Travel Journal - 28 Days in China in August 2026 (page 2 of 3)

ah thanks for the feedback! It encourages me to keep going 🙂

August 19

This morning, we head to the square where the Shaxi bus dropped us off, near the north gate. There’s a TCC stand where we buy our tickets to leave Lijiang in a few days. After that, we head to Black Dragon Pool. It’s raining, and there’s almost no one around. The photo of the bridge over the lake with the snow-capped mountain clearly visible in the background must be amazing to take, but we’ve got no light and no mountain. The view is still beautiful, but it’s all gray.



We go up to see the temple above the photo spot. There’s not much to see, but the prayer flags fluttering in the wind remind us we’re getting closer to Tibet, and I really like that.



We continue our walk around the pond. We stop to eat at a small, deserted snack bar by the water. We also get some hot drinks in huge glasses: milk tea with chestnuts, topped with a big dollop of whipped cream, some kind of cream/jelly we couldn’t quite identify, and chunks of chestnuts.





We stay there until around 2 p.m. The rain stops. We walk to the end and come back along the other side of the pond. Back at the photo spot, the mountain is a little clearer. We sit on a bench and enjoy the scenery, hoping it’ll keep clearing up so we can take *the* cliché photo we’ve seen everywhere. More and more people are showing up now that it’s stopped raining. The mountain is only half-clear. We decide to leave. There are too many clouds—we won’t get anything better.



We stop by the hotel again. I take the opportunity to ask the manager to reserve tickets for the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain site. He tells me I can buy them on-site. But I’ve read that there’s no ticket office there anymore, and no ticket means no entry. I told him that, but he insists: "Go there by Didi and buy on-site." Okay, fine. Note that "didi" translates to "little brother," and the whole explanation is pretty confusing. We go check where the bus stop is to get there tomorrow morning—we’d rather take the bus than a Didi. Then we head south to the old town, to Zhongyi Market, where local producers come to sell their goods. On the way, we run into a young woman making northern Chinese specialties, stuffed pancakes cooked a bit like naan. I get one with sweet red beans, and D gets one with spicy beef.

On a sloping street, we turn around and see Jade Dragon Snow Mountain pretty clear—the best we’ve seen so far, though most of the peaks are still hidden.

After the market, where we made a few purchases, we head even further south into the new part of town for D’s errands. We never did find his shop. We take a Didi back and go eat: yak for D, a mushroom omelet for me, followed by a hearty dessert for D, who’s having a full yak night: yak milk yogurt with coconut + pieces of fruit (mango and dragon fruit) + almonds + pecans + other seeds + Oreos.





Meanwhile, I’m still overthinking this reservation for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the hotel manager’s response. I get the feeling he was telling me to book the tickets via Didi, not to go there by Didi and buy on-site. Everything’s getting mixed up! 🤪 I’m confusing everything! :) Maybe he really was talking about his little brother 😄. I check Trip, but they don’t offer these tickets. ChatGPT says it’s impossible to buy on-site but that you can buy tickets at the new visitor center in Lijiang. Anyway, we’re changing our plans for tomorrow—we’ll go to the new visitor center to see if we can buy tickets for the day after tomorrow and take the opportunity to visit Baisha. I don’t want to show up at the mountain site and have to turn back because there’s no ticket office on-site.

Hello,

Thanks for this beautiful travel journal. I’ve been following it from the start. 😊 Besides making me hungry, it brings back great travel memories. The Shaxi Valley remains my favorite spot in China. When I visited (about 15 years ago), tourism was almost nonexistent due to a lack of infrastructure. How is it now?

Hi there,

Haha, yeah, food is such a big part of the trip! There were quite a few people in Shaxi, but it was still very manageable and pleasant—way fewer than in the other cities we stayed in. We took the tourist highway, and in August, you’ve got to expect crowds. On the other hand, almost no one at the Shibaoshan site, for example, just about ten kilometers from Shaxi.

August 20

This morning, we head back to the north gate and order a Didi. It takes quite a while to arrive. We get dropped off at the new visitor center for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to buy our tickets for tomorrow. It’s really out of the way—8 km from the old town, in the middle of nowhere, and not served by buses. The lady at the center tells us that if we only want to see Blue Moon Valley, we can buy our tickets on-site. Okay, that’s what we understood from our manager before I got the wrong idea 🙂. We came for nothing, but at least now I don’t have any more questions. Good to know: from the visitor center, you can take the train to the Jade Mountain site for 50 yuan.

