5 Feilai - Zogong

29th October 2025 - Drive from Feilai (Deqen) to Zogong (Zuogong) 

Early morning before sunrise we left in our Van to go the same Feilai Temple Viewpoint to see if we have better luck top see Sunrise Views of Meilai Snow peaks. It was mostly cloudy, but we did catch glimpses of snow peaks in breaks in the clouds.

We returned to the Hotel disappointed and instead took some pictures of the lovely orchids growing in the Lobby outside our room, while having our light breakfast in the canopied sit outs there. 

After checking out from the Hotel and starting our drive towards Markam, we did catch glimpses of the Meilai Snow Peaks from different vantage points on the Highway G214; and we did stop 2-3 times to get some 'cloudy' pictures on the way with patches of Glaciers seen.  

We went North on G214, known as the Yunanan-Tibet Highway (a Road with economic significance in ancient China known as "Tea Horse Road") till Markam where it merges into the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, G318 and turns west up the Mekong gorge. We were stopped for 30 minutes at Police Check post near Markam where we officially entered Tibet, while our Permit documents were examined and also suitcases of a couple of group members were opened and examined. 

After the check post we went down to a Village, in a Salt making valley. There were Platform Beds built into the sides of hills were rain water drained the cliff sides of salt and collected in salt pans to form salt crystals. The villagers there were very friendly and happy to see us Indians ("Hindu" - they called us) Tourists. We took many pictures with them and bought some fruits and small gift items from them.  Some of our group people went down to a Salt Platform for an explanation and demo of the salt making process. 

Just after we departed the Salt Making town we cam a traffic stoppage on Highway where it was informed road will reopen after 4 hours due to soem construction work. We had to go back to the Salt twon to take some very narrow and risky detour roads to reach back to the Highway - thus losing some 2 hours but saving 2-3 hours of delay waiting in the construction stop. 

So we reached our Zugong Hotel late, after it was dark, but before that we passed many High Passes on the G318 - Dungala La (5008m), Mt. Dungri Karpo (6090m), Joba La Pass( 3908m) and  Laoshar Pass (4060m). Some of these passes and scenery are shown in the adjacent Picture Carousal: 

We reached our Zogang Hotel (Vierna International) after it was dark. The Hotel was located at a traffic light, near a bridge over the River intersection and the streets near the Hotel area were lit up with festive lights and there was a Laser Light show proejected on a mountain side nearby. It looked like a biggish town.