The postcard-like beauty of Yunnan’s Shangri-La

North beyond Zhongdian town a grassy hill became something of a vantage point both for solitude and to plan out my remaining itinerary. In 1995 there were no maps of the surrounding countryside and no smartphones to create instant records of where to go. But from the hill I could sketch out rough directions and ideas. Intriguing patterns of winding rivers, grasslands, black cattle grazing, patches of cultivation alongside villages spreading across the green plain that occupy much of the plateau where Zhongdian sits. A lot to explore. As I sat in contemplation lamas from the nearby Songzanlin Monastery would wander past, “Hello” being the regular cry. It was the presence of this, the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan, that helped prompt the tourism-promoting name change to Shangri-La in 2001.