We order another Didi, which is already there, and it takes us to Baisha. When we arrive, we settle into a Xinjiang cuisine restaurant, a region in northwest China. D orders Xinjiang noodles—thick, round homemade rice noodles with beef (probably) and some veggies, plus a flaky rice pancake with green onions. I get egg noodles, also homemade and really good, with some veggies too. 55 yuan.



Then we wander through the old town’s alleys. It’s packed with people, just like Lijiang. It was cold and rainy this morning, but now the sun’s out and it’s pleasant. Same old shops, same old alleys... I didn’t find Baisha particularly interesting. But I did spot a cute little house:



As we leave the old town and there’s nothing around—no shops for a while—the sole of my old sandal decides to call it quits after traveling the world with me. It detaches from the rest of the shoe, leaving the sole on the ground and the rest on my foot. We’re 20 meters from a tiny, isolated shop. We think they might have glue. We check it out and what do we find? Shoe glue! The most unlikely thing! Two minutes later, my sandal’s back in action for what’s probably its last trip (I’ve been saying that for ages...).

We walk to the end of the street to wait for bus No. 6 to Shuhe. We wait over 30 minutes before I get impatient and order a Didi on Alipay. I never get the location right on Alipay, so it’s a bit annoying to pick the right pickup spot. I’m super careful about it, but the app still shows me far from the actual point, and I think the driver sees it. The first driver arrives after 10 minutes but drives past the pickup spot, keeps going, and eventually cancels the ride. He even sent me a message to confirm the pickup spot. I order a second Didi, still on Alipay, even though I’ve never done it before because of this location issue. We wait another 10 minutes for this one. Of course, bus No. 6 shows up at that exact moment, but it’s too late to cancel without penalties. The Didi arrives and cancels the ride too. So D orders one on WeChat, which always gets our location right. Another 10-minute wait, but this time it works, and we arrive in Shuhe in about 15 minutes.

We enter the old town, which is *much* quieter than Baisha, and walk into a hotel/tea salon where we spot a Dianhong tea with yak milk (a Yunnan specialty). The hotel guy shows up and ignores us. We ask if we can order tea. He says no. Okay, we keep walking and quickly find a nice lounge café. They serve all kinds of coffee, but almost no tea, so I end up with a matcha latte—when I really wanted a local specialty. D gets a pistachio milk drink.



After that, we explore the old town up and down. The setting sun gives everything a beautiful glow and vibe. I really like it. D preferred Baisha—it was livelier.







In this region, there’s *very* often a cat or dog in shops, I guess to attract customers—always beautiful cats, by the way. But here, it’s an alpaca, and it’s eating everything in sight!

We check how to leave: no buses unless we walk 3 km. We order another Didi. They’re “expensive” at this hour, almost 8 p.m., for such a short distance.

We’d spotted some restaurants yesterday or this morning, but we end up at another one where D orders grilled xiao long bao in an omelet. I get a really good tofu dish with bell peppers and onions, and for dessert, we try fried yak milk. It’s pretty good—slightly sweet, with a texture like thick custard and a nice breading.







A few photos of the nighttime rooftops, and we head back to the hotel. It’s really hard to get around in the evening with the alleys packed with people, and it’s pretty annoying, so we don’t stick around long tonight.

Thanks again for your story. It’s really interesting. One question: I get the impression that all these cities/villages aren’t really lived in but are more like places set up for tourism. Am I wrong?

Thanks! 🙂

The old town of Lijiang is clearly almost entirely geared toward tourism, but the other old towns where we stayed are actually lived in, with real local life—especially in Jianshui and Weishan. Just to clarify, the managers of our small hotels all lived in those hotels, so even in Lijiang, many people live in the old town, but in tourist-focused structures. That said, it’s pretty hard to find any sign of local life here that isn’t tied to tourism. For that, you have to leave the old town. But this is really a quirk of Lijiang that we didn’t see anywhere else.

