Legendary Shangri La

The scenery on the way to Shangri La in Yunnan Province is spectacular. I'd heard and read about the great sunrises and sunsets, but as the sun rises over the snow mountains, it does look just like there is a blazing inferno on top of the mountain. I'm sure the fire department must get loads of false alarms! Probably one day, there'll be a real fire and they'll all be like..."Don't worry, it's just the sunrise!"

These colourful prayer flags are commonly found in Tibet and in this part of China. These flags are called Lung Ta, which means Wind Horse in Tibetan. They are usually hung in diagonal lines and from high to low between two objects, in this case the ground and a traditional Chinese pagoda.

The flags are traditionally seen in the five colours representing the five elements:

# Blue (symbolizing sky/space)
# White (symbolizing air/wind)
# Red (symbolizing fire)
# Green (symbolizing water)
# Yellow (symbolizing earth)

Prayer flags aren't actually used for praying in the traditional sense. The idea is that the prayers for peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom will be blown all around by the wind to benefit everyone.

Snow Mountain Sunrise Poster & Prints
In Shangri La, Yunnan Province, south west China, the sun rises over Meili Snow Mountain and lights up a small village at the base of the mountain.
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The Yangtze River (Yangtse River) is the longest river in Asia, and the 3rd longest river in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. The river originates from a glacier in Tibet and then heads south into Yunnan Province. At a place called Benzilan, on the way to Shangri La, it meets an obstacle and has to do a complete circle around it, which is quite a sight! Some people refer to this as the "First Bend in the Yangtze River", but that's actually somewhere else.

Also referred to as the "Golden Sands" river because of all the sand that gets churned up as it flows, and what gives it that unattractive, polluted brown colour....not quite what I'd call "golden."

In the heart of Shangri La is a "must-do" trek to Yubeng Village tucked away in a small valley and surrounded on all sides by mountains. The only way to get there is to go up and over a mountain. The walk up takes about 4 hours and it's hot and tiring, you're carrying your backpack, did I mention it's exhausting...so most people resort to hiring mules to carry them and their backpacks to the top of the mountain. It still takes about 4 hours because it's exhausting for the mules too, especially with me on the back...not so light!

Rays of sunlight pour through the trees onto our group of mules as they rest. Fortunately, there are a few rest stops along the way to give the mules a rest, and to give you a rest from riding them. I was saddle-sore after about the first 10 minutes!

Yubeng Village is truly a beautiful place filled with peace and tranquility. It's location makes it very hard to get to, there are only 20 households living in Yubeng Village and there is just one path that connects the village to the outside world, so unless they build a cable car in the next few years hopefully it will remain unspoiled and serene.

We were fortunate the day we reached the top of the mountain and started our walk down the other side. It was really cloudy and it had been raining, but as we started going down, the clouds cleared and sunlight poured down the mountains and filled up the valley in front of us, as you can see in the photo.

Sunshine Valley Poster & Prints
Sunlight pours down the mountain and into the valley, lighting up Yubeng Village at the base of Meili Snow Mountain. Yubeng Village is in Shangri La, Yunnan Province, south west China.
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Once you get down into the valley it's such an amazing place! Surrounded by mountains and animals just roaming wild, and with very few people around, it feels like you're in the Garden of Eden. You can just make out one person in the image above who looks minuscule against the snow mountains looming above. There are also a lot of Lama Towers spread around the valley symbolizing the power of Buddha being radiant like the sun and the moon.

Yaks are herd animals found throughout Central Asia and predominantly in the Tibetan area. Both female yaks and male yaks have horns and are well suited to living at high altitudes. This was quite a young one and its fur was quite short due to the time of year, but in winter their coats get really long and shaggy to keep them warm.

Songzanlin Monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan and it is located in Shangri La. It is also one of the thirteen largest monasteries in the Kangzang region, which is made up of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet. At an altitude of 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) it can snow here even in summer! At this altitude, walking up the hundreds of steps to reach the interior of the monastery takes its toll too!

It was built in 1679 and took two years to build. The monastery looks like a group of ancient castles, but is actually comprised of just two lamaseries, Zhacang and Jikang. Apparently, the Fifth Dalai Lama chose the site of the monastery through divination and named it "Gedan Songzanlin Monastery". In 1724, during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, the monastery was renamed the "Guihua Monastery". During its time of greatest prosperity, there were more than 3,000 monks in the temple.

It's also known as the "Little Potala" because it is a faithful imitation of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.


Just outside Songzanlin Monastery is this little lake with a prayer tower at the center of it. It's a really beautiful sight and said to symbolize peace and prosperity throughout the land.