Botany Tours of Western Sichuan/Central Tibet

Duration: 14-21 days
Months offered: April-September
Costs: From $3,000

The first thirty years of the twentieth century saw an intrepid group of solitary plant hunter/explorers traverse some of eastern Tibet's most remote terrain. These men, almost all of them British, traveled alone, in search of unknown plants. Their fascinating exploration narratives are still in print today. The travels of two particular explorer botanists, American Joseph Rock, and British Frank Kingdon Ward, took place in what are still some of east Tibet's culturally richest, and most unexplored territories. High Asia has designed several expeditions geared to, but by no means solely for, botanists. These tours concentrate on four areas; the Yangtze/Mekong divide in NW Yunnan, SW Sichuans Muli and Minya Konka areas, and the Namche Barwa area of east/central Tibet. These regions contain incredibly diverse flora. Here some of Tibet/China's last stands of old growth forests, minority peoples carrying out age old ways of life, and untold numbers of rare animal species continue to thrive. Our tours include trekking and horseback destinations, using both local guides and professional botanists. Part of High Asia's motivation for guiding such tours, is to demonstrate to the local and national governments in China, that these areas are precious, and if left alone, can still generate money in the form of tourist dollars, thus eliminating the need for environmentally destructive mining and logging industries. It is our firm belief that if conservation steps are not taken today, before the first two decades of the 21st century are complete, places such as these will cease to exist.