August 21

The weather’s lovely this morning. Still, we grabbed our sweatshirts and fleece-lined softshell jackets because Blue Moon Valley is at 2,900 meters above sea level.

We head to bus stop 101. There’s a line on the sidewalk, and someone’s organizing the boarding. The first bus arrives after about ten minutes—only a few seats left. The second one comes ten minutes later with just one seat. We should’ve gone to Zhongyi Market, where the line starts, but it’s 6 km away. We order a Didi. By the time it arrives, a third bus passes with only one or two seats. We get in the Didi around 11:30. It’s only 25 or 27 km, but leaving the congested city takes forever. After that, it’s smooth sailing until we hit the entrance of the Yulong Scenic Area (Jade Dragon Mountain). There, we’re stuck for a long time. A *very* long time. Then we see park staff checking tickets right on the road. When it’s our turn, the guy asks for our passports. We tell him we haven’t bought tickets yet. He says it’s 100 yuan per person. He scans my Alipay QR code, and just like that, the tickets are bought—without even getting out of the car. After that, we’re back on a two-lane one-way road until we barely avoid a guy driving the wrong way. How’s that even possible on a one-way with no exits nearby? Anyway, we were lucky to dodge him, but I hope he turned around without causing an accident.

We finally arrive after about an hour and a half. We buy the internal shuttle tickets—20 yuan each—and queue up forever to board one. They leave one after another, so the long line still moves pretty fast. When we get off, it starts raining... Almost everyone takes little golf-cart shuttles to get around Blue Moon Valley. We want to do everything on foot. We’ve got a route on Maps.me that we try to follow, but we’re stopped right away. Only shuttles are allowed there. Off to a great start. Forced to follow the road to start descending, then at the first viewpoint, we can head down near the lake. It’s *so* beautiful!







The rain stops, the sun comes back, and it’s gorgeous! The water’s an unbelievable turquoise, the waterfalls are stunning, and the massive mountain behind—5,596 meters—peeks out now and then. There are *so* many people near the terraces, especially on the side where you can take shuttles between points. On the other side, where you have to hike the trails, there’s hardly anyone. We head down that side to the last lake.









It’s *really* hot—we’re in T-shirts now. But suddenly, the sky darkens over the mountains, and in no time, a *massive* downpour hits us as we’re about to start climbing back up the other side. We pull out our umbrellas, but within minutes, we’re soaked up to our thighs. I regret wearing sneakers instead of sandals today. The temperature drops, we’re not enjoying the scenery at all, and the rain’s way too heavy. The few shelters are packed. We stop for a bit to buy fried chicken and a Coke for D at a stand and take shelter under some pine trees to eat and hope the rain lets up. We keep climbing slowly to avoid slipping and dodge the biggest puddles—but at this point, jumping in wouldn’t make a difference. The rain stops just as we reach the buses. Too bad—it really rushed our return.

We catch a bus right away to head back down. It must be around 5:15 PM. It stops lower down. I think we could’ve taken it near the lakes instead of hiking all the way back up, but oh well. We stay parked there while the driver smokes a cigarette and lets a few more people on. Then we head back down to the park entrance. It’s raining again. It’s 6 PM. We try to order a Didi, but it’s not gonna be easy to get one here. The ride’s 92 yuan, but we’re stuck waiting for a driver. I see a bunch of buses and a long line of people a little farther away. We check it out. D gets in line, and I ask if these are the 101 buses. Yep! They’re not numbered—some are nice, comfy coaches, others are city buses. They leave one after another, so the wait’s short. We pay 15 yuan each in line. No luck for us—we end up on a city bus with hard seats and zero comfort. It’s pouring, cars seem to be driving carefully with their hazard lights on, but our driver’s passing everyone at full speed, brushing past other coaches, honking everywhere, with a deafening rattle—the city bus probably wasn’t meant to go this fast. Still, we made it back safe and sound after about an hour and twenty minutes. 🙂

When we get off, we discover a huge underground shopping gallery that leads us out near the old town’s waterwheel. We’re freezing with our wet feet and pants, but we stop to eat along the way: Naxi rice for D, tofu and fresh mushroom stew for me. They’ve got condiments to add. I see spicy fermented soybean paste—I *love* that stuff—and load up my bowl. Meals here in Lijiang cost more. This one’s 78 yuan. We stop by 7-Eleven before heading back to dry our sneakers and pack up because tomorrow we’re leaving the city.

