Day 22 - Shangrila

Thursday, August 16

You know you are in the mountains when it is 12 C ( 54 F ) first thing in the morning, in middle of August, in southern China. The elevation of Shangrila is 3300 meters ( 10800 ft ).

We embarked on the long ( 110 km, 3 hour) drive which wound through the mountains from Shangrila to the Baishuitai White Water Terraces.  This is a very scenic spot that many people have seen on the Internet or on an email, showing some of the most scenic places in the world.  I have seen the pictures of this place but it is even more beautiful when seen in person.   

It was a short hike up to the terraces from the entrance, however, we were talked into riding horses up to them.  The horses were the size of ponies and I  kept insisting that I was too heavy for them but the owners were adamant that the horses were strong enough to carry me.   My legs were almost touching the ground and I felt sorry for the horse, but he did manage to drag me up the 100 meters ( 300 ft ) to the steps in front of the terraces. 

Here we met a group of children who asked us if we would like to see a traditional dance.  We asked how much it would cost and they said that there was no set price.  I like to support entrepreneurs so we asked them to perform the dance for us.  I recorded on my camera ( although I missed the very beginning ) and when they were finished we gave them some money.  It was quite good and each of the kids participated whole-heartedly. 

After the children's performance, we climbed up the final section and proceeded to be amazed at the beauty of the terraces.    The water flowing down from the mountain creates a film across the rock face at the top of the terraces which flows into large half-bowl shaped terraces.  It is calcium bicarbonate that gives the water in these beige terraces it's turquoise color.  You can walk over the film of water without fear of slipping due to the high mineral content giving your shoes a good grip.

It wasn't a very large area but we took a lot of pictures.  We spent less than 2 hours there but it was worth the 6 hour drive to get there and back.

When we got back to Shangrila, we did a little sight-seeing in the area before returning to the hostel.  Jeremy and Nicole found a market square around the corner from where we were staying and I joined them to watch some traditional Tibetan dancing.  We met 4 girls from a town just outside of Hong Kong who had taken the 26 hour train ride to visit Shangrila.   We took pictures of each other and they told us that I looked like Steve Jobs...LOL.

Tomorrow we will drive to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan province.