So, after a 5 hour bus ride… which was only really bumpy for the first 2 hours, then we got on a nicely paved road… we arrived in Shangri-la. Only, this town is nothing like the paradise described in Hilton’s Lost Horizon. It’s a nice little town, at least the Old Town part, but the buildings are only 1/4 Tibetan, and a good number of the shop keepers and restaurant owners are Chinese. There are Tibetans here, too, but they mostly speak Chinese.

I’m hoping the monastery we visit today will be more authentically Tibetan. The view outside our hostel room this morning of the mountains in the distance is quite lovely, so maybe we just need to dig deeper into Shangri-la to find more of its beauty.

And speaking of our room…wow! So nice. I’m loving it- the heat lamps in the bathroom, the electric blanket on the bed, and the in-room heater are all luxurious touches. Cuz people…it’s COLD here! So different from the stifling humidity of Yangshuo.

This weird Chinese-Tibetan hybrid town in far northwest Yunnan definitely has something more to it… we just have to go out and find it.