Thanks for this response

August 22

Our bus is at 10:45 AM. We arrive a little early, the bus does too, and since everyone’s there, we leave ahead of schedule. The first 50 minutes are spent picking up passengers at the south and west gates of the city, then we finally head away from Lijiang toward Tiger Leaping Gorge.

We arrive at the visitor center around 1 PM, I think. A ticket office lady and a guy with a map in hand get on the bus. People pay an entrance fee to the site/hiking permit: 45 yuan per person. We’re the only foreigners on the bus. The guy with the map speaks English and asks where we’re going. We tell him “Tina’s Guesthouse,” a big landmark in the area, known to everyone and clearly marked on his map. He asks if we’re going hiking. We say no. He tells us we’ll have to take a taxi. The lady comes over next. We tell her “no hiking,” but she charges us 90 yuan. No problem for us if it’s the entrance fee to the site, but the guy steps in and tells her to refund us the 90 yuan. Nice of him, but he repeats that our bus isn’t going to Tina’s Guesthouse and that we need to get off. I’m pretty surprised by this, so I ask the driver using the translator if he’s going there, but instead of answering, he calls the guy, who tells us he’ll take us there for 120 yuan. Okay, more expensive than the trip from Lijiang! We get off the bus. Everyone else stays on. We find this weird again. The guy sticks to us like glue. We go to the visitor center to ask if there are shuttles. No, there aren’t any. We order Didi and taxis, checking all options to maximize our chances of finding one. The rates are between 40 and 65 yuan. Meanwhile, I try messaging the hotel to ask if they offer a shuttle service, but it’s an AI handling the questions... We wait a long time, but no Didi/taxi is available on either of our phones or apps. We see scenic shuttles passing by. I ask the staff where those shuttles go. The guy is still glued to me. The lady answers, “No, no, they don’t go to Tina’s.” The guy now offers the ride for 100 yuan, “because it’s really hard to find a taxi here.” I show him the displayed rates for my current Didi/taxi search: 40 to 65 yuan, half of what he’s proposing. Just to make a point, I negotiate 2 € this time because I feel like we’ve been scammed again, and we agree on 85 yuan for him to take us. It’s still pretty far, 17 km. We’re not going to Tina’s but 200 meters farther. In front of Tina’s, there’s a bus station for Lijiang and Shangri-La, which is why I’m so surprised our bus didn’t come all the way here, but oh well...

We arrive at the hotel—deserted. We call out, “Ni hao! Ni hao! Hello! Hello!” Nothing. We call. Nothing. There’s a key on the counter. D thinks it’s probably ours. I think it’s a check-out and no one’s been there since this morning. We go upstairs with the key anyway, open the door, and find a messy room. It *was* a check-out, so we close the door and go back down. At that moment, we see a lady arriving. She gives us our key and we return the other one, a little embarrassed 😊. She goes up with us, opens the door, and wow! Wow!! What an incredible view. Right over the gorge, Yulong (Jade Dragon Mountain) on the left, huge and finally clear, Haba on the right, almost as massive—ma-gni-fi-cent.





We drop off our stuff and head out to eat at the hotel restaurant. Of course, no one’s there. A lady a little farther away waves us over to the restaurant across the street, a bit farther down. The restaurant is on stilts, overlooking the void. Unbelievable. We go there and find the lady who checked us into the hotel. We realize she runs both places, but the hotel restaurant is closed. D orders grilled yak, and I get delicious eggplant with a pot of rice.



Then we go for a walk, but it starts raining a little. There’s nothing to do if you’re not hiking, and there’s nothing around. We go to the bus station to buy our tickets for the trip back in two days. Apparently, Tina’s Guesthouse also handles bus reservations. We head up to Tina’s to see if they have a small convenience store or something, but all we find are drink fridges and an ice bin. We walk a little farther down the road, but there’s really nothing. We turn around and come back near the bus station. We go into a convenience store with no staff. The door is locked—you have to scan a QR code to enter and exit. It’s tiny and only sells enough to survive during hikes: noodles, drinks, snacks, rain ponchos. It’s part of a luxury hotel, clinging to the cliffside, suspended in the gorge, with a really strange stone look.



