23rd December: Lijiang, China
It got very chilly outside overnight! It was definitely below freezing, although the dryness of the air in our room was our concern. Neither of us really slept very well and I was amazed it was time to get up, and not about 2am, when Kaja got up for a shower. We’d made a last minute decision last night to take a day trip today on the train further north to Shangri-La.
The breakfast buffet was hilarious at it was just us in a giant fancy dining room. The options weren’t great, although we had a few buns and veggies. It was bitterly cold outside as we waited for a taxi back to the train station. We’re not really equipped for such cold, hence only the occasional careful trip to such climes. The train station wasn’t heated either but luckily there was an awesome local cafe where Kaja had a delicious rose tea and I tried the yummy Yunnan coffee.
The train was mainly in long tunnels through the mountains but now and again we had a glimpse over deep valleys. We even passed over Tiger Leaping Gorge, with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to its south. Before we arrived, learning from my experience in the Georgian High Caucusas, I put on some sun cream. The UV this far south and at 3,300 metres is no joke, even in mid-winter.
In another case of real-life replicating fiction, the town of Shangri-La was thus renamed about 20 years ago, after the utopian lamasery in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. It has many other names too. The most important probably being its Tibetan title of Gyalthang, given that this part of an ancient Tibetan province called Kham and that Tibetans are still the largest ethnic group here. Today, it serves as the capital of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture – a part of modern China’s Yunnan Province rather the more recently occupied Tibet(an Autonomous Region) itself, which it borders just to the northwest. This means that it is possible to visit this small part of ancient Tibet without expensive compulsory guides.
It was freezing as we stepped off the train! Early morning temperatures here had been -9C and, although it was a bit warmer now, streams were frozen, and water poured on the streets was quickly freezing solid. Herds of yaks looked very at home on the edge of town. Despite this, the sun was still strong and warm.
Gyalthang definitely has a Tibetan feel with prayer flags, prayer wheels, and temples. On the bus into town we passed the world’s tallest white pagoda, situated in the centre of a giant roundabout and therefore on the main axes of town. More interesting, however, and remaining on a similar theme was the world’s biggest prayer wheel. After climbing the steps up the hill in the centre of town, we caught our breath and joined about a dozen people in pushing to get it moving. Once rotating, people moved in and out after having completed a clockwise lap. The Big Buddha Temple was impressive too, with a gorgeous gold Buddha inside.
Outside, prayer flags blew over the city. We spent a bit of time wandering the streets but, a few cool details aside, it wasn’t really that interesting. It was a hint of Tibet perhaps, but no more. Unfortunately, the majority of the 1,300-year-old ancient town here burnt down in 2014 and has since been rebuilt in traditional style. This has given additional opportunity for the usual Chinese placemaking to creep in to create a sanitised version of a place aimed at mass market tourism. I think much of this habit can also be traced back to the Cultural Revolution, when significant amounts of heritage were destroyed, only to be later re-appropriated and often reconstructed. Our day in Shangri-La over, we hopped back on the train to Lijiang. Of course, the recently opened high-speed train station is Tibetan-themed.
