Moving northwest from Dawu (Daofu), the next town you come to is a dusty, unremarkable one called Luhuo. I stayed here for a night, but quickly regretted it as I couldn’t find any decent economy lodging and even the local gompa (Tibetan monastery) wasn’t very exciting.
SO ON TO GANZE! (aka Gartze, Gantze, Ganzi, and a few other spellings)
Despite being yet another dusty town, Ganze has a certain charm to it. It’s a major town for trade and Chinese trucks can be seen (and inhaled) barreling down the main street. Ganze is also about a full day’s bus trip from Kangding so if you’re on a long haul bus to Yushu or Dege or any other town north of here, you’re going to have to overnight. I would highly recommend staying in the affordable, but quite nice hotel above the bus station.
