Love Never Fails

Remember I wrote an article about Tengchong last July? Well, this time I visited another awesome place in Yunnan – Shangrila. Tengchong is to the north of Yunnan, bordered with Myanmar, while Shangrila is to the northwest of Yunnan, about 1,000 kilometres east of Lhasa. It is the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, close to the Myanmar and India borders.

About Shangrila

Shangrila is a town split between Tibetan and Han Chinese residents, as well as a fair smattering of Naxi, Bai, Yi and Lisu, with the surrounding countryside entirely Tibetan. Shangrila used to be called Zhongdian until 2001 when it was renamed after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton‘s novel Lost Horizon, in an effort to promote tourism in the area. It is quite high in altitude (3,300 metres or 11,000 feet) so for some people they may often find themselves out of breath. In fact, you can take a cable car to Shika Snow Mountain, where there are everlasting snows; at 5,000 metres high (16,500 feet) you feel on top of the world!

Old Town

We stayed in a hotel called 藏域桃园in the old town and I highly recommend it. It cost just RMB150 but the rooms are very clean and with internet, plus you can have a view of the largest prayer wheel in Guishan Park from the second floor.

The old town is now rapidly being turned into a mini-Lijiang, complete with endless shophouses selling tourist trinkets (including fake tiger skins and counterfeit North Face jackets). However, there are still plenty of small charming streets to explore. I loved the nightly dancing in the square which begins at 8PM every night. It’s popular for locals of all ages, and anyone is welcome to join in.

Songzanlin Monastery (松赞林寺)

I supposed to meet up with my cousin’s at Shangrila, yet they were in Lijiang the first day. So I decided to visit Songzanlin Monastery myself.

Songzanlin Monastery is on a hill a few kilometers north of town. It is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan, one of the famous monasteries in the Kang region. Construction of the monastery began in 1679 and was completed two years later. The temple was restored by an architect named Xu Wei Han in 2005 to reflect its past glories. It is composed of two lamaseries, and hosts 700 monks.

The sky here is so blue and so clear, you feel so close to the heaven. Besides, there are always some eagles flying around the top of the monastery.

In front of the monastery there was a lake. I forgot the name but it was very peaceful walking on the bridge around the lake. I was lucky to meet a group of Tibetan women practicing their dances and singing there.

Padacuo National Park (普达措国家公园)

The second day I joined my cousin’s and we went to visit Pudacuo National Park and it did worth a one day visit!

The park was announced on June 25, 2007, and is notable as the first national park in China to meet International Union for Conservation of Nature standards. The region of this park contains more than 20 percent of the country’s plant species, about one-third of its mammal and bird species and almost 100 endangered species, though it comprises only 0.7 percent of China’s land area. It is notably home to vulnerable Black-necked cranes, many rare and beautiful orchids, and Himalayan Yew, a coniferous tree whose extracts are a source of the anticancer drug, paclitaxel.

We had our picnic near the lake, and it felt so great you know what I mean!

Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡)

The third day I went to visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge myself as I wanted to do some hiking and it’s not possible to take my little nieces with us.

Tiger Leaping Gorge is a canyon on the Yangtze River – locally called the Golden Sands River (金沙江) – located 60 km north of Lijiang City, It is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site. Around 15 km in length, the gorge is located where the river passes between 5,596 metre Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山) and 5,396 m Haba Snow Mountain (哈巴雪山) in a series of rapids under steep 2000 metre cliffs. Legend says that in order to escape from a hunter, a tiger jumped across the river at the narrowest point (still 25 metres wide), hence the name.Administratively, the river in this area forms the border between Yulong Naxi Autonomous County of Lijiang City (right bank) and Shangri-La County (left bank).

It is a bit far away from Shangrila yet you can rent a car or take the shuttle bus to Qiaotou. This is about 2 hours and from Qiaotou you can choose to hike or take a cab to the Gorge.

The lower road, stretching about 195 km (121 mi) from Qiaotou through the Gorge, is a stretch of pavement (until recently a simple mule track) crossed by several waterfalls, and frequently beset by rockslides. Some portions of the road have been known to disappear into the river below. The road follows the Yangtze, so there are more views of the river, descends to meet the lower road, you can climb down to the river near the iger Leaping Stone, the point at which the tiger is said to have leaped. My total hiking is about 4 hours and the scenery along is just beautiful.

Shangrila is truly an enchanting place, so much so that I found it really hard to choose which pictures to post here! And here’s the last picture I took of the Shika snow mountain from the airplane!