Word: zhongdian
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There were many skeptical eyebrows raised in 2001 when, in a bid to boost tourism, the Chinese town of Zhongdian and the surrounding region were officially renamed Shangri-La. Whether visitors are genuinely attracted by the area's claim to be the location of James Hilton's classic 1930s novel Lost Horizons, or whether they come (as they always have done) for the spectacular mountain scenery and ethnic Tibetan culture, isn't clear. But what is indisputable is the local tourism boom, facilitated by massive infrastructure projects-from a new airport five years ago to new highways today. What will...
...that kind of juxtaposition is precisely the charm of Zhongdian's cocktail circuit. With steep, cobbled lanes, wooden houses, courtyards and prayer flags fluttering in the wind, Dukezong was little more than a ramshackle residential area of 15,000 inhabitants two years ago. Now, it's being buffed and polished for the outside world, with B-52 cocktails served alongside bai jiu-the local firewater-and macchiatos almost as readily available as yak-butter tea. The bars attract a lively, mixed crowd of residents, young travelers, artists and adventurers, doubtless hoping to find their own Shangri-La. Chances are they...
...pick of Zhongdian's hot spots...
...least four glossy photo books are devoted to Yading's claim to Shangri-la, but several authors insist it can be found in Yunnan's Deqin prefecture. To get there fly to Zhongdian, some 170 km away. Nobody would mistake this northern town, with its neocommunist concrete structures and rows of karaoke bars, for a terrestrial paradise, but nearby is the stunning Songzanlin Monastery, which could as easily have sprung from Hilton's imagination as that of a Tibetan architect. And Deqin?especially the majestic, glacier-draped Mount Kagbo, Yunnan's highest peak at 6,740 m?lives...
...citizens on my route through the northern Yunnan region--mountainous, isolated, populated predominantly by Tibetans and other non-Chinese ethnic minorities clinging determinedly to their traditions on their red-brown earth--have been relatively late in embracing tourism. Stretches of the area are closed to foreign travelers. Zhongdian, the town which I am currently exploring, still has a rough-hewn, construction-made frontier feel, and Degen was opened up to foreigners less than a year ago. Through the long days of riding rickety minibuses whose doors are kept shut with screwdrivers, my excitement would rise with the knowledge that...