We decide to check out their café. It’s super expensive, but the view is insane. We get another coconut matcha and a matcha latte for 128 yuan. More expensive than all our meals! There’s no local tea again, either.





We stay there for a while, soaking in the view, then head back to the hotel to enjoy the view from our room and from the rooftop terrace for sunset.







It’s gorgeous and truly extraordinary. I’ve never been in gorges this deep—it’s really impressive. A few more drops fall. That’s why we didn’t plan to hike; it’s been raining a lot lately, and we’ve had several alerts for landslides and floods. No need to put ourselves in a tricky situation.

We go back to eat on the other side of the street, but I ask the lady if she can make us the dishes from the hotel restaurant instead—more options and more to our taste (and cheaper too!). I also noticed there were all kinds of teas on that menu, so I hope she can make me some tomorrow.

August 23

Woke up at 1 PM... That's what happens when I don't set an alarm. It's so quiet here, and D let me sleep in peace without making any noise. We're going to eat around 2:30 PM. We also order butter tea made from dri, the female yak. They usually just call it yak butter or yak milk. She brings us a whole teapot. This tea is disgusting! 😄 A really strong rancid and salty taste. I don’t know if the rancid flavor is always there, but if it is, I won’t have it again. It was a fun experience, but we couldn’t get past one cup.

After the meal, we hit the road north. We walk to the next small hamlet. On the second part of the trip, we see the river at the bottom of the canyon, which we couldn’t see at the start. I still think it’s much prettier near our hotel—it’s way more impressive, really squeezed between two very high mountain ranges. Here, the farther we walk, the more space there is between the ranges. It’s still amazing, just less dramatic.

Anyway, we arrive at the hamlet. There’s a tiny shop with no lights and no one around, but the door is open. We go in and see they sell a lot of alcohol for such a small place. So we grab two little bottles for 5 yuan each—one green plum, the other passion fruit—and a bottle of water. We pay what we owe with Alipay. As we step out, it starts pouring. We stay under cover for a while, sitting at a table by the shop door. Two guys pull up, go into the shop, open a cabinet, and take cartons of cigarettes. I guess they paid for them earlier before closing the door and leaving. It’s wild to imagine that in France—everything would be so simple!

We ask at the small restaurant in the hamlet if we can get some hot tea. The woman makes us a teapot. Classic green tea, which goes down way better than the butter tea. There are very few restaurants open, and hardly anyone around—it’s really not the season here. But construction is everywhere. I don’t know if the buildings are in progress or abandoned since no one’s working on them, but there are a lot.

We head back to the hotel despite the rain. It doesn’t really bother us when we’re in shorts and sandals. The wind is pretty strong too, but the rain isn’t heavy. We’ll have walked 5 km—that’s the only physical activity since yesterday.

It’s 7 PM when we get back. We settle in front of the bay window and open the alcoholic drinks with a bag of chips. They’re really not good, honestly! 😏 But it’s fine—it’s still an apéritif with an incredible view as night falls.



At 8 PM, we go out and cross the road to our usual restaurant, but it’s closed. She could’ve told us at lunch, but oh well. The hotel restaurant has been closed since the start, and the backup one is closed too. We saw another one nearby on the way back earlier. We head there, but walking at night on this mountain road isn’t very safe. Luckily, it’s open, with no customers, even though the posted hours are 8 AM–8 PM. We’re not very hungry, so we order stir-fried pumpkin, fried eggs, and rice. We get stir-fried zucchini—super spicy but really good. The eggs are great too; you can tell the chickens aren’t caged. We eat quickly for 28 yuan and go back to pack our things since we’re leaving tomorrow. We didn’t really get to enjoy the area, but what little we saw was stunning and makes us want to come back in the right season to hike. We didn’t even make it to the riverbank where the tiger jumped—no way to get there without transport.

These landscapes are stunning! And what about all those food photos? 🙂 Shame on me for not leaving a message sooner—thanks for this travel journal!

Thanks, I’m happy about that! 🙂

Amazing travel journal. It's so thorough, a pleasure to read, and beautifully illustrated. Thanks a million!

Oh, thanks! I followed your travel journal last year too—it was really interesting, even though it was a guided trip. It made me feel like I was already traveling in Yunnan before I went there myself!

