Litang is called Litang Xian in Chinese. It is a town of around 10,000 people and one of the main towns on the 318 highway from Chengdu to Lhasa. It has hotels, shops and restaurants available. Litang is located 540km west to the city of Chendu, 270km west to the town of Kangding.
The elevation of Litang is at around 4000 meters, being one of the highest towns in China. From Litang one can go to south and east of Genyen Massif. Or drive further to Batang to Haizishan Mountains.
Litang has good hotels available due to develop of tourism. Roads are good and safe. Litang is on intersection: to north it gets to Xinlong Xian and Ganzi Xian, to south it gets to Daocheng Yading, to east it gets back to Yajiang and Kangding, to west it gets to Batang and TAR.
Hotels in Litang are with plenty of options from the 3* like hotels with attached bathroom and other modern facilities cost about 300 yuan to 400 yuan depending on the season. There are also smaller and more economy hotels which cost about 150 yuan per night. Remember Litang is a town with pretty high altitude, you may want to stay in one of the better and more comfortable hotels for better rest. To eat in Litang it is similar as many other towns in western Sichuan. It costs about 30 yuan to 50 yuan depending on what you eat. Also depend on where you stay in Litang, the restaurants may also be limited because many hotels were built outside of the town of Litang, where there are not many restaurants.
The road into Genyen from Litang is a very good paved road. But the road by the South of Genyen is still a dirt road til 2021.
Lamaya is the first village of South Genyen when driving in from Litang. It is located around 75km Southwest to the town of Litang and by driving it takes around 2 hours on very good road. Lamaya is the first and must pass village while going to the South of Genyen. It has around 50 families live here and phone reception/internet available. It has a small dumpling restaurant that serves very delicious dumplings with spicy source.
There is a road split by Lamaya. The main road continues southwards to Zhamna Village and then continue further to Naigando, Lengda, Chasongsi and then to Retti Valley before over the pass to Batang. Another smaller road goes from Lamaya to West and over a pass to Rarikawa Village(Zetong Village) for around 20 minutes.
Further down the pass is Rarikawa Village. Rarikawa is also called Lower Zetong Village that has around 20 families. There is a small shrine of stupas in the center of the village. Rarikawa is a village with more open views than Lamaya. Based from one of the families here the climbers set to climb Mt.Kaimailong. From Rarikawa it is around half day’s walk to the east base of Mt. Kaimailong at around 4200m. The elevation of Rarikawa is at around 3800m. To get into the valleys of southeast Genyen including Zongga, Zongna, Kai, Haga Rezha and Xiaozha one normally bases in Rarikawa. You can hire horses or motorbikes from Rarikawa using the gradual trail on rolling grassland til the steep part starts.
People from Rarikawa and Lamaya are seasonal nomads that spend half of the year herding yaks in the deep valleys in South and east Genyen. You can find Tibetan families and ask to stay for overnight. There is also a small shop where you can buy ramen and some basic snacks but the shop sometimes is closed. There should be some hostel available in the near future due to the development conducted by local government.
