Zhongdian (Shangri-la), day 1

We had a relatively short bus ride to our next destination, Shangri-la, formerly known as Zhongdian. As we approached, we began to notice signs that we were entering Tibetan territory. As we gained altitude, the valleys between the mountains seemed to flatten and spread. The architecture lost the curved roof-edges and became simple rectangular two or three story buildings with slightly sloped sides and intricate, colorful window frames. We started to see colorful Tibetan prayer flags strung up from poles and buildings. And the cows changed too: their shoulders hunched more, their horns grew, they grew beards, and their hair got shaggy... yaks!



When we arrived, we felt the altitude (12,000 feet!) as soon as we made the short uphill walk to our hotel, which had us totally winded. We wandered around town and found the shops tourist-oriented like in Lijiang, but somehow this town didn't feel quite as "discovered." We saw a constantly spinning giant golden prayer wheel overlooking the town from the top of a hill, and wondered if it was machine-powered. When we got up there, huffing and puffing again, we saw it was powered by people walking in circles holding a handrail. Krissy joined in while I took a picture.

On Amy's brief walk-around tour of the town, she had pointed out a massage place she recommended, so we thought we'd give it a try. They really know how to loosen you up. Some parts bordered on being painful, but overall it felt great - they found lots of hidden pressure points and pushed hard, kind of like a button. Afterwards I tried to say "I am a noodle" in Chinese and flopped my arms around but I'm not sure if he understood.

That afternoon we also had time to go to two museums on opposite sides of a large open square. One told the story of the communists' Long March, and the other was about Tibetan culture. Each displayed a lot of interesting historical information while omitting or sugar-coating certain uncomfortable bits. The Tibetans were portrayed as having welcomed the communists with open arms. It left me feeling the need to read about the complete history, but that might have to wait till we're home - I expect it'd be difficult to find unbiased sources here.

As we wandered toward the central square on our way to dinner, we heard loud music and saw crowds gathering. It was the locals dancing in big circles to what sounded like traditional music superimposed over techno beats. We'd heard they do this every day at 7:30pm. We don't know the exact origin of this "tradition," but I'd guess it's a combination of genuine traditions and pandering to tourists. One sure thing is that the people were genuine. Men, women, children, young and old, all danced with graceful coordinated movements in huge concentric circles, many of the women wearing the local variant of traditional Tibetan clothing.

For dinner our group ate family style at a Tibetan restaurant: dried yak, spicy Tibetan veggie dumplings, super-tasty lamb and potato we wrapped in little pieces of flatbread, and other unique dishes. When we finished eating, we were the last customers in the restaurant, and the waitresses invited us to join them in the courtyard for some dancing. So we followed them out and joined their circle - a smaller version of what we had seen in the town square earlier. We danced around a fire pit, bumping into each other and trying our best to copy the moves. The dance was made up of simple movements, but the timing was difficult because the music had bars with extra beats every now and then. But I suppose messing up was half the fun.