Discovering 'Xizang's little Switzerland'

Nyingchi's alpines conjure an enchanting terrain that shapes its distinctive cultural landscape. The region is celebrated as "Xizang's little Switzerland".

Indeed, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were gazing upon the European nation's Alps, except the landscape is speckled with yaks, draped with prayer flags and studded with buildings constructed in ethnic Tibetan, Lhoba and Monba vernaculars.

The Yarlung Zangbo River, the world's highest waterway at around 4,800 meters, slices through the surrounding highlands to carve one of our planet's longest and deepest canyons.

Nyingchi's relatively clement weather compared with most of the Xizang autonomous region, which is otherwise hailed as the "planet's third pole", and its moderate altitude of around 3,000 meters, forge an eave of "the roof of the world".

These conditions have nurtured peculiar coniferous and pastural biomes that host a unique taxonomy of wildlife, including myriad rare species.

The Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon zigzags over 500 kilometers southward from Daduka village in Manling county to Baxika village in Metog county, slicing about 2,300 meters deep on average and over 6,000 meters at its most extreme plunge.

Many travelers flock to the Water Terrace scenic area by the Negega Bridge in Manling's Paizhen town to experience the river's thunderous rapids while quietly sipping tea.

Much of yawning chasm is encrusted by glaciers, lacerated by torrential rivers and traced by jutting precipices that frequently shake off their stony hides, detonating avalanches of rock, slush and muck.

Swathes of the ravine are so treacherous that sections of it linger among Earth's last unexplored locales. But this unknown is exactly what lures researchers eager to unlock this geological treasure trove's final mysteries.

Nyingchi's highest summit, Mount Namjagbarwa, soars 7,782 meters into a lingering shroud of mist where the Hengduan, Himalaya and Nyainqentanglha mountain ranges smash into each other.

One of the best places to view this fang-shaped behemoth is the Forest Viewing Platform. It overlooks meadows glittered with wildflowers, woodlands prickled with evergreens and crests crowned by snowcaps above Lunang Forest.

Over 1,000 yaks and horses graze in Lunang's 130-hectare pastureland, which hosts a crisp vertical demarcation among its vegetations. Broadleaf species like birch, poplar, rhododendron, willow and alpine oak cling to the lower altitudes, while evergreens like sequoias, cypresses, spruces and firs bristle across the horizons of higher elevations.

The prairies serve as arenas for traditional festivals featuring horseback archery and strongman contests, especially in August and September.

Visitors to Nyingchi can also explore folk customs at the Experience Hall of Ethnic Cultural Heritage. They can learn about the legacies of such traditional arts as thangka paintings, lanterns and pest-resistant paper that can last well over a century with minimal aging. They can also witness the production of local incense crafted from over 30 medicinal ingredients harvested from the plateau. The joss smoke is believed to alleviate anxiety, deepen sleep and repel bugs.

Nyingchi is a place where an extreme river and canyon shape life among relatively moderate elevations and weather in Xizang to generate a destination unlike anywhere else on Earth. These natural conditions have fostered a mystique that has, in turn, shaped its culture.

From the highest point of Mount Namjagbarwa to the lowest depth of Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, it's worth exploring from top to bottom — and everywhere in between.