Songzanlin Monastery Shangri-La

What a day!!!! Today will go down as one of the best vacation days ever.

We visited the Songzanlin Monastary and Shangri-La old town. We were supposed to travel to the national park but the weather was so good that our guide, Pelchin, took us to the top of one of the snow mountains instead.

The Songzalin Monastary was built in …

From PanZhiHua I decided to get the bus to Lijiang firstly which is around 9 hours away, from the hotel I tried to get a taxi but they were all full and I was getting tight for time after collecting my visa in the morning. One of the ‘minivan’ taxi’s said he would take me for 12 yuen but that’s double the taxi fare so I …

We arrived in Shangri-la yesterday afternoon after a slow (thank god) bus trip that wound up narrow (but mostly good) roads at terrifying heights. We left the Yangtze and began to head up, following a smaller river that gushed down the mountain with amazing force. We ended up winding through huge mountains with cliffs at the side of the bus – …

I woke early this morning. Everything was quiet except for the sound of monk's chanting echoing across the town and rain pattering steadily on the roof. Wanting an early start (and some coffee), I headed downstairs to the café. It was pitch black, locked up tight and didn't, as I discovered, open until 9am.

We waited until then, giving …

After the hike in the Tiger Leaping Gorge (see our previous entry) we took the minibus from Tinas Guest House to Shangrila. After about three hours – and passing most stunning and sometimes breathtaking highways with cliffs dropping down up to 1500 meters and no guardrails – we arrived around 6.30pm in Shangrila. For those who did not …

... washed down with this surprisingly tasty yak butter milk tea. A short bus ride out of town is Shangri-La's biggest attraction, the Songzanlin Monastery. This huge multi-story monastery is currently being restored to its former glory, primarily to serve ...

... of the valley from this vantage point, it’s all very Tibetan but we’re right at the border here really. I headed up to Songzanlin Monastery on the local bus but I didn’t realise what I was about to see.  I got off and paid into the ...

... go further along the public road. Nonsense, so we headed back. We also visited the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan, Songzanlin Monastery, built in 1681. The gilded copper roof which is a strong Tibetan feature was sadly covered in ...

... cowboy type hats - not a common sight in China.  Our hotel was outside the town and right beside the huge Songzanlin Monastery. This monastery is sometimes referred to as 'little Potala Palace' as it is a copy of the monastery at Lhasa. ...

The day is off to a great start with a visit to Songzanlin Monastery, also known as the small Potala Palace (in Lhasa). We have no idea what to expect, and are totally astonished when our bus rounds a corner and the monastery comes into view. It is ...

... nbsp; The lure of Zhongdian, other than stepping into what was once Tibet and getting to see their culture, is the Songzanlin Monastery.  This Tibetan monastic complex was constructed in 1679 by the Fifth Dalai Lama to resemble Lhasa, Tibet’s ...