Paradise Found

This week flew by as we anticipated not only Thanksgiving, but also our Independent Student Travel Weekend. We started out with three days of teaching, seminars, lectures, and Chinese lessons. On Wednesday, we had our day-early Thanksgiving celebration. We ate at a westernized café located on the "foreigner street" of Kunming, which has a variety of restaurants that serve food other than Chinese. We were told that they were going to give us their best shot at making an American Thanksgiving dinner and staples to include turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. We had all three of those, along with gravy, sweet potatoes, chicken wraps, chicken kabobs, salad, pizza, and an eggplant lasagna dish. While I missed my Thanksgiving at home, how many times will I be able to have Thanksgiving in China? It wasn’t my normal tradition, but I like to think of it as something totally different.

On Thursday, we departed for a long IST weekend. Lauren, Rachel, Mary, and I decided to go to a town called Shangri-La, also called Zhongdian. Located in the Northwest corner of the Yunnan province, it’s about as close to Tibet as you can get. We decided to splurge and buy plane tickets to avoid the 12-hour, windy bus ride. The flight was an hour long, so we arrived in Shangri-La around 9 in the morning. I felt like I was flying in for a ski trip, especially when I walked outside and was blasted with cold air. Shangri-La is a small town, nestled into snow-dusted mountains. It felt like we were in a completely different country: the architecture was different, the people seemed nicer, the air was fresher. I felt like I could finally take a deep breath again. Because of its proximity to Tibet, there’s rich Tibetan culture here. The town is named after James Hilton’s book The Lost Horizon. Apparently, many towns used to call themselves Shangri-La, claiming to be the mythical paradise from the book. Eventually, they decided that Zhongdian would be the “real” Shangri-La.

The first thing we did was check into our hotel, the Gyalthang Dzong Hotel, to find we were the only people there! It was really nice, though. Lauren and I shared a comfortable room with a huge king bed, complete with electric blankets. We were so happy to find a little heater as well. It was definitely necessary. It’s so cold here; when I walk outside, I literally wear all of my layers—Underarmor, long sleeves, fleece jacket, raincoat, hat, and gloves. Everything feels so much colder without any indoor heating!

Our next order of business was exploring the town. Shangri-La is divided into Old Town and New Town. Old Town is the more culturally-rich, interesting section; New Town has nothing really too special. We walked along the cobblestone streets of Old Town, looking into the shops selling Tibetan handicrafts and trinkets. Taking a long set of stairs, we climbed up to a beautiful Buddhist temple and huge prayer wheel. It must have been at least 20 meters tall. We found a restaurant called The Compass Café, which served some western food. It was our hideaway from the cold, and became our go-to spot for the next few days. We went every day except Sunday (only because it was closed) and sat in the same chairs each time.

The next day was our relaxation/spa day. There was a spa at our hotel, so we all treated ourselves to massages. That night, we went out to dinner at a Tibetan restaurant. Mary and I split a yak and chicken hot pot, which is a soup of boiling broth, with meat and vegetables added to it. They bring it to your table and place it on a flame to it keeps boiling. So delicious, and it warms you right up. They eat yak everything here. From meat to yogurt to yak butter tea. I tried the tea at breakfast and it tastes exactly how you’d imagine butter tea to taste like—hot, watery, salty butter. I didn’t think it was bad, but I also didn’t think it was good. The meat, however, does taste good.

Saturday, we went to Podacuo National Park, the first national park in China. We took a taxi there and arrived at a lodge. We bought our entry tickets and then were shuttled onto a bus. We were waiting on the bus for about a half an hour and had no idea what to do because none of us speak Chinese and no one there spoke English. We really didn’t want to be sitting on us bus all day, either. Finally the bus started moving. We stopped first at Shudu Lake, where we got off to walk along the shore. It was a 2.7 km walk, all on a wooden boardwalk. It was so refreshing to be in nature, especially after being in a Chinese city for about three weeks. We got on another bus at the end of the walk, and were then taken to our next stop, which was a scenic viewpoint. We continued on the bus, periodically stopping. We were able to get off and walk again at Bita Lake. This trail was also all a wooden boardwalk. It must have taken them so long to construct the whole thing. It was a little bit touristy, and not really an “adventure” per se, but still very enjoyable. We were the only westerners I saw there, too.

Today (Sunday) is our last day here. Mary and Rachel decided to take the bus back, so they left this morning. Lauren and I are spending our last day of relaxation doing just that; we’re trying to embrace our last day of freedom before we fly back tonight. It’s a bit strange thinking about how we’ll be back in the city in a few hours. I much prefer the calmer, less hectic life here in this place that, in my opinion, lives up to its name.