Discovering 'Xizang's little Switzerland'
Nyingchi's topography sculpts its unique natural and cultural appeal, Erik Nilsson reports.
Nyingchi's highest summit, Mount Namjagbarwa, soars 7,782 meters into a lingering shroud of mist where the Hengduan, Himalaya and Nyainqentanglha mountain ranges smash into each other.
One of the best places to view this fang-shaped behemoth is the Forest Viewing Platform. It overlooks meadows glittered with wildflowers, woodlands prickled with evergreens and crests crowned by snowcaps above Lunang Forest.
Over 1,000 yaks and horses graze in Lunang's 130-hectare pastureland, which hosts a crisp vertical demarcation among its vegetations. Broadleaf species like birch, poplar, rhododendron, willow and alpine oak cling to the lower altitudes, while evergreens like sequoias, cypresses, spruces and firs bristle across the horizons of higher elevations.
