Songpan has been a garrison town since the Tang dynasty, positioned where the road from Chengdu climbs onto the Tibetan plateau. The present walls were built in the Ming, and the town was historically a trading post for tea, horses and wool moving between the lowlands and the grasslands. Its population is a genuine mix of Han Chinese, Hui Muslims and Tibetans, and the architecture shows all three.
The walls and gates
The Ming city wall still encircles the old town in substantial sections, with imposing gate towers and a width at the top that allows walking along stretches of it. The gates are the strongest surviving structures and give a clear sense of how a frontier garrison was defended.
The streets
Inside the walls, the main street is lined with timber-fronted shops and restaurants, and a Hui quarter has a mosque and halal food. Tibetan neighborhoods climb the hillside above the town, with mud-brick houses, prayer flags and small shrines. A Tibetan and Qiang cultural museum in the town explains the local history and the 1930s period when the Red Army passed through this region.
Practical notes
Songpan sits at about 2,850 meters, high enough that the first night may be restless; take it easy on arrival. It is roughly two hours by road from Jiuzhaigou and is commonly used as a first or last night on a northern Sichuan itinerary. Allow half a day for the walls, the old streets and the museum, plus an evening for the food. The town is a good base for horseback trips into the surrounding valleys.
