Danba Pear Blossoms, Mar 2026

Spring has arrived and it’s time to go see some flowers.  This year I decided to visit Jinchuan 金川 and Danba County 丹巴 in the western part of China’s Sichuan province known for their white pear blossoms 梨花.  Pear blossoms have been used in Chinese poetry to symbolize transient beauty, innocence, melancholy, and the light drizzles at the beginning of spring.  Jinchuan is the hometown of the “snow pear” and there are more than 700,000 pear trees here creating a breathtaking white ocean of pear blossoms amidst traditional Tibetan houses.  Not far from Jinchuan is Danba County 丹巴 reputed as one of the “Top 6 Most Beautiful Countryside of China” and is the “Land of a Thousand Ancient Watchtowers”.  In the Ming & Qing Dynasties, several thousands watchtowers were built here including gate towers, beacon towers, communal towers, and residential towers.  Many pear blossoms bloom here amongst the Jiarong 嘉绒 Tibetan houses with Jiaju 甲居藏寨 and Zhonglu 中路藏寨 Tibetan Villages being the most well known.  Every late March until early April, the pear blossoms bloom for about 20 days.  But this year, because of the warm winter, the pear blossoms bloomed much earlier.  Together with some heavy rainy and windy days, most of the flowers were already gone by the time I arrived on March 22.  Flower seasons are so hard to predict!  I am usually either too early or too late.  The drive from Chengdu takes around 6 hours and my first stop is Jiaju Tibetan Village 甲居藏寨 in Danba County.  I stayed up in the village at Danba Yark Yunshe Hotel 丹巴雅稞云舍.

 

Danba Yark Yunshe Hotel 丹巴雅稞云舍

View of Jiaju Tibetan Village 甲居藏寨 from Danba Yark Yunshe Hotel 丹巴雅稞云舍

View of Jiaju Tibetan Village 甲居藏寨 from Danba Yark Yunshe Hotel 丹巴雅稞云舍

Danba Yark Yunshe Hotel 丹巴雅稞云舍

Jiaju Tibetan Village 甲居藏寨

The last remaining pear blossoms at Jiaju Tibetan Village 甲居藏寨

Watchtower at Jiaju Tibetan Village 甲居藏寨

From Jiaju Tibetan Village 甲居藏寨, I continued to the nearby Zhonglu Tibetan Village 中路藏寨 with more ancient dwellings and watchtowers than Jiaju Village.  Facing Mount Mordo 墨爾多神山, one of the four sacred mountains in the Tibetan region, is Zhonglu Tibetan Village 中路藏寨, at an altitude of 2,100 meters and with a population of over 3,600.  Zhonglu means “a place longed for by both humans and god” in Tibetan.  There are over 80 ancient watchtowers 碉樓 still standing here amongst the white Tibetan houses and pear blossoms.  The watchtowers come in different shapes and heights, some 4-sided, six-sided, some over 20 meters high.  They are built of stone and wood, without any nails or cement, with windows and firing ports.  There are some that are open for visitors to climb to the top floor for panoramic views of the village and surrounding nature.  The people of Zhonglu are Jiarong Tibetan still practicing the traditional folk culture of Guozhang dance, ancient Tibetan opera, and wearing the colorful traditional clothing.  The road to the village is quite windy and narrow and there are no throngs of tourists or commercialization.  The White Pagoda No. 1 Viewing Platform 白塔1號观景台for sunrise is a must when the village unfolds in the morning mist.  There is also a sunset viewing platform on the other side of the village 中路观落日點.  Unfortunately, a storm rolled in and there was neither sunset nor sunrise.  To top it off, the area where I stayed (Tianlu Gucun Township Yun Homestay 隐栖堂•古村乡韵酒店) lost power at 9:40pm and power was not restored the next morning when I got up and decided to leave Zhonglu.  The hotel (not a cheap one) did not have backup generators, nor did they have flashlights or even candles for the rooms.  No contingency plan whatsoever!  Thank god I had already showered, dried my hair, and packed most of my things when the power went out.  It was so dark I could not even see my own hand.  I heard the guest next door shouting because he was all lathered up and in the shower when the lights went out and so did the water.  Anyways, it was just a terrible experience.

Mount Mordo 墨爾多神山, one of the four sacred mountains in the Tibetan region

Since most of the pear blossoms in Danba have already faded, I traveled 2 hours north to another area known for its pear blossoms, Jinchuan county 金川.  Stay tuned!

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