive at Kangding, the capital city of Garze (also known as Gantze) Autonomous Prefecture. Kangding, once capital of Chakla, one of the 5 independent kingdoms of Kham (the other ones being Dege, Lhato, Lingtsang and Nangchen) - has long been an important trading center, particularly for tea and herbal medicines. The nomadic Tibetans nowadays come here to trade animals or animal products.

The route to Kangding is referred to as a photographer’s paradise where you will have the opportunity to capture the beauty of nature around Maoyaba Grassland at Litang and Xingduqiao Grassland as well as of the majestic Gongga Mountain (Minya Konka Mountain), the third highest mountain outside of the Himalaya proper, located on the southeastern margin of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau with 74 glaciers. In May 1929 the famous Austrian-American explorer Joseph Rock became the first westerner to get a clear view of the mighty 7,596-metre Gongga Shan. The local people believe that all natural life in the area around their "Holy Mountain" is sacred and must be preserved and that one night spent on the mountain is equivalent to ten years spent sitting in meditation and prayer.

Overnight at “Love Song Hotel”.