August 24

At 10 AM this morning, the clouds are hanging low in the canyon. I’m soaking up this stunning landscape over and over again.



Check-out is at noon, so we’ll grab one last meal with a view over the void before heading to the bus station.

Our bus to Shangri-La (Xianggelila) leaves at 1:40 PM. It doesn’t take the highway, so the trip is longer, but the road is gorgeous. In just over an hour, we’re already at 3,260 meters—same altitude as Shangri-La. The scenery is unreal: the valley so deep, the mountains so high. In the distance, snow-capped peaks stand out clearly, with yaks and horses grazing in the meadows, and goats and cows on the road. Absolutely stunning! If you take this bus, sit on the right side to enjoy the best views.



We arrive around 4 PM at the East Gate of Dukezong, Shangri-La’s old town. Our hotel is a short walk away. Check-in is more involved here—portrait photos and all. We drop our stuff and head out to explore the neighborhood and grab a snack: a round, flat bread stuffed with beef and onions for D—apparently delicious. For me, three skewers of fried rice dough with spicy chili and sesame sauce, also really good. Then we keep wandering through the old town. Of course, it starts raining.



Earlier, at 4 PM, it was sunny and warm, but now I’m freezing in my sandals and hoodie. By 7 PM, we’re back to bundle up: socks, sneakers, pants, hoodie, jacket, and a scarf. Yeah, the full gear! It’s not *freezing* at 15°C, but with the wind and humidity, it feels cold.

Once we’re layered up, we head out to eat again. D orders "rice with crispy sausages" according to the translator and ends up with a plate of pork and beef intestines—not his thing. I get "eggplant with a fishy taste" and a fried egg with a pot of rice to share. We realize too late we’ve stumbled into Sichuan specialties.



After dinner, we head to the central square where locals and tourists dance in the evening.



Just behind the square, we spot the illuminated temples and prayer wheel—gorgeous. We head up a little later. The long flight of stairs forces us to pause; that’s when you feel the altitude. The prayer wheel is 21 meters tall and weighs 60 tons. It’s one of the largest in the world (the largest?). Made of copper covered in gold, it contains 16 tons of mantras and sacred texts inside. Spinning it is said to be equivalent to reciting all those mantras and purifies karma. We gave it a spin. The wheel and temple sit on a hill, offering a great panoramic view of the city.





We head back down and return to the hotel at 11:15 PM, not even realizing how long we’d been out. On the way back, we notice the heating isn’t working in our room—hopefully, the temperature doesn’t drop too much.

August 25

It's 10°C at night, so it's pretty chilly in the room. I ask the hotel guy where to wash my clothes and take the opportunity to tell him we couldn't get the heating to work. He says the government only allows heating in winter but that I have a heated mattress topper. I tell him the built-in plug is broken. He apologizes for all that and says he'll go buy another one and bring it to me. I feel a bit awkward—it's really kind of him, but there's no need to buy one specially if he doesn't already have a spare. I tell him it's not necessary and thank him for his kindness.

The weather is gorgeous this morning, so we leave the door open to let some warmth in. We hang up the laundry and head out to eat at a little restaurant that offers loads of breakfast options, plus more classic dishes. Basically, a brunch. D orders barley/yak bao and a "Deqin meat" bao. I get some fried or grilled tofu—I can't quite remember—and I mix up the line for my second order. I wanted a buckwheat pancake, but I ended up ordering "steamed poop" according to the translator, which is just a rice flour bun. With that, the traditional pot of green tea, and the gentleman kindly offers us two cups of butter tea. Well, we still don’t love it, but it’s better than the one from Tiger Leaping Gorge because the butter isn’t rancid. So we finish our cups. I dipped my "poop" rice bun in it—I hope they didn’t think it was crazy seeing me do that! 🙂

When we leave, it starts pouring. We head back to the hotel since we’re not far. Thunder rumbles. We’re on alert as the water rises quickly on the ground. We wait calmly for it to pass and then go out again. The temperature has dropped, so we put our jackets back on. Within 5 minutes, the sky clears up. We take off our jackets and sweatshirts to stay in T-shirts... We wander through the old town’s alleys, do some shopping, and grab some tea at Mixue and another chain.





