iPlay @ Shangrila, Yunnan - Part 2

We have visited Fei Lai Si monastery. It was walking distance from our hostel. It is a beautiful temple that nestled high above the Mekong valley at an altitude of 3300 meters on the road to Lhasa. This is the place for Tibetans to pay homage to the sacred mountain.  Feilai Temple has a viewing platform for tourist to enjoy the view of Mount Kawagebo. October and May is the best season to see golden sun rise hitting on snow capped peaks of Mount Kawagebo. We are not lucky enough to see it as we went to there on Jun.

Fei Lai Si monastery

White blanket of the snow covered the mountains

We left this beautiful town and headed to Pudacuo (or Potatso) National Park. The national park is qualifies as a natural wonderland. It contains endemic species of fish found nowhere else in the world, rare and beautiful.  The entrance fee is 258RMB per person including the shuttle bus fare in the park. Pudacuo has two huge lakes which is Bitahai and Shuduhu lakes. The park shuttle bus will take you from visitor centre to Shudu Lake and follow by Bita Hai Lake. Visitor can either take a boat ride (RMB 50) around the lake or walk down the roughly 2km path to the exit of the park.  

We estimated to spend around 4 to 5 hours at this place. So my friends and I decided to walk along the park instead of taking a boat ride as we can stop by anytime. We have stopped by a few time to capture the photo and enjoyed the quiet and leisurely of this park. But unfortunately, rain and hail started to fall before we exit the park! “Run!!!” We ran as fast as we could to the exit. That was how we end our visit at Pudacuo national park. It was a fun though *Crying*

I still can manage to take few nice photos while rushing under the heavy rain and hail.

Bitahai Lake

The Beard trees, Shuduhu lake

Rainy view at Shuduhu lake is still beautiful

At the evening, we reached ancient town of Dukezong in Deqin. Dukezong means moonlight city in Tibetan. It is a Tibetan town in Shangrila, Yunan Province. The town is over thirteen hundred years old.  Although it is a very old town, but that don’t impress me much. The town has been destroyed by the huge fire in Jan 2014. Most of the building is still reconstructing. Thankfully, the Guishan Dafo Templein Dukezong is well maintenance after the fire last year.

Religious architecture of Guishan Dafo Temple

The 60-ton prayer wheel is one of famous tourist destination in Shangri-la. Tourists and local residents twirl the giant prayer wheel to submit prayers. Remember, do it only clockwise, as religious tradition dictates.  

The prayer wheel. 

Guishan Dafo temple and the eye catching prayer wheel. 

This is where we spent our last night at Shangri-la.

iPlay @ Shangrila, Yunnan - Part 1

Shangrila, formerly known as Zhongdian. It has renamed to Shangrila City in 2001 in order to attract more tourists

The author of novel Lost Horizon describes Shangrila as a mystical, harmonious valley. The statement is so true to me because the city is consists of continuous snowy mountains, endless grasslands and azure lakes.

We went to Shangrila with a travel agent from Li Jiang – Aladin(www.ly234.com). The travel packages that offered by this travel agency were on the high side but hey this agency was strongly recommended with reliable reputation. Please be aware, there were a lot of local tour came with cheaper price, but the hidden cost almost endless. You can customize the itinerary or go with the standard itinerary that provided by the travel agency. We have designed the itenerary our own and sent it to them.

It took around 4 hours to reach the Shangri-La from Li Jiang. Our initial plan is to visit largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan which is Song Zan Lin monastery. But the tour guide from Aladdin advised us to visit to Dong Zhu Lin Si which also another Tibetan Buddhist temple. Because Song Zan Lin has been commercializing due to tourism and overcrowded too. The entrance fee for Dong Zhu Lin Si was much cheaper than Song Zan Lin!

Dong Zhu Lin Si as beautiful as Song Zan Lin. It was a serene and holy place. It has many beautiful intricate paintings inside and houses several precious status. There were monks chanting in the main hall.

