Shangri-La
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
70
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Zhongdian,
China
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Zhongdian is a city towering over two miles high in the mountains, which many people consider the last outpost on the way to Tibet, which is only about 130 miles away. The impossibly blue skies are a perfect backdrop to the mountains encircling the city, (atop which we actually saw snow!). The city, like nearly every other city we visited in China, has both an old and a new town. The old is of course pedestrian only, paved in cobblestones, lined with old wooden buildings boasting amazing architecture
Fire Fighters
. The new is a work in progress, another big Han city in the making. Zhongdian has been dubbed "Shangri-La," after the fabled city in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. In Hilton's book, written in the early 1930s, he describes a gorgeous valley ringed by towering peaks which is discovered by four survivors of a plane crash. It is described as the perfect place, a Garden of Eden right here on Earth. The Chinese government seized the opportunity to capitalize on this and has deemed Zhongdian the model for Hilton's book. As such, there are signs everywhere designating "Shangri-La Bus Station," "Shangri-La Hotel," etc. Fortunately for us, despite the government's efforts, Zhongdian was a sleepy town which was practically devoid of tourists. In our first two days there, we saw three other westerners; on the third, that number was doubled when we saw six in a café together.
While there weren't many tourists there during our visit, there must be many more in the summer because there were loads of hotels to choose from. Unfortunately, the options weren't all that enticing: most contained simple pine bed frames with mattresses of cotton only a few centimeters thick, no attached bath, and no heat. We settled for a dilapidated hotel on the main street, which our guidebook had lauded as an excellent choice and a great value for the money
Ganden Sumtseling Gampa
. As I said, it was a bit run-down, but it also didn't have any rooms with double beds (but at least they had heating blankets because there was no heater in the room), was served by a staff who seemed particularly disinterested in customer service, and only had hot water in the evenings - all this for the "bargain" price of 80Y (about $10). The heating blankets came in very handy - especially at night, when it dropped down to about 12°F. Brrr. We stayed in that hotel for two nights and moved to another for the third. The new one was a fabulous hotel, a veritable palace with a giant heater, sunshine, and super hot water with excellent water pressure. It was an excellent score.Unfortunately, most of the time we spent in Zhongdian was more business than pleasure: the bulk of the second day we spent there was devoted to obtaining money and visas. We wandered around for a few hours, trying to find an ATM that accepted international cards, kicking ourselves for forgetting to take care of said problem while we were surrounded by them in Lijiang. Finally, around 3:00, we found one and cheered as it spit out our money. From there we walked in circles looking for the PSB, the governmental office tasked with looking after foreigners' affairs. Eventually, we saw the tiny gold sign which was situated well above our heads and walked down a nearby alley where the office was located. We waited there for a few hours while they processed our visa extensions, and by that time, the day was pretty much over. We had planned to only stay in Zhongdian for two days, but now that we had our new visas, we had plenty of time on our hands and decided to stay for a third.
Zhongdian's main tourist destination is Ganden Sumtseling Gompa, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery
Ganden Sumtseling Gampa - Dancing Monk
. The monastery is a few miles outside of town, and is more like a small village built into the mountainside. According to our guidebook, Ganden Sumtseling Gompa is the most important monastery in all of southwestern China. It is over 300 years old, and looks to have evaded the destruction most monasteries and temples faced during the Cultural Revolution, which is perhaps why it is deemed so important. We made our way there on our third afternoon in Zhongdian and were amused by the young monks there, wearing masks, playing with old Red Bull cans, etc. Ganden Sumtseling Gompa is not the only religious fixture in town. There are a few other monasteries, temples, etc. One of which is located quite close to the old town, and of which we had a spectacular view of from our new hotel. The temple here was under construction (as were many we visited - seems winter is the time of year to spruce things up), but we were able to touch and attempt to turn the biggest prayer wheel either of us has ever seen (take a look at the pictures). We also spent some time trying to walk up into the mountains and browsing the shops in the old town where we ended up buying some jewelry (some of which, we've since discovered, is made of brass rather than silver - boo!).
Zhongdian, while frigid at times, was a really nice little excursion north. For Konrad, it was a chance to be close to Tibet (number one on his wish list of travel destinations) and get a taste of what it's like there. We had excellent Tibetan food, got up into the mountains, and experienced some serious cold for the first time in two years. Bus tickets in hand, we planned to leave early the next morning to do some trekking around Tiger Leaping Gorge...
