Zhanggu is interesting in its own right but it is also a great launching pad for excursions into Danba's more traditional Tibetan villages, such as Suopo, Zhonglu and Jiaju. In 2005, Chinese National Geographic declared the village of Jiaju, 6 kilometers north of Zhanggu, to be the most beautiful village in all of China. Having never heard of Jiaju, and therefore, being very apprehensive about this claim, my travel partner and I rented a car to Jiaju on our second day. Our driver, Kelsang, gave us a short lecture on local architecture.

Jiarong Tibetans live in blockhouses, known as gudiao in Chinese and gankhar in Tibetan. Most blockhouses are two stories tall. Their walls are whitewashed with rice starch and lime, and they are flat-roofed except for glorious parapets in the corners that are sometimes adorned with prayer flags. The roofs are used for hanging meat and storing grain, and wooden ladders run from level to level of each house, both inside and out. Jiarong architecture is also known for the tall stone watchtowers that keep a lookout over local towns. Most are quadrangular, but some have six sides and there are even star-shaped towers with eight sides. Soon we entered Jiaju and my skepticism about its grandeur faded away. Hundreds of brilliant white blockhouses dotted the valley, separated by terraces of wheat and highland barley. Although the leaves were mostly dead, the abundant mica lining the hillsides glistened in the sunlight. At the bottom of the village was the flowing Dadu River, and white stupas poked out from behind trees on the hilltops.

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