Shangri-La, China

Shangri-La is located at 3200 m above sea level and due to its location close to the Tibetan border most of its inhabitants are Tibetan. Again there is an old town and a new town. We were staying in a youth hostel in the old town. Sadly Daniela was still sick and spent the first day in bed, but David went out exploring a little bit. The character of this town is very different from other places we had seen in China so far. People have distinctly Tibetan features and often don’t speak Mandarin. The women dress in many layers of long skirts (it gets really cold there, the town is rarely accessible in the winter due to snow storms) with striped aprons at the front, a vest and colourful scarves wrapped around their heads like a turban. All the houses in the old town are large wooden buildings with delicately carved balconies and door and window frames. Again the roads are made of cobble stones and they wind up and down little hills and around temples. The central temple in the old town is built on a hill and next to it is the largest prayer wheel in the world. It was built in 2004 and is coated in a golden layer with a metal relief. The two of us were unable to move it an inch and it took about 10 people to get it going (as you walk around it 3 times you are supposed to mumble a prayer or at least something with “om” at the beginning for mediation).

North of town is a Tibetan lamasery. Again its built on a hill with the three main temples at the top and the small homes of the monks around it. Have a look at the pictures and you can better imagine what it looks like. The entire town was under construction, because many of the homes had been built of mud and they were slowly but surely falling apart.

In town we bought a few souvenirs and had some delicious “meat on a stick”. Our favourite food in China is by far the BBQ. You can find the little stands in every town. The have a little coal grill on which they cook a variety of meats, as well as potatoes, chillies, and greens on skewers.

On the drive from Tiger Leaping Gorge up to Shangri-La, the scenery changed dramatically. Slowly the bus ascended higher and higher sometimes crossing mountains at about 4500 m. Most of the little villages are built on high plateaus and the houses are tall brick buildings with wooden door and window frames. Some of the smaller camps consist only of tents and stone houses built half into the ground for insulation.

The grassy plains are dotted with yaks. They look like small very furry brown cows and all of them have horns. They are not only very valuable investments, but also provide food and clothing. They are also used for farming, as large machinery is quite rare in some of these remote places.

The countryside is quite stunning with the green and grey plains in the foreground, rolling hills along the valley slopes and high, snow-covered mountains in the distance. While life is undoubtedly hard, the atmosphere is very peaceful.

Driving through the mountains however is far from peaceful, however. Due to some severe deforestation erosion and landslides are common and many parts of the road had eroded away making for a very long drive. But at least the scenery made up for it.

From Shangri-La we continued our trip even further north and slightly west, because we wanted to see more of this landscape. Since we didn’t get to go to Tibet (it’s not only very expensive, but also quite difficult to organize a permit, tour group etc.), we at least wanted to spend more time in the vicinity of the Tibetan border. Our next stop was the small town of Xiangcheng.