While I was there, I only visited two cities; one of which was considered more of a town than a city. The first city was Chengdu. Me and a few of my friends stayed there for only two days to be able to get settled and learn what we were going to be doing in the next city.
Chengdu is home to the biggest national Panda reserve in the world. Other than that, it is a fairy big city. Meaning, there are a lot of people in the city and a lot of cars. The first day we were there, it wasn't very evident that there was a lot of pollution because the sky wasn't that misty. But while we were driving up to our next destination, Songpan, the pollution really showed.
It wasn't as bad as picture you see online of Beijing and how bad the air pollution is, but it was definitely visible. Where I live, the pollution is still there, but it isn't that bad so it becomes visible.
When we arrived in Songpan, it was a totally different atmosphere. It was a small, really old, town in the mountains of the Eastern Himalayas. We were approximately about 9,500 feet in the mountains and we would go up even more later in the week.
Seeing the differences of these two places was quite drastic. It comes to show you that humans cause more damage than is visible. Like in Chengdu, there were a lot of cars and a lot of people, which created a lot of pollution. Then you get up to Songpan, and it's clear and fresh and there doesn't seem to be any pollution at all.
Going to China was amazing and I really hope I get to go back to the beautiful Himalayan Mountains someday.
