Travel around Tibet – Northern Tibet

Travel around Tibet – Northern Tibet

The lake basin of Northern Tibet is situated among beautiful Kunlun Mountain Range, magnificent Tanggula Mountain Range, mysterious Nyenchen Tanglha Mountain Range and Gangdisê Mountain Range. It stretches from the south to the north covering the Qyangtang lake basin and the entire Kunlun Mountainous area. The lake basin of Northern Tibet mainly comprises of Qyangtang Grand Grassland which was also named Northern Tibet Plateau. Qyangtang Grassland consists of series of gentle hills and deep valleys, which its relative height is about 100-400 meters. There is rich in water resource and full of beautiful waterweeds in Qyangtang Grassland, so that it is one of the most important pastoral regions of Tibet and even of China.

People who never visit Tibet in their lifetime may not understand how big China is. People who never visit Qyangtang Grassland could not find how broad Tibet is. Actually, when you reach Tibet, you can hardly describe it with few adjectives such as vast, wide, broad, or far. When you stand on the land of Tibet, you are hardly to see the horizon line of other side. You can imagine that lesser than 10000 people living in this borderless area of more than 300000 square kilometers, and then you may figure it our how large Tibet region is.

According to Tibetan language, Qyangtang literally means the deserted space of northern Tibet. Actually, yes, it is really empty area, vast and borderless. This area stretches about 760 kilometers long from the south to the north, and about 1200 kilometers long from the east to the west.

Hengduan Mountainous Area is available in the deep valley area of eastern Tibet. It is a land cutting off by continuous mountains. Hengduan Mountainous Area is actually situated in the east of Nagqu Prefecture. The thick high mountains and deep valleys gradually stretch from east-west to the south-north there. In the east, you will find three famous river of Tibet, Jinsha River, Lancang River and Nu River, all which the rivers are surrounded by the high mountains. In the west, the east-west Yarlung Zangbo River changes to the south when it is stopped by Namjagbrawa Mountain over there. Yarlung Zangbo River is not only the largest river, but also the important river of Tibet. It becomes gentle when flows out from Medog, and the name is changed to Brahmaputra River.

Before flowing into the flat Indian plain, Yarlung Zangbo River has to rush out the encirclement of high mountains. Think about it when the soft water collides to the shark rocks, a grand canyon has been formed by Yarlung Zangbo River in the east of Himalaya Mountain. Hence, Yarlung Zangbo River is also regarded as the deepest, longest and largest canyon throughout the world. Even though we human beings had a chance to enjoy the magnificent and breathtaking scenery of Yarlung Zangbo River, Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon was a virgin area of the world till 1980s. During the period of the 20th century, it has been explored by few scientists.