7 Days in Nyingchi

Arrive at about 2,950 metres and keep day one flat — riverside paths, an early night, and if it is late March the pink rows of the Gala peach village at the town's edge.

1. nyingchi bayi town
2. nyingchi niyang river

About 120 km west at 3,480 metres, the lake has been a national 5A scenic area since 2017; the plank bridge leads to the islet monastery, and the forested shore loop is best taken at a slow, altitude-aware pace.

1. nyingchi basum lake
2. nyingchi tsozong monastery

Enter at Pai town for the viewpoint road along the roughly 504-kilometre, past-6,000-metre gorge; sleep in Suosong village under the 7,782-metre pyramid — stars here come out with a wall of snow behind them.

1. nyingchi yarlung canyon
2. nyingchi namcha barwa viewpoint

A slow morning for dawn light on Namcha Barwa from the terraces, then a wandering day among the Lhoba and Moinba farming hamlets near the water — villages where peach trees and barley plots share the slope — before the drive back up to the highway.

1. nyingchi namcha barwa viewpoint

Over the 4,720-metre pass for the classic forest-sea panorama, then down to Lulang at about 3,400 metres for stone-pot chicken and a boardwalk loop through the spruce fog; overnight in the village.

1. nyingchi sejila pass
2. nyingchi lulang forest

Follow the Sichuan-Tibet route east over the rebuilt Tongmai bridge to Bomi at about 2,700 metres; in late March and April the valley's wild peach trees line village after village along the Parlung river.

1. nyingchi bomi peach valley

The Midui glacier runs from a 6,800-metre summit down to about 2,400 metres, among the lowest glacier tongues on earth, an easy boardwalk approach; then the long but scenic return west to Bayi or Mainling airport.

1. nyingchi midui glacier