Zhongdian (aka Shangri-La)

The bus ran out of petrol on our way to Zhongdian, and we watched as the driver syphoned some out of his mate's bus! The scenery turned into very barren and flat grasslands, with Tibetan houses, prayer flags and lots of yaks. It was very beautiful. We arrived in the town of Shangri-La, which was 3340m above sea level! The town was actually in Tibet before the Chinese changed the official borders, so most people who live there are Tibetan. Was really interesting to see the different architecture, language and people. We walked around and took some photos, and had some BBQ food. Jackie then took us out of the town, into the plateau area. We were able to visit the summer home of a family of Tibetan yak herders. I was a very simple wooden shack. The little old lady & man made us lunch... green barley bread, yak butter tea (OK when eaten together), 'squeaky' yak cheese (bad), pig fat (bad, but a good lipbalm!), and vegie noodle soup (yummy). Everyone was struggling not to appear rude by not eating much! We were then taken to their proper home, whch housed 5 generations. It was huge, with beautiful ornate decorations inside, painted by a lama. They were very religious- they had a whole room used as a shrine to the 2 monks in the family. After returning to the herd, we helped feed the yaks (nearly lost my fingers!). We were then able to visit the neighbouring school. It had been set up by an Australian NGO, to help young people learn skills to help find employment- English speaking, tourism training, business kills, etc. We chatted to the students, they were really lovely. Played some ping pong, and listened to some Chinese & Tibetan singing (they have really strong voices!). When it was our turn to sing, we did Happy Birthday for one of the girls (her birthday was the next day), then she got a Chinese rendition as well! It was such a fun and amazing afternoon. That night, we watched some Tibetan dancing in the square, and tried some Tibetan food (wasn't great), before heading to bed. In the morning most of us went to Songzhalin Monastery. It was a huge complex built on a hill,housing about 700 monks, many who live there for practial reasons (food, shelter, education). It had really beautiful architecture,and with all the moks and the bright blue sky, I went a bit photo mad! I struggled a bit to walk up the huge set of stairs (hopefully due to the altitude, not the lack of fitness!). Was nice wandering around there. We got organised back in town, for our bus ride to Dali.