DAY 3, Yajiang → Batang 295 km
Guess how much energy will be consumed by two Ideal ONEs starting at an altitude of 2600 meters, climbing up to 4700 meters, and finally returning to 2530 meters?
Yajiang, Tibetan for “Yaqüka”, meaning “river mouth”. It is located by the Yarlung Tsangpo River and is one of the important ferry crossings of the river. The whole county is built along the mountains and the water.
We stayed at the HanTing Hotel in Yajiang last night, which maintained the lowest standard of HanTing, but the location is far from the city center. It was difficult to do the nucleic acid tests this morning due to the narrow roads and limited parking in the city. It took us half an hour to park and another half an hour to reverse 300 meters after finishing the test. It is suggested to choose Vienna Hotel located in the city center, where the nucleic acid test center is just behind the north square.
From Yajiang, we started climbing in altitude. After passing “The 18 Bends of Heaven Road”, we encountered a mobile coffee truck at a 4000-meter-altitude scenic spot. The owner was a young man from Henan Province, who was very spirited. He started traveling in his modified coffee truck since May, offering freshly ground coffee and baking on-site. The coffee was delicious with reasonable price.
After drinking the iced coconut latte, we continued to climb up to 4600 meters in altitude. Some of our fellow travelers had already begun to feel dizzy and headache.
After descending a little bit from 4600 meters altitude, we entered a large alpine meadow with blue sky and white clouds, which was refreshing. Listening to the music in the car and looking at the reachable cloud in the sky, walking on the high-altitude grassland sky road at an altitude of 4200 meters, it was comfortable!“`markdown
We recommend having lunch in Dingzhen’s hometown, Sky City – Litang County, because there are few places to eat on the roadside after Litang County.
We only had instant noodles on Mao Ya Grassland because we didn’t have lunch in Litang County.
On the grassland, we met Tibetan compatriots who came from Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. Starting from today and the day after tomorrow, Tibetan compatriots from all over the world will gather here for religious gatherings, including horse racing, singing and dancing, and sacrificial ceremonies.
We borrowed a small tent from them and used the external power of the 2021 Ideal ONE to boil water and cook instant noodles on-site.
The Tibetan brother from Aba spun around the Ideal ONE twice and told me that they knew this car. They first learned about this car from Xiaogang’s senior brother on Douyin. Everything good and bad is said about it online. I let the brothers experience the car, including space, power, and fuel consumption, and in the end, the big brother was particularly interested in the external power feature.
In this way, with the external power of the ONE and the Xiaomi electric kettle, we completed a self-service lunch on the 4,000-meter grassland. By the way, water boils at 90 degrees Celsius at an altitude of 4,000 meters, so be sure to use a bottled mineral water to boil water and prolong the noodle soaking time.
After lunch, we continued our journey. The left side of the road began to show the construction site of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway. The infrastructure enthusiast is completing the most difficult railway project in human history. We are deeply proud of our great motherland. You have worked hard, builders of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway!
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Keep going, started to descend from the mountain and suddenly saw the famous Sister Lake and Glacier before the corner. This photo was taken by me using Xiaomi 12S U to switch to 5X lens from the perspective of driving when the front car was stuck in traffic for a moment, and I seized the opportunity to take a shot.
After passing Sister Lake, the altitude continued to drop, the road surface began to deteriorate, and the construction of the 318 expansion and renovation project was underway. Some sections of the road are allowed to pass in one direction only. Don’t rush to overtake and cause traffic jams.
The hard-working and brave worker masters are nervously constructing the landslide-prone mountainside.
The altitude continued to drop to 3000 meters, and a group of beautiful wild monkey families appeared on the side of the road. The baby monkeys were nestled in their mother’s arms, so cute!
Tonight, we will stay in Batang, with an altitude of around 2600 meters. It is a good rest point. The ordinary Hanting Hotel costs 730 yuan per night. I found an InterContinental Holiday for 740 yuan with my friend’s help. Although the room is small, I am quite satisfied.
There are two NIO 20kw destination chargers installed in the parking lot for breaking through the 318 Sichuan-Tibet Line. Let’s not occupy the charging stations as ideal car owners.
Finally, it’s time to summarize the fuel consumption. Today’s fuel consumption surprised me. From Yajiang at an altitude of 2600 meters to Batang at 2530 meters, we climbed to the plateau with an altitude of 4700 meters in the middle. The total distance is 295 kilometers. Both Ideal One cars only consumed 6.5 liters per 100 kilometers, and the power dropped by more than ten points. The 2020 model only had 40% left, and even if the charging station was nearby, we still didn’t charge. Just for fun…
Because of this trip, we decided to take a day off and rest in Batang with our parents, wife, children, and friends before heading further into Tibet!
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.