Guan Guang Shangri-La

... Mama picked me from the station. I wanted to go to Baish. She explained me about the busses tomorrow - when she finished the long explanation I asked for a private car: Y60=36nis.<br>I went to Dr Ho and bought tea against Osmania(not sleeping). He is 86 and sleeps well.<br>The village is nice - full of small shops. It is not a MUST, except Dr Ho.<br><br>I'm back. Yoav is here, also the couple we met in the tiger gorge a week ago, at the Naxi family

The story suggests that Shangri-la is immune to small matters like the economic crisis. <br>Over the last year, the area has seen a 30% increase in visitor numbers. <br><br>But the story behind the story is that last year the snow storms, the Sichuan earthquake and the Tibetan problems meant many visitors stayed away. So this year's ...

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... and fresh and the monastry complex looks magical against this landscape.<br><br> <br><br>Our three days in Shangri-la were a fitting end to our Yunnan Province trip and a good way to acclimatise ourselves in preparation for Tibet. At an elevation of 3200m we experienced some dizziness upon arrival, but after popping some Diamox, have both been fine - if a little breathless upon tackling any steps (...that's not the dumplings, honest!). <br>

... although there is a very hefty fee). Two lovely chinese students asked me if I wanted them to show me around so I had a nice visit and great explanations from them. Also visited another monastary in Lhasa, markets, the old city and anything else that caught my attention. Shangri-La was quite cold so I ended up buying a warm jacket which I thought I would also need in Lhasa. My throat was not showing ...

Shangri-La. Je pensais y passer passablement de temps. Finalement, je m'y suis presque pas arrete. Directement en entrant dans le dortoir, je rencontre un chinois (Wang) travaillant a Edmonton. J'y parle de mon projet de trek a Deqin. Il est interesse, mais pas trop sur. Je sors un peu et reviens une heure plus tard. Wang parle avec un autre chinois (Shen) .... qui ...

... Zhongdian is undeniably more "real" than Dali or Lijiang (by far), and has managed to retain a feeling of being "untouched", soul intact. There are no hawkers here, the shops stock attractive wares that genuinely seem made by the locals, and there's no pretense. Travellers are farther and fewer between, and proving to be a breath of fresh air, the throbbing Chinese tourist cavalries are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the Tibet roadblock plays a certain role? Speaking of ...

... in this house wanted to know how they could get their buffon to look like Richards. After a challenging day horse riding we decided we had to leave because altitude sickness was giving us a thumping headache all day. Before leaving we went to a sky burial, a funeral bestowed upon respected members of the Buddhist community, but banned by Chinese authorities until the late 1980s. If your at all squeamish you should skip this paragraph. Buddhists believe the ...

When visiting a temple in Lijiang, we got slightly conned into making a 'donation' for a Buddhist monk to pray for whatever we asked. Only giving 30 kuai instead of the 300 they asked for, it wasn't inscribed on a padlock, but we decided on something practical instead of something selfless and unnattainable like world peace. We went for 'Good weather for the hike'. Oddly, this actually worked. We had beautiful blue skies for the entire time ...

... for a bit, then had some lunch - we were starving at this stage so the food was delicious :) The next and final day of our Tiger Leaping Gorge trek was only a short walk - thank goodness as my legs are aching! We had another leisurely breakfast and left around 9:30am (I could get used to this!). We only walked for 2 hours, mostly downhill, and arrived in Qiaotou before lunch. As we were getting lower and lower, the scenery was still beautiful but not ...