October 06, 2005 Shangri-la, Yunnan, China, elevation 3,200 m (10,500 ft)
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There were more people with tickets than seats on the minibus, but luckily I got one. It was another long (10 hour) ride through the mountains. Most of the road was good, until we got to part that was missing: it became a bumpy dirt road. Unfortunately this was high up on the side of a mountain with a nice view of the sheer drop to the raging river far below out my window. The diver barley seemed to have control of the bus as we careened around corners, having near misses with oncoming trucks. This went on for an hour.
The city of “Shangri-la” is in a nice setting, on a wide flat plain, with mountains all around. It reminds me of Lhasa: a big spread out bland Chinese city. The authorities actually changed the city’s name to try to cash in on tourism. But it’s hardly Shangri-la.
The best feature of the city is the charming little old town, which I briefly wandered before succumbing to the temptation of pizza. It’s got cobbled streets and beautiful wooden buildings with Chinese lanterns hanging on them. It’s also got a lot of construction.
Why is there construction in the “old town?” They seem to have designated a few streets as a tourist district with restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, and guesthouses, and are reconstructing the buildings from scratch with beautiful wooden fronts. Local people live in much simpler buildings.