Jasper Becker in Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine[5] wrote, "The highest death rate was probably experienced by the Tibetans imprisoned after the abortive revolt of 1959.

One survivor, Ama Adhe, describes in A Strange Liberation: Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands what happened at the Dartsedo camp bordering Sichuan.

By the roadside the authorities opened a mass grave which was filled with corpses and gave off a terrible stench.

'Every day,' she recalls, 'they would deliver nine or ten truck loads of bodies to put there...' Of the 300 women arrested with her, only 100 survived."

Dentok, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery sits on the Paoma Mountain overlooking the city, and is accessible by cable car.

It is a fast-growing city, with a rapidly developing tourist infrastructure, including a scenic cable car imported from Germany.

At the time this was the second-highest in the world, at 4,280 metres (14,040 ft) above sea level,[11][12] with the highest position held by Qamdo Bamda Airport at 4,400m.

Since Kangding city was a major town for trading of cloth and tea between Tibetans and Han people.

With the increase of trade in Kangding it also attracted more traders with different nationalities creating this culturally diverse city today.