Lulang looks like a Swiss valley that got lost: fenced meadows, dark conifer forest, wooden houses and grazing yak, at 3,300 metres in eastern Tibet. The comparison is lazy and also fair.
The nickname is “Switzerland of the East,” which is the kind of comparison that usually means somebody has run out of things to say. In this case it’s earned, because Lulang genuinely does not look like the Tibet in your head.
At around 3,300 metres east of Nyingchi, on the Sichuan–Tibet highway, the valley holds grazing meadow, dark spruce and fir forest, wooden houses and split-rail fences, with a stream through the middle and snow peaks at the end. There is no bare brown plateau anywhere in the frame.
The reason is the same as elsewhere in eastern Tibet: monsoon air comes up the Yarlung Tsangpo gorge and hits these slopes, so the annual rainfall is many times what Lhasa gets.
What to do
Not much, well. Walk the meadow, follow the stream, sit somewhere with a view. The forest — the Lulang Linhai, “forest sea” — is a genuinely old stand of conifer, and walking in it is the point of coming.
Summer brings wildflowers across the pasture in quantity, which is when the Swiss comparison gets made most often. Autumn turns the deciduous understorey and is the best light of the year.
The pass, and the mountain
Between Nyingchi and Lulang the road crosses Sejila La at around 4,700 metres, and on a clear morning the pass delivers the view of the trip: Namcha Barwa, 7,782 metres, the eastern anchor of the Himalaya and the peak around which the Yarlung Tsangpo makes its great bend before dropping toward Medog.
It’s cloudy far more often than not. Stop at the pass anyway; the rhododendron on the approach slopes is spectacular in late spring even without the mountain.
Eat the chicken
Lulang’s dish is stone-pot chicken (石锅鸡) — chicken simmered for hours with medicinal herbs and mushrooms in a pot carved from local soapstone. The stone holds heat and adds minerals to the broth, and the pots are made in the villages nearby.
It is the single best meal in eastern Tibet and everybody who passes through eats it. Order it an hour before you want to eat.
Practical notes
Getting there: Nyingchi (Bayi) is 70-odd kilometres west and has an airport plus a new rail link from Lhasa. Lulang is directly on the G318.
Permits: Tibet Travel Permit through a licensed agency, as everywhere in the region — see restricted areas.
Altitude: at 3,300 m this is one of the lowest and easiest places in Tibet, and a good first stop if you’ve come in overland from Sichuan.
When: April to May for rhododendron and peach blossom in the wider Nyingchi valley; September to October for clear air and colour. Summer is green and wet.
Onward: Pagsum Lake is west toward Lhasa, and the Laigu glacier is east along the same highway.
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- #namcha barwa