The main hall of Dong Zhu Lin Si

Guardian lion statue

Inside the Monastery

After visiting the temple, we went to Feilaishi. It tooks about 30 mins from Deqin, a town in Shangri-la. Our tour guide shared the living cultural and historical of Shangri-la with us along the road. I found that the mythology of Kawagabo peak- highest mountain in Chinese province of Yunnan was very intersting. Kawa gebo means “God of Snow Mountain” in Tibetan. Many mountaineering team tried to conquer, but they all failed. No one ever made to the peak of the mountain. 

The first bend of the Jin Sha river

Prayers flag at here reminded me of the Nepal trip

Aladin travel agent arranged a cozy guesthouse for us. The view from the room's window was stunning! The guesthouse just sits opposite of Kawagebo peak. We took a good rest and get ready to Ming Yong glacier the next day. 

I loved sitting by the window to enjoy splendid view of the mountain

You can either walk up or hire the ponies to Ming Yong Glacier. It took about 4 hours to get nearer to Ming Yong Glacier. Trekking at high altitude was exhausted but we choosed to walk as I wonder will it be uncomfortable to ride on a pony for 4 hours?? We started our journey to Ming Yong Glacier early in the morning before the weather become hot.

Heading to Ming Yong glacier

We have prepared some snacks, energy bars and drinks too. You can get the compressed biscuit from mart too.

Passed by Tai Tze temple

Kawagebo peak with Ming Yong glacier

For those with good stamina can continue further up to the Lianhua temple. We were almost K.O so uable to make it to the temple. 

On a side note, I felt sad to know that Mingyong Glacier has been receding due to global warming.

After a tiring and fun filled day, we headed back to the guesthouse to enjoy the local food and free time with travel mates. 

Kawagebo accompanied by bright little stars

iPlay @ Lugu Lake, Yunnan, China

I'm so excited to share with my reader about this spectacular place. This is one of the most peaceful and relax lake that I've ever been to.

Some of travelers at LiJiang might have no interest to go to the Lugu Lake (aka Womens Kingdom) as the lake is quite far from LiJiang. It took about 9 hours to travel with the car or bus along the hilly and bumpy road. The road condition could be quite bad sometime. The landslide or heavy snow might occur on this road. Anyway, no pain no gain! We reached Lugu Lake finally!

The entrance fee for Lugu Lake is RMB100 for adult. Dear student, please bring along your student card to entitle the 50% discount. After passing by the toll, we can see the lake is surrounded by mountains and island. We felt like we are entering into a Jurassic world. My travel mates just went 'crazy' and start making noise with "WOW, wow, wow!!"

Picture says everything. Hope you enjoy these!

Wow!  Perfect reflection in the calm water. 

Flowers that floated on the lake looks like countless pearls.

Duckling in Lugu Lake are seem happier than others

Thanks to the blue sky with white cloud.

I slower down my walking pace to enjoy every little thing at here.

草海-Sea of grass

A new day has come. Time for work. 

The fisherman.

Like a mystery castle. 

Lugu Lake is an interesting place with a unique culture. I have learned a lot about the traditions and cultures of Lugu Lake from the local residents, friendly hostel staff, and internet as well. The lake's shores are inhabited by many minority ethnic groups, such as the Mosuo, Norzu, Yi, Pumi and Tibetan. The most numerous of these are the Mosuo people.  Mosuo women have taken on leader ship in their society for the past two thousand years. Thus, we call lugu lake as women kingdom too.

"Hello, is me again!" By the way, her name is Mui Mui.

Milky way. 

No skyscraper but the sky that full with stars. 

It is just nice to spend 3 days 2 night at here. There are a few things that you can do at Lugu Lake.
1. Rent a bike - you might require a very strong stamina.
2. Rent a motorbike - This sound fun to me but you have know how to ride it.
3. Rent a car or van.
we have 6 person here, so we decided to take option 3. It cost around RMB300 to rent a van.

I snapped this photo from the bus stop. Splendid scenery is everywhere.

Based on my research, there is a new route to shorten the distance to travel from Lijiang to Lugu lake to 5 hours.Also, a new airport that nearer to Lugu lake is expected to be opened in Oct 2015. Please visit here before it get commercialized.
Bye beautiful Lugu Lake, your beautiful will always in my memory.