In the 11th issue of China National Geographic magazine in 2015, it introduced a county with the most "cattle" in China - Tashkurgan in Kashgar, Xinjiang, although this "most cattle" is a family, but the capital of its "cattle" is real: the first cow is one county to three countries; The second cow is the Stone Town on the Silk Road and its encounters with world celebrities such as Zhang Qian, Xuanzang, Marco Polo and Stein over thousands of years; The third cattle are the beautiful ice tower and apricot blossom villages in the Yarkand River Valley; The fourth cow is the world's second highest peak in the south, Chogory, and the "father of glaciers" Mushtag, in the north.
Coincidentally, there is also such a legendary county in Nyingchi in Tibet - Meto. "China's last county with highway", this is probably the deepest impression of the Chinese people on Meto, in fact, as a secret place in Tibet, the legend of Meto is not only in traffic, it is very different from the climate and biosphere of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and there is a humanistic legend of the lotus special place, it is the peach blossom source of Tibet and "Xishuangbanna", its latest Slogan is "there is only one Meto in the world, and Meto has the whole world".
There are many similarities between Meto and Tashkurgan : both are border counties in the extreme borderlands, Meto is bordered by India to the south, and Tashkurgan is bordered by Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir; Tashkurgan adjacent to Afghanistan was once the front line against terrorism, while southern Meto was part of southern Tibet, which is still occupied by India; Both are border counties with extremely poor transportation, and the Karakoram Highway through Tashkurgan was completed in 1978, while the Zamem Highway to Metuo was not officially opened to traffic until 2013.
However, the differences between them are also very obvious: the entire territory of Tashkurgan is on the Pamir Plateau, which is known as the "horse pile of the mountains", which refers to a series of high-altitude mountains on the Eurasian continent, such as the Tian Shan, Kunlun Mountains, Karakoram Mountains, Himalayas, Hindu Kush Mountains and Sarekole Ridge radiating from the Pamir Plateau. The average altitude in Tashkurgan is around 4,000 meters, and the highest peak is 8,611 meters, except for a few river valleys, the whole territory is covered by the alpine arid-semi-arid climate of the plateau.
Compared with the "dry" of Tashkurgan, Meto can be said to be the most "wet" place in Tibet: the Brahmaputra River turns south at the eastern end of the Himalayas, rushing all the way into the Indian Ocean, and at the same time allowing the warm and humid air flow of the Indian Ocean to swim up the river through the deep valley of the riverbed, forming a humid subtropical climate that has created the "Tibetan Jiangnan" in Meto and even the Nyingchi region. Meto's annual precipitation reaches 2300 mm, while Tashkurgan is only 63 mm. In addition, although the Nanga Bawa Peak at the junction of Meto and Milin, is 7782 meters above sea level, the average altitude of the county is only 1200 meters, and the lowest point is only 180 meters.
Different terrain, altitudes and climatic conditions create different natural landscapes in front of people's eyes, but interestingly, whether it is a trip to Meto or Tashkurgan, the most unmissable scenery is basically along the way. If you're traveling to Meto from Bomi outside of summer, the world of ice and snow beneath Mount Garonla is amazing enough. Passing through the tunnels, the Galonla Glacier and the Galom Tianchi are the prelude to the Meto tour. In the three hours from the 4,700-meter Galonla Pass to the 1,117-meter county seat of Meto, you will always experience how the biozone is vertically distributed in the canyon with the altitude, and how the snow-capped mountains and the rainforest are in the same view.
The Tashkurgan tour generally starts from Kashgar city and follows National Highway 314, before entering the county seat of Tashkurgan County, the main attractions along the way such as Chikrazi Glacier, Baisha Lake, Gongger Peak and Karakuli Lake are in Aktau Prefecture, and Mushtag Peak is at the junction of Aktau and Tashkurgan counties. The tourist area of Kashgar Pamir, which became a 5A scenic spot in 2019, is located around the county seat of Tashkurgan County, but the four attractions including the Stone City Ruins, Aral Golden Grass Beach, Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Center and Caiyun Renjia Folk Village are far less attractive than those along the way and Internet celebrity check-in points such as Panlong Ancient Road.
The difference between the two counties is also their ethnic customs. Metuo is the home of the Monba and Lhoba ethnic groups, and their customs and habits are slightly different from those of Tibetans, but they are deeply influenced by this religion and Lamaism. The word Meto means "hidden lotus" in Tibetan, and legend has it that Master Padmasambhava passed through Meto and found that there was a statue of a sacred place like a blooming lotus flower, so he practiced Dharma propagation here and named it "Pema Gang", which means special place. Tashkurgan is China's only Tajik autonomous county, a nation of eagles belonging to the Europa race, and the blonde Tajik nose and hand-kissing ceremony at festivals or weddings are a sight to visitors.
After comparing so many similarities and differences between Meto and Tashkurgan, let's look at their last and most important similarity: the process of visiting is relatively cumbersome. This cumbersome refers to both traffic and related procedures, such as the need to apply for a border guard permit in advance, and if you want to go to the Hongqirap port in Tashkurgan, you also need to apply for a boundary marker pass with one vehicle and one permit in the county seat. The good news is that Meto no longer charges 160 yuan per person for tickets, but the "double-in, single-out" traffic policy of vehicles is still the same.
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