Kangding County

Kangding or Dardo (Chinese: 康定, Pinyin: "Kāngdìng"; Tibetan in official transcription: "Dardo" or "Darzêdo", in Wylie transliteration: "dar mdo" or "dar rtse mdo") is the name of a county and a town in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in western Sichuan Province, China. In the west, Dardo was previously known as "Tachienlu" or "Tatsienlu", after the Chinese transcription "Dǎjiànlú" 打箭爐 of the Tibetan name "Darzêdo".

It is an ethnic Tibetan township located in the historical Tibetan region of Kham. A raging river splits the city, thus the constant sound of water emanates throughout much of the city. The city features a sizable city square where young and old alike gather in the early hours of the morning to do tai-chi, play badminton, or socialize. This square comes alive on the weekends as well, when families tend to populate it. Traditional Tibetan and Sichuan restaurants are easily found throughout the city. A monastery sits on the mountains overlooking the city, and is accessible by cable car. As of October 2006 a stone amphitheatre is under construction at the upper monastery.

:"Kanting [sic] is the capital of the Chinese province of Sikang. It is a market town, situated nearly eight thousand feet [2,438 m] above sea level on the floor of a narrow valley. Chinese governments have always had a mania for altering place names, and until a short time ago Kangting was called Tatsienlu; it still is on many maps. The old name is a corruption of the Tibetan Dar-Tsen-Do, the syllable "do", which you often find in Tibetan place names (Jyekundo, Chamdo), indicating the confluence of two rivers—in this case the Dar and the Tse. The little town is closely shut in on all sides by high mountain ranges which during much of the day, and in winter very inconveniently, shut out the sunlight. Kangting lies so low in relation to the surrounding hills that when you are in it you do not feel as if you were high up on the surface of our planet, but you only have to climb the grassy slopes to the northward to see Minya Konka proudly asserting herself against the sky. The highest point on this splendid, ice-sheathed mountain attains (according to her first conquerors) a height of 24,900 feet [7,590 m] above sea level.:Kangting was only recently promoted to the dignity of a provincial capital and still has a slightly parvenu air. The new movie theater and the hideous municipal buildings have only incompletely imposed a veneer of modernization on the ancient city of the Chala kings; its atmosphere lingers on in the narrow alleyways of the Tibetan quarter." [Migot, André (1955). "Tibetan Marches". Translated by Peter Fleming. E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., U.S.A., pp. 82-83.]

:"Kangting is essentially a great depot for brick tea. It comes in from Yaan and goes out on caravan routes which serve the whole of Tibet as far as Lhasa. The town (which otherwise would be a place of no importance) depends for its prosperity entirely on tea; the yaks and mules which in one year set out from it laden with this commodity are numbered in tens of thousands. And yet, if you walk about the town, you are barely conscious of the part which tea plays in its life. The stocks are held in warehouses, or else in the courtyards of the inns frequented by the caravans of the big Chinese and Tibetan merchants. These spacious buildings are built around a big courtyard with stores and stall opening off it; the living rooms, which open onto a wide gallery, are on the next floor." [Migot, André (1955). "Tibetan Marches". Translated by Peter Fleming. E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., U.S.A., p. 83.]

During the Republic of China administration, Kangding was the capital of the now-defunct province of Xikang.

It is a fast growing city, perhaps 40% Han Chinese, 40% Tibetan, with the remaining being Qiangs, Yis and other ethnic groups. The city has a scenic cable car imported from Germany.

Kangding, about 6 hours from Chengdu, is the staging point for further trips over a high pass to the formerly Tibetan area of Kham, which is still, predominantly Tibetan, and there is an enormous amount of Chinese road construction, so that the district area of Luho can be reached in about 6 hours from Kangding by 2008. Right now it is a very bumpy trip of about 9 hours through lovely Tibetan towns. There is a small Tibetan area in Kangding with a nice Tibetan hotel where you can catch a ride to Chengdu, about 130Y, or to Luho about the same.

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