Join me to Sichuan, China

Hi,

Is there anyone out there who is keen on going to Sichuan, China in 10 days sometime between end of September – end October??
Who, like me is interested to share the cost.

Pallas cat, Chinese mountain cat, Golden Takin, Red panda, Snub nosed monkey, Wolves, Tibetan gazelle, Tibetan fox and some other cool stuff is in the pipeline 🙂
Try to get some good photos of them as well.

To share the cost.

I was thinking about this schedule:

day 1 – pickup and drive to Labahe

day 2 – Labahe

day 3 – Labahe

Day 4 – drive to Tangjiahe

Day 5 – Tangjiahe

Day 6 – Tangjiahe

Day 7 – drive to Ruoergai

Day 8 – Ruoergai

Day 9 – Ruoergai

Day 10 – return to Chengdu

Day 11 -departure

I was quoted the total price of around: RMB28,000 for this trip. Depending on what accommodation we choose.
RMB2000 per day for guiding and then accommodation, fuel and food on top of that.

Anyone interested?

/Andreas Jonsson 39 years old from Sweden.

andreas_19@hotmail.com

17 Comments

  • Cathy Pasterczyk

    What company are you going with? Will you also stop to look at birds a little?

    • Antee

      Cathy,

      Company is http://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/ which I have noticed is mostly used by people here with great success.

      Although this trip is focusing on mammals, I doubt that there would be no time for some birds.
      I understand it that In Tangjiahe most of the action is during nighttime. Probably some time left in daytime here for some birds.
      But personally, I don´t want it to affect the mammalwatching.

  • Bob

    Would loved to but booked for 2017, if someones goes in 2018 I’m in!

  • Janco van Gelderen

    Hi Andreas,

    I would like to join and have the same interest.
    Also would like to add red panda.
    For me 3 weeks would be possible too.
    Lets contact
    Janco 40 Netherlands

  • Ralf Bürglin

    Hi Andreas,

    I am interested too. I also have an interest in wildlife photography. Watch my website: http://www.wilddocu.de
    I have a special interest in Dwarf Blue Sheep, a species that is usually overlooked. It occurs in a very small area near the town of Zhubalong, at the Sichuan-Tibetan border.
    Could go at the end of october.

    Regards, Ralf

    • Antee

      Dwarf Blue sheep, very cool species and I would love to seem them. Unfortunateley Zhubalong is 800km from Chengdu in a different direction from what this trip is going. It means a big detour and I am sad to say that the time needed for this does not exist right now.

      It seems like the trip will be going in the beginning of October.

      Very nice site and photos you have. Way beyond my skill.

      • Ralf Bürglin

        Thank you for your reply. Yes, you are right, it’s a long ride to Zhubalong. So, I guess I have to postpone it. But I am still interested in your trip. I have to see if “beginning of October” is feasible.

  • Vladimir Dinets

    Ralf,
    Molecular evidence shows that dwarf blue sheep is not a full species. Also, there are other populations. See http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/18535/0

  • Ralf Bürglin

    Thank you, Vladimir.

    Well yes, there is Feng et al. 2001, Cao et al. 2003, Zhou et al. 2003, Zeng et al. 2008, Tan et al. 2012, who say the dwarf blue sheep has subspecies status. But then there is Wang and Hoffman 1987, Wang et al. 2000, Liu et al. 2007, Wang and Xie 2009, Groves and Grubb 2011 who recognize it as a full species. IUCN concludes: “The taxonomy of this taxon remains incompletely resolved.” For me this is reason enough to have a look at the species/subspecies. And then look at the ecological aspects of the taxonomy: “P. nayaur schaeferi is isolated from the alpine habitat of P. nayaur by a belt of oak forest, into which they have not been documented to enter.” This seems to be pretty unique. I got to see it! If not this year then later.

  • Jens Hauser

    Hej Andreas,
    I am also interested in joining. I am a wildlife photographer that is especially interested in cats. I am not that much intrested in birds but I photograph them in I manage to see them aalthough I am not going any extra distance just to find the rare ones. Not like I can do for cats. Then I can climb mountains and sleep in mud for a week just to have a possibility to sight and photograph them.

    //Jens
    Helsingborg, Sweden.

    • Antee

      Well, I could do this in swedish but… 🙂

      Thanx for your interest in this trip. I have alot of people interesting in this and I have teamed up with one already.

      Eventually we can do this as three people (to even further reduce the cost) but I´ll wait for some answers from the guide regarding this and I will also have a fixed date at that point.
      So, I come back to you.

      andreas_19@hotmail.com is my mail if you have some questions 🙂

  • Lennartv

    Hi,

    Looks very interesting, so the 28.000 is the total amount for all participants or per person? Per person would be a above my budget right now, but if this would be split between participants it would make things very interesting. Of course I understand that things like food and accomodation will vary with the number of participants.

    Edit: never mind, first of october won’t work unfortunately.

    Lennart Verheuvel

    • Antee

      Thanx for your interest in this trip. I have alot of people interesting in this and I have teamed up with one already.

      Eventually we can do this as three people (to even further reduce the cost) but I´ll wait for some answers from the guide regarding this and I will also have a fixed date at that point.
      So, I come back to you.

      Yes, around RMB 28,000 is the total cost för the trip. This will be split with participants.

      andreas_19@hotmail.com is my mail if you have some questions 🙂

  • Vladimir Dinets

    Ralf,
    No paper advocating the split has any supporting data except for size difference, and the one by Groves & Grubb was junk science in general. The situation is far from unique: similar, or even greater, size differences exist between high- and low-elevation brown bears in the Caucasus, for example, and the list of mammalian species with two forms occurring above and below the forest belt would be many pages long. Also, contrary to the original claim, there are some blue sheep populations that are intermediate in size between “dwarf” and “normal” ones.
    These “dwarfs” are interesting animals and worth having a look at if you are in the area, but I wouldn’t recommend making them a top priority of a short visit to Sichuan.

  • Jurek

    Dear Andreas,

    I am interested in joining you in China if it takes place in October. I see that lots of people replied already, so we might team up for a follow up trip in 2018.

    I did 3 trips to China already and saw among others Giant Panda, Takin and Chinese Snub-nosed Monkey, also have experience in mammal watching and spotlighting in over 20 other countries.

    I wanted only to make sure that Chinese Monal is seen, one bird species which I especially want. Also, seeing Tibetan Antelope, Wild Yak and Red Panda would be preferable. I am 44 years old.

    best,

    Jurek
    jurek dot birds at gmx dot de

  • Antee

    There is still one place left on this trip.

    I have fixed dates for this tour. Starting 5th October from Chengdu and ends 14 october in Chengdu. A 10 day trip. Following the schedule above.
    I will arrive the day before in Chengdu for an early departure on the 5th October.
    I will also have two extra days afterwards for some flexibility. Then I have the freedom to stay at one place if I missed something.

    I´ll be going with a guy (Janco) from mammalwatching and we searching for a third person to reduce the cost even more.

    If you are interested in joining let´s contact here or on my E-mail.

    /Andreas

  • Antee

    Last chance for joining (Maybe some new visitors will read this).
    There is still one place open for joining us to Sichuan province in October.

    So, if you are bored, want to do something and have some time to spare for mammalwatching. Let me know 🙂

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