Tinas Youth Hostel Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge Shangri-La

... so: no use to take a tour to Deqin. The driver stopped some time for (open) toilet and food. Once Chinese couple paid attention I don't eat(I ate a corn before the drive) and they offered me AGAS MEKULAF etc. Others offered me nuts.<br>Finnally we arrived at a dusty busy city. Nobody knows anything in English. I stood in the busses yard and could not find where to buy a return ticket. Slowly I solved the problem and took a taxi to Felsi-si, where ...

As we allways do with our first day in a new city we used the day to explore. There are two museums in shangri-la, the first we visited was all about the red armys journey through the mountains to fight the Japanese, it was actually quite interesting. After that we went to a tibetan museum which was much less interesting, we did go to ...

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... the town monastery and discovered the rotating prayer column was being turned by the faithful, manually. We also enjoyed the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Museum, which featured Tibetan Minority and Tibetan Medicine over its two floors. Here we were adopted by Dr Gensang, who was a Doctor in Tibetan Medicine, having studied in Beijing and Lhasa. He is on a secondment to the museum in Shangri-La for two years and after ...

... by a couple of waterfalls along the way and reached Tina's Guesthouse about 2 hours later. Tina's Guesthouse is located directly above the Gorge, and the trail down begins just outside the GH. The descend took approximately 45 minutes with steep steps and trails, and we had to pay trail maintenance fees for local families on two separate occasions. The view to the gorge was becoming more impressive after every switchback as ...

... 28 Bends. The little Naxi grandmother was 73 years old and made the journey everyday from the village of the Naxi Family Guest House to the highest point of the upper gorge. She climbs hoping to run into tourists who would give her money for a photo or donation for carrying their packs in her basket. I asked her if I could take a photo, she reached her hand, a shy toothless smile hid the blatantness of her request but I couldn't help but comply. The sun had ...

... top, its best to ask one of the monks, as there are no signboards in english, and its rather difficult to find the stairs.But it's well worth the effort, especially when the weather is clear and sunny!Entrance to the monastery is 30 yuan at the moment. In the evening, whole of Shangri-La seems to dance around the main square, locals and tourists join in, and it's great fun to watch!

... Planet woppers we met there regurgitated paragraphs from the book about how their was little to do, we found it fascinating to observe life in this remote place; Chinese people speeding around in flash cars past Tibetan monks and old women carrying tin buckets full of vegetables. We were warned about the dangers of the 280km road to Litang which can be closed for 6months a year due to the weather: Watching snow fall heavily the night before we left was an ...

... mouth instrument that would sound WICKED with a bass beat behind it for dancing. also walked through the Dragon Lake park in the rain and at night. lights were gorgeous. Lijang old city is a place to get lost in (we did) and it is a little like Venice in that way - water all through it and old shops and cafes make it magical. the food here was also good - the Baba bread is a must try.

... the route we will take, which is reassuring. We took our mini bus to Qiaotou, which doesn't have much to see but is the starting point (or ending point, as the case may be) for the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. On the way were some spectacular views of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the Haba Snow Mountain, both snow capped mountains flanking the mighty Yangtze. But it turns out the most spectacular scenery was yet to come! We were met in Qiaotou by a ...