Shangri-la, June 24-26, 2008

Trip Start Jun 05, 2008
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Trip End Ongoing


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Where I stayed
Shangri-la Traveller's Club
(Shangri-La hotels)

Flag of China  , Yunnan,
Sunday, July 27, 2008

Our travels within the Yunnan province finally landed us in Shangri-la, a small Tibetan town near the border with Tibet.  It used to be called Zhongdian (and still is by some people), but in 2001 the government declared that it was the town described in the book about Shangri-la and changed the name to attract more tourists.  For this reason we thought it would be kitschy and touristy but in fact it was one of the most pleasant places we visited.  The whole town is made out of a dark-colored wood, and it is a very high altitude, so it was considerably cooler than the other places we visited in China (sweatshirt weather instead of tank top).  In our hostel, a group of high schoolers from a different part of China was staying on a school trip, and they had never been to such a high altitude before. Chinese people tend to be hypochondriacs, so each evening they spent time sucking on oxygen tanks, which we found funny.
 
We stayed at the Shangri-la Traveller's Club, an International Youth Hostel, where we immediately made some friends and started exploring the small old town.  We ate one evening at the Tibetan-Indian restaurant of Celamu's uncle, our Tibetan friend from Lijiang, which was delicious.  We also tried some yak-milk yogurt and loved it--yak is one of the most common ingredients in Tibetan food, and all over they sold yak kebabs and other dishes with yak.  Dave and I came away inspired to start an organic yak farm to make our own yakgurt supplies... something we'll have to table for later.
 
One of the things about Shangri-la that impressed the most upon us was the nightly tradition of dancing in the town square.  Every night hundreds of people gathered to dance to traditional Tibetan music, set to a dance music-techno beat.  It was similar to the Naxi dancing we saw in Tibet, with people moving in a circular motion, but the steps were different.  The interesting thing about it was how well the local people knew the dance steps.  Every time a new song came out, everyone knew exactly which dance to launch into, and they did it perfectly in synch.  The community atmosphere was a big part of the experience and helped to make Shangri-la a very special to visit.
 
The major sight in Shangri-la is a huge Tibetan monastery located just outside the new part of town.  We biked there one morning and were amazed by the beauty of the place.  Over 600 monks currently live there, mostly in a sprawling little town at the base.  To reach the monastery one has to climb a huge, steep staircase up to the golden-roofed buildings at the top.  Inside there were a series of rooms containing Buddha statues of different sizes, from about 10 inches to 20 feet.  The whole place smelled of incense and was decorated with colorful paintings that we spent a long time looking at.  It was an interesting and memorable look inside Tibetan Buddhism, one of the highlights of our time in China.
 
After visiting Shangri-la, we caught a night bus back to Kunming before catching a flight to Guilin in the Guanxi province for a sejour in Yangshuo.
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