Shangri-La, Yunnan, China – Images by Jamie McDonald

I write this on the eve of our departure from Shangri-La. I’ve more or less recovered from the cold that had me holed up between Sean’s Cafe and my room. Today was spent at Ganden Sumtseling Gompa, a 300 year old Tibetan Monastery on the outskirts of Shangri-La.

Walking around the monastery is a great way to spend a few hours, and though I loved it I couldn’t help but be slightly cynical at the government’s ‘improvements.’ The old LP is printed in 2007 when it cost 10 Yuan to enter the monastery, but warns the government is increasing it to 30 Yuan. We paid 85 Yuan, and as far as I could tell the money went into very flash railway station entry gates to get us through a waiting hall and onto a flash new bus. The clincher was when our flash new bus was passed by Town Bus 3 on the way to the monastery – the very bus that we’d taken to the waiting hall. Seems as though the 85 Yuan is a foreigner tax, because we received no map, no guide, and no information.

We lost a couple of our travellers today to lower ground after one of them was overcome by altitude sickness. Because we’re ‘only’ at 3200 metres it seems easy to dismiss the effects that this height can cause, but if when you think about being the entire Melbourne Cup distance straight up it gives some cause for thought. So long as one makes it down the hill in timely fashion you’re fine, so it’s simply a case of staying sensible and quitting when it’s required.

Tomorrow we’ll probably leave Shangri-La and head to Tiger Leaping Gorge – little known, but according to all reports simply magnificent, and no poor cousin to the Grand Canyon. From the peaks of the mountains to the raging river below is a distance of 3900 metres. A couple of days of hiking sounds like a perfect plan before we jump on a plane, initially to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, and then onto Urumqi, the capital of the north western province of Xinjiang.

I’ve updated http://www.jamiemcdonald.com with some Shangri-La photos.