Where is Shangri-La?

Where is Shangri-La? According to Wikipedia, "Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. In the book, "Shangri-La" is a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world."

According to China however, Shangri-La (香格裡拉) is Zhongdian (中甸), which was renamed in 2001 in a marketing effort to promote tourism in the area. I prefer to call the town of "Shangri-La" its original name of Zhongdian because I really did not see any sort of earthy paradise. Granted, we were unable drive to the really far nature preserves because of our short stay, and supposedly those areas are truly deserving of the "Shangri-La" label. Those lakes, mountains, and meadows would have taken at least a 2-4 hours drive one-way, so I would recommend travelers to stay in Shangri-La for a week to enjoy its true beauty. But, the town itself was shabby and drab, so I'm going to call it Zhongdian (so there!). Aside from the amazing hotel (Songtsam Hotel, highly highly recommended) that we splurged on, the other bright spot in this final leg was just being exposed to Tibetan culture. We read a lot about it in magazines and newspapers, but it was really cool being able to talk to these people face to face in their own region and formulate your own impressions finally.

Right outside our hotel at Songzanlin Monastery.

Zhongdian is situated in northwestern Yunnan, just a stone's throw away from the Tibetan Autonomous Region. In fact, the old Tibetan Empire (吐蕃, tu3 bo2) spanned way beyond the boundaries of modern Tibet, encompassing Qinghai Province, the entire high-altitude plateau beyond Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and the northwestern corner of Yunnan. For hundreds of years the Chinese courts were never able to fully subject the Tibetans under their rule until the Qing Dynasty and then the Kuomintang, but even then it was always had a semi-independent status. Tibet was simply too far-flung and too difficult to control, but modern technology and tactics have now put it firmly in China's grasp.

Our hotel was situated right next to the famous Songzanlin Monastery (松贊林寺), which is a ~300 year old monastery belonging to the Dalai Lama's Gelu Yellow Hat sect. My impression of this monastery was that it was very rundown and shabby... although I'm sure my photos may show you otherwise, it was basically a series of temples with beautiful exteriors but dirty fraying interiors, sitting on rickety layers of slum-like shacks below. The style and architecture of the selectively renovated buildings were outstandingly beautiful though. I wish that the monks who live in the surrounding huts had more than splintered planks of wood and blue plastic tarp over their heads (and probably with their asceticism they don't care), but I'm sure that the growing influx of tourism into "Shangri-La" will solve that problem.

Gorgeous, but you can still smell the fresh paint.

Inside a temple. Rich displays of color and layers of gold paint.

We were not allowed to take photos inside, but you know me... :) The inside of the temple was super musty, Gene couldn't take the smell and had to step out for a breather.

"Halloooo~~~!"

The landscape surrounding Zhongdian was very unlike the other parts of Yunnan that we traveled through -- because we were sitting at 3,200m altitude, it was much colder and thus spring comes at around June. No flowers, no green fields, the Tibetans had just planted their seeds recently. We were able to see their yak and horse herds graze on the fields though (which btw yak skewers are divine). You could also ride Tibetan horses, which are really small and furry ponies, but it will cost you an arm and a leg and possibly paralysis since there's no insurance or helmets involved, haha.

Gene and I then explored Zhongdian Old Town, which was actually pretty cute. Again, like all old towns in this trip, windy cobblestone roads with cute 2-story houses. The vendors here sell pretty much the same stuff as in Lijiang/Dali, except they throw in the random endangered animal pelts as well.

We sampled yak cheese and paired it up with Yunnan wine.

It was yucky, as you can tell from Gene's expression, hahaha.

THE END! Concluding notes: Yunnan is such a diverse place, deserving of much more than the week that we could afford. While this was a whirlwind trip, I will definitely be back one day but take it easy the second time around. :)