One street town, Xiahe

Xiahe, in Chinese, means down by the river. There is a little river in the valley floor and the only important thing here is Labrang monastery, the biggest Tibetan monastery outside of the TAR. Some places in China are so overrun by tourists that they are being disneyfied. Here, not so. It's hard to get here. A few intrepid travelers do come but not in the numbers seen elsewhere and that's just fine. The place still retains its authenticity.