We Found Shangri-La (香格里拉 ) !
Posted On Saturday, April 14, 2007 at at 1:10 AM by AlvinAfter much debate between the world's experts and scholars, the exact location of THE Shangri-La was decided to be in the Yunnan province of China. Previously, India and Nepal also laid claims to this accolade. The town of Shangri-La (now also known as 中甸) itself had a frontier feel about it and quite a dust bowl, but the outlying mountains and highlands made up for it.
We arrived in the pouring rain, after the bus journey from Lijiang, as was typical in this place during this time of the year and stayed in a old styled (read Commi !) type hotel where we were grateful for its electric (but safe, I think) blanket and hot water bottles. We quickly moved to a business hotel down the dusty road for some modern comfort the day after.
A large Tibetan population can be found here together with interesting Tibetan-style temples. We enjoyed our stay here as the most northerly stop of our Yunnan exploration. We visited the famous 松赞林寺 as well as spending some free and easy times hiking in the spectacular wilderness of the 伊拉草原 where Tibetan temples abound.
