Shangri La--Western China on the Tibetan Plateau

Tiger Leaping Gorge upriver of the rapids

There is much to see on the drive from Lijiang to Shangri La (pronounced Shang REE la by the locals) in the Degen region. You drive past Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, hidden to us by rain and clouds on this visit, and climb up the Yangtze River gorge to the high plateau at about 11,000 feet. 

Great Bend of the Yangtze

First, we visited the first great bend of the Yangtze River, which falls steeply at first from the Himalayas to China's vast plains.  These bends bring China much of its water and power as they redirect this mighty river.

Tiger Leaping Gorge upper rapids

Along the way is Tiger Leaping Gorge where the Yangtze plunges in boiling rapids down the narrowest part of the deep chasm.  On our last visit, we walked to the place where the tiger mythically leaped across the gorge to escape hunters along a wide concrete path of about 1 ½ miles in length.  This year, that path was closed, so we went to the Shangri La side where you get to the water via 500 steps down a cliff, a much more dramatic and exciting way to view the rapids.

Once on the higher part of the plateau, still several hundred miles from the Tibetan border, this is firmly Buddhist and Tibetan.  Prayer flags flutter everywhere.  Stupas dot the meadows and villages.  Large Tibetan houses, where the extended family lives in the top floor space and animals occupy the ground floor, line the fields.  Farming is tough here because of poor soil and a short growing period.  Families have pigs, chickens, yaks and zuns (crossbred from yaks and cattle) as well as small farms that barely produce enough to feed the family.  We saw yaks plowing some fields.  Poverty is the norm here.

Tibetan Plateau near Shangri La

The Chinese government renamed the city Shangri La, after the famous town in Lost Horizon, to try to generate tourism as an economic stimulus.  There aren’t a lot of tourists here, but it should become a beacon for trekkers and nature lovers once the high-speed rail line from Lijiang to Shangri La is completed in the next year or two.

rare white yak

Right now, the culture is very conservatively Tibetan Buddhist.  Girls are married off by 16, denying them the education they need to get any good jobs that might exist (see the story of a woman we met in a later blog).  Families live in multi-generational homes, often 5 generations in one house, where the grandfather rules everyone’s lives and the oldest adult child is responsible for taking care of aging parents and grandparents.  This is just beginning to change as more tourists visit and more children go to school.  Change will become rapid as soon as the train starts bringing many more urban Chinese and Western tourists to this lovely land.  No doubt this will be tumultuous culturally.  Hopefully it will also alleviate the poverty that dominates this region.

Sumtsenling Monastery

Shangri La has a large monastery, the Sumtsenling Monastery, that is very important to Buddhists in this region.  Although it was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution by Red Guard vandals, it has been rebuilt and now is home to 800 monks.  Families consider it an honor to have a son become a monk or a daughter, a nun (no nuns at this monastery, though).  They build a house on the monastery grounds for their son, with several families often joining together to build a dormitory to house their children, who may become monks at the early age of 5 or 6. 

young monks with cell phone

cooking barbecue in our villa garden

Families also provide all their food and funds while the monastery educates them.  A young man can decide to leave the monastery, but few do.  Most of the young monks I saw had cell phones, but the environment still looks cold and stark, a lonely life for a little boy deposited here by his family.  In fact, it was very cold the day we visited since there is no heat in the buildings.  One monk, “on duty” this year, according to our guide, sat next to a small space heater praying and offering blessings to worshippers able to pay for the service.

herding pigs through a village

Shangri La’s ancient center burned in 2014, losing 2/3 of its homes, in only 8 hours as the frozen pipes prevented firemen from accessing water to put out the blaze.  The government has helped families, who had no insurance, rebuild their homes in the original style.  Many families bought old Tibetan farmhouses and moved them to their homesites to restore as replacements for their lost homes.  Lots of farm families are building new houses, still the traditional Tibetan 2-story style, so old homes were available.  There are government subsidies here to help Tibetan families build new homes.

Banyan Tree villas--old Tibetan houses

We stayed at the Banyan Tree Ringha, on a hillside overlooking a valley about 15 miles outside of Shangri La.  The hotel bought Tibetan farmhouses and moved them to the hotel site, remodeling them into wonderful large villas decorated in traditional styles (except for the comfortable beds and modern bathrooms).  If you’re looking for a pastoral break from the bustle of China’s big cities, you can’t beat this.  (But, avoid the vastly overpriced spa—if you want a foot massage, you can get a better one for 1/3 the price in town).  A walk through a couple of nearby villages or a trek in the mountains provide a glimpse into life here.

village woman trying to pull reluctant horse

One night the staff prepared an extensive barbecue dinner of vegetables, yak, lamb, beef and pork for us.  They had set a long table on the wide balcony of one of our villas and cooked the meal in the large enclosed yard below.  We watched the sun set over the snow-covered mountains as we enjoyed wine and excellent food.  Idyllic.

Tibetan village woman serving street food