Shangri-La (Yunnan Province)

First, we drove an hour and a half to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. This is a canyon on the Jinsha River that got its name from a legend that long ago there was a tiger that leapt across it. 

Afterwards, we drove another two hours to the city of Shangri-La. On the way, we took a potty break where Lucy and I got to experience the strangest toilet experience ever, which I will not describe to you.

But I will show you some photos of cute kids with yaks.

As we approached Shangri-La we were surprised.

We thought this was going to be a remote spot, or possibly even a small village. But actually, it was a city of nearly 200,000 people. It was also only relatively recent (2001) that it was re-named “Shangri-La” by the Chinese government in order to drive tourism to the area. The original name was Zhongshan (or Gyalthang in Tibetan). 

There are two main parts of the city: the old town and the new town. The new town was, ironically, built before the old and mostly of generic concrete, utilitarian sort of buildings.

We were staying in the “old town” section of Shangri-la which had burned down in 2014 and was rebuilt, yet again, in the old town style. I can’t deny that it wasn’t charming to look at, but it was all stores selling hand-craft, or restaurants with yak meat, and so many dress-up shops renting Tibetan clothing by the hour/day that I think we passed about 30 of them. 

All in all, it was rather touristy and in no way a reflection of the fictional city by the same name from the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon. 

But, if you are going to stay in a fictional Tibetan Buddhist Disneyland, then it wasn’t so bad. Our room had heated floors, was oxygenated (to help with the high elevation), and had a magnificent view.

It even came with literature! 

The next morning we went early to Pudacua National Park, also called Potatso National Park, which led to Tom and I joking, “You say Potatso, I saw Pudacua.”

The kids didn’t get it and just called it the Potato Park. 

keeping our oxygen canister handy!

It was cold. There was some snow on the ground, and at times we saw flurries. I didn’t mind because there was almost no one there and it was supremely peaceful. 

We had had a terrible night of sleep. We learned that as nice as heated floors may seem, the heat for ours was controlled on a master switch with the rest of the hotel. It could not be adjusted.

Our room got to 87 degrees.

We had to open the window to let in the night air (which was 30 degrees!) just to get it to a reasonable temperature.

So a nice fresh walk by a pretty lake with a side stop for coffee and hot chocolate was exactly what we needed. 

Afterwards, we visited the Songzanlin Lamasery.

This is the largest Buddhist lamasery in the Yunnan Province. We were initially excited about it because we were going to visit the dormitories and see how the lamas lived. But the place was completely overrun with Chinese tourists who seemed more interested in taking endless photos of themselves against the yellow walls than to learning about the lamas living there. The two lamas we did see were really grumpy. And I couldn’t blame them. It was a circus of cosplayers.

We cut the visit short. 

Our obligatory photo though none of us are feeling it...

But later, when again strolling through the “old town” of Shangri-La a person stopped us to have us take a photo with them. But no, strike that, not with us. They wanted a photo with Tom. This was new!

By this point in our trip to China, we had gotten used to people asking to take photos with us. But, it was usually with either the whole family, or most commonly just Lucy. This time, they wanted only Tom!

A few minutes later, another person came up and tugged at Tom’s arm and asked for a photo. Her grandfather wanted a picture with him too because “he was SOOOO handsome!”

Then five minutes go by and it happened again! This time it was two young men! They also wanted a photo with Tom.

Alas, I was too surprised and laughing too hard to get my camera out in time to document these magical moments.

But there it was, Tom’s Shangri-La celebrity moment. 

I mean, who wouldn't want a photo with this guy!!

More of "Old Town" Shangri-La!

For dinner that night, we feasted on yak meat (when in Shangri-La!) at a restaurant that overlooked one of the city squares.

At 7 pm exactly, some music started. A lone woman in a red jacket entered the square.

She began dancing in a slow and gentle manner while walking in a wide circle in the middle of the square. A few minutes later, some others joined her. I looked again, and it was like 20 people all dancing in sync in a large circle. We were told that the locals did this every night from 7 pm to 10 pm. It was amazing to watch and by the time we finished our dinner there were probably a hundred people out there in about 7-9 concentric circles. 

This was so amazing to watch and there was only one reasonable response to something this awesome...

Join them!

I know I’ve been a bit lack-luster in my enthusiasm for Shangri-La and it’s true that I found much of it to be a disappointment and downright fake. However, dancing with strangers and trying to learn their rhythm so we could move together made for something real.

Our smiles were also genuine.

We could have done this all night.