Lost Horizon: Shangri-La

Tourist Attraction: Shangri-La
Province: Yunnan

In the year of 1933, James Hilton published his well-knwon novel 'Lost Horizon', describing a veteran member enjoys inner love and peace within a mysteria place called Shangri-La. Thereafter, the real location of Shangri-La has become a mystery.

The town that is currently named Shangri-La is in Yunnan Province. Although it doesn't fit with the geographic description of 'being a utopian lamasery high in the mountains of Tibet' as it's located in Yunnan province, the altitude there is actually between 3000m-4000m. For those of us who are used to living in low altitude plains, high altitude causes severe headache and sometimes vomiting.

Running can be dangerous since the air is thin in high altitudes. The same length of road that normally takes 20 mins to walk through will take maybe 80 mins.

At the first day I arrived in Shangri-La, I had a headache and can eat nothing. Since we came from Lijiang, where the altitude is already near 2500m, I suppose the altitude sickness is slight better than those who come directly from even lower altitude.

After a good sleep, I got rid of my headache. The plan for the next day was to go to the Pudacuo National Park. The altitude continued to rise to 4100m. You feel the rise of altitude clearly since it's getting hard to breathe.

However, once I saw the lake and the meadow, sunddenly I found all sickness and the uncomfortable feelings finally pay off. The lake is half covered by fog, which reminds me of one song called Annie's Wonderland.

In China, we say that always to be humble towards people and nature. When I was standing by the lake, I felt the shock that nature brought to me. Human couldn't be tinier in front of nature, while at the meantime some people are talking about dominating the world. Nature has the real power to change things dramatically through time. That's the reason why people in Shangri-La adore and respect nature.

This is the largest prayer wheel in the world. It's located in one of the temples in Shngri-La. The prayer wheel provides convienience to those who can't read. By spinning the wheel in certain direction, it functions the same as reciting the prayers orally.

In terms of delicacy, honestly the local food is horrible. I'm not sure whether it's because of the altitude, they hardly eat

vegetables. While in plain areas we have a variety of vegetables to choose from, they tend to eat yak meat and drink buttered tea all day long.