The bus driver fills the diesel tank on the way to Shangri-La, China on June 6, 2009. Jamie McDONALD

To arrive in Shangri-La we very willingly left Lijiang at 1pm on a bus from the central bus station in the city. Despite the cost being 37 Yuan our smiling western faces could do nothing to obtain the 3 Yuan change from the 40 that we handed over. Alas, 4.5 hours in a bus for AUD$7.30 was nothing to complain about considering the 20 minute tram from Glenelg to Adelaide is $4.50.

Nervously handing our packs to the driver to strap them onto the roof I then quickly rushed  (Chinese Style) into the bus to score the business class seat, or more accurately described as the aisle seat near the door, where one could comfortably stretch out and place his feet and legs on a petrol generator.

In my previous update I spoke of the peaks that shadowed us on our trip to Lijiang – this journey traversed those very mountains, and frequently we found ourselves elevated up to 4000m, a height at which altitude sickness is a very real danger, and higher than anywhere in Australia – Mt Kosciuszko is a mere 2228m.

Like so many things, this road trip was so much better with hindsight. Slight wariness turned into right-out panic as the road went from pretty bad to downright awful, and the bus driver was still willing to take on anything that dare cut in front of him. This wasn’t limited to other traffic, a herd of goats that had decided the grass was greener came heart achingly close to becoming dinner, and wild boars tend to have the run of the road above 3000m. Perhaps the standout moment of the northwards trek was when we called into the ‘service station’ consisting of a hose that was thrown through the window behind the driver, wherein he placed the hose in the fuel tank in front of nervous passengers.

The fuel cap – a sock.
The auto-shut off valve – driver tapping the tank to see when it was full.
My camera bag, consisting of cameras, lenses, laptop, accessories – on the fuel tank.

Truth is though, we arrived safely, early, and our gear on the top of the bus was fine. We got to experience a road trip that despite the tourism boom in China, few Westerners will ever take. Snow and ice capped mountains were only outdone by a gorge that could only be measured in thousands of metres descending to a raging river whose force had moved boulders the size of buses.

The mention of boulders reminds me of our one delay on the trip to Shangri-La – the landslide that prevented traffic moving for around half an hour. Unlike such a drama in Australia – once the worst had fallen the flow of traffic begin again, but as we drove past it the debris was still crashing onto the road, and I’m sure it was only luck that we weren’t the suckers that scored the boulder that must have been teetering hundreds of meters above.

Apparently renaming the city of Zhondian to Shangri-La was a pathetic PR effort by the Chinese government to claim this city, and therefore the country as the homeland in a novel by James Hilton, The Lost Horizon. I haven’t read the novel, nor do necessarily believe the communist government’s claims, but it is a beautiful Tibetan town resplendent with monks, monasteries, cafes, Prayer Flags, and a great mix of Tibetan and Han Chinese. It was a sigh of relief that we had left the plastic, theme park like Lijiang to have arrived in a real town, where people work, live and play.

Upon arriving in Shangri-La the worst of a cold had set in and a quiet couple of days have since been in order. For some point of reference this town is pretty much the last stop for those heading to Tibet either by air or overland, and up until very recently this was our intention. The realisation of the barriers that the Chinese have put in only came apparent once we spoke to a couple of agents to organise our permits to visit.

Essentially anyone can go to Tibet as it’s not closed to foreigners at the moment, but the costs are exorbitant. In AUD:

Flight $260
Permit $220
Compulsory car from Airport to city $147
Compulsory guide $55 per day

Total costs, before regular everyday travel costs work out to be $900 for a 5 day trip to Lhasa. As keen as I am to get up to the so called rooftop of the world, I’m not in a position to drop $1000 for 5 days in China.

The dry thin air in Shangri-La is not great for getting over a cold, and I’ve spent the last couple of days at Sean’s Cafe, a fantastic little spot to eat great food and sip on honey tea. Upon entering the old town down the main street it’s on your left handside only 50 metres or so from the entry – upstairs, but you can’t miss the signs. If you’re in Shangri-La you could do worse than call in for a great bite, including the best vego pizza I’ve had in China.

Whilst Daisy was busy in the kitchen making me another meal I got to meet her daughter, all of 1 year and ten months old. After taking a couple of pictures of her I showed her a photo of herself on the LCD on the back of the camera. Fascinated with herself she gave my screen a big kiss and then became enamored with my old camera. It was a great thrill for her to place her tiny finger on the shutter button and take a picture and see the results immediately on the screen. It was a really cute reminder of the power that photos have.

A debate will occur tomorrow in regards to what we do from here – the ultimate aim is to get to Kashgar, near the border with Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, but the paths are numerous, but whatever way we’re looking at between 70 and 90 hours on a train to get there; nobody can accuse this country of being small!!

Photos from Yangshuo and Dali are getting uploaded to http://www.jamiemcdonald.com as I write this blog…

A young Tibetan girl sees herself in the LCD of a digital camera, Shangri-La, China, June 7, 2009. Jamie McDONALD