Then we head up the hill to Guishan Park with its temples and the gigantic prayer wheel. There aren’t many people, even though it was packed last night. So it’s really hard to turn the wheel because there aren’t enough of us (60 tons). The view of the city rooftops with the mountains in the background is really nice. We stay there for a while in the sun. It’s super hot—I never would’ve thought that at this altitude.







We head back down and come across a dome of prayer flags. It’s so beautiful against the blue sky—gorgeous! Though it’s just touristy—I didn’t see any mantras or prayers on the flags; they’re blank.





A little later, the sky turns pitch black again, and another heavy shower cools things down. We take shelter in a small crafts gallery. The shower doesn’t last long, and the sun comes back quickly. We set off again in search of a shop for D. ChatGPT points us to a street outside the old town but can’t give us a number or anything specific on that street. We didn’t find it, even though we walked the whole street, but there was another interesting shop. The AI really isn’t reliable for the searches we’ve been doing lately...



We head back toward the old town. Night starts to fall. We stop at a Tibetan hot pot restaurant—super cozy with typical decor. The broth is 38 yuan, and then you add whatever ingredients you want: meat, veggies, noodles, tofu... 169 yuan total for us. We couldn’t help but compare it to the Chongqing hot pot we loved last year, but I really enjoyed this one too in this Tibetan atmosphere. The staff is super friendly here too, and one of them made us delicious sauces.



When we get back to the hotel, we see the guy went out and bought a new heated mattress topper, installed it, and left it plugged in. It’s so nice to slip into a warm bed.

Good evening,

Thanks for the continuation—I’m still reading faithfully. It’s a really nice journey!

Good evening,

Thanks! :) We're almost there!

August 26

Woke up at 9 a.m. so we wouldn’t leave too late, but we still dragged our feet... We finally took off around 11 a.m., waited for bus No. 3 a little farther away, which dropped us off pretty quickly near the ticket office for Songzanlin Monastery. We grabbed a bite at a small restaurant first. Entry costs 55 yuan, and the internal shuttle is 20 yuan—since, as usual, the ticket office is several kilometers from the site. That said, it’s not mandatory; you can walk if you prefer. This Buddhist monastery is one of the most important in Yunnan. It’s called the "Little Potala" in reference to the great monastery in Lhasa. It dates back to 1679 but was rebuilt more recently. Around 700 monks live here.



We took our time exploring all the buildings. The prayer halls have lots of pillars often covered in layers of colorful fabrics, yak butter lamps that smell—well, let’s just say the scent isn’t always pleasant—and colorful murals on the walls. Photos are banned in most of the buildings. There weren’t too many people, but as usual, everyone was crowded in the same spot.



We watched a sort of fire ceremony in the central square. We spun the prayer wheels—still working on purifying our karma, though! 😉







Afterward, we headed back down and walked around the lake. There was absolutely no one there. We had a perfect view of the entire monastery reflecting in the lake’s water.





We took the shuttle back after finishing our walk around the lake. We’d spent a little over 3 hours on-site. I wasn’t blown away, to be honest. I’d imagined I’d feel like I was transported straight to the heart of Tibet, but it didn’t quite happen. D, on the other hand, really liked it.

We caught bus No. 3 again, which didn’t take the route marked on Amap... So we got off near the north gate and discovered new alleys in Dukezong (the old town of Shangri-La). I had a bergamot tea. I think it was the first time I’d seen the fresh fruit—its taste is pretty different from Earl Grey tea, which is flavored with bergamot.



Later that evening, we ate at a restaurant where we blew our budget and got totally ripped off: yak teppanyaki and a bowl of rice for D, and for me, a claypot fish and vegetables. D got yak bones with a decent sauce—but not teppanyaki at all—and barely any meat on the bones. I got a pot of broth with two small pieces of fish and tofu, a bit of chives as the "vegetables," and no flavor—definitely not a claypot. We were so disappointed. The guy kindly gave us some fruit juice bottles. 190 yuan total.





We were still hungry when we left, so we wandered through a good part of the old town looking for dessert, without much luck. We settled for classic mooncakes—small jasmine pastries that were really good. We got back after walking 17 km. It didn’t rain at all today, and it was actually really hot.