Day Trip to Shangrila - Shangrila, China

This last minute plan was concocted on our train journey from Dali to Lijiang. Originally we didn't plan to go to Shangrila out of respect for my dad. 😌 He wanted to go but I found out that higher elevation and thin oxygen probably would not work on his favor.

Anyway the train trip between Lijiang to Shangrila would take about 1.5 hour. I think we actually toyed with that idea. But then I sort of dropped the idea because it's going to take 3 hours on the road. But now the idea seemed brilliant ! 😍 Especially after I think going up Jade Dragon Snow Mountain may not be a good idea with hubby still recovering from his illness.

As soon as we checked in our hotel we straight away bought our train tickets through Trip.com. We would take an early train at 7:45 and come back at the latest before 3 pm so we would be back before dark. Thinking back we could probably have taken a slightly later train. Maybe more tiring though.

Songzanlin Monastery

The morning train to Shangrila was more quiet than normal. I guess that's how to avoid crowd in the train by taking earlier train. From Shangrila train station we straight away took a taxi to Songzanlin Monastery which was also known as Little Potala Palace. The architecture of Songzanlin resemblance Potala Palace in Tibet that's why it's called Little Potala.

We didn't purchase our tickets ahead. When we reached there, there were machines to purchase tickets. But we had lousy experience with ordering food online so we opted to go to ticket counter. Surprisingly a lot of people lined up for that too. I wonder if those visitors were all foreigners ?

We saw three different ticket prices with no obvious difference. The price difference between those three types of ticket about RMB 20 for each tier. The cheapest ones being RMB 55 (USD 7.67) and the most expensive being RMB 115 (USD 16.03). By the time we got to the front of the line, I asked the attendant what's the difference. She asked me back whether I needed a ride. I said no, so she sold me the cheapest ones. We paid RMB 110 for 2 tickets.

Once we walked out the building, we were directed to go to the left. Meanwhile we saw people lining up the bus on the right hand side. As we stood there not knowing which direction to walk to, we saw one man coming down on the road. We asked him how far was the walk, he said if we walk normally, it should take about 20 minutes. I didn't like the idea of walking up on the road without designated sidewalk. But it's too late, so we moved on. Soon we saw a few more groups of people behind us. 😀 Good to know that we were not the only suckers !

The road up to the monastery wasn't wide so it's a relief to finally see the temple. Apparently the second tier ticket comes with bus ride to the monastery. And the third tier ticket comes with bus ride and tour guide.

We climbed up to the main hall and a few other halls adjacent to it. The main hall was very grand with huge statues of Buddha. It was also very colorful with plenty of decorative fabric and banners hanging from the ceiling. I managed to take a few photos and even a video until a monk told me that I'm not allowed to. I seriously didn't know that.

In a few of the halls we saw people asking for blessing from the monk.

After we were done exploring and taking photo of the monastery we rested and enjoyed our drinks and snacks. There were food and drinks for purchase up there though we read it's more expensive.

Dukezong Ancient City

From outside Songzanlin monastery ticket office we took Didi to Dukezong Ancient City. That would be our last stop for the day before heading back to Lijiang.

We asked to be dropped off at the square. By the time we reached there I realize I have watched a YouTube video of this place. As we explored the square we came upon a place called Guishan Hill Park. We would not have been interested to go up had we not seen the giant prayer wheel on top of it.

As we walked towards the entrance there was notice o booking a slot to get in. There was a QR code to scan. But the link was not very straight forward. So it took me a while to get to the booking page. It was harder as well as I had to stop to translate some pages along the way.

Finally we went through with the booking and we received two QR codes to allow us to go through the door. Halleluyah !😀 It was 1 pm by then. We quickly climbed up excitedly feeling triumphant for being able to get through the appointment system. We saw two foreigners looking at the notice and then tried for a bit and left.

There were plenty of people up the hill especially near the prayer wheel. From Grok.com :

Prayer wheels are typically made of metal, wood, or leather and can be handheld, table-sized, or large, fixed structures at monasteries or sacred sites. Some are powered by water, wind, or heat to keep them in constant motion.

A Tibetan prayer wheel is a cylindrical object used in Tibetan Buddhism, often inscribed with or containing sacred mantras, most commonly "Om Mani Padme Hum." Spinning the wheel is believed to spread blessings, purify negative karma, and generate merit, as the act is considered equivalent to reciting the prayers aloud.

Both me and hubby took turn spinning the prayer wheel and taking photos as well. 😛 Then we descended back to the square and went to look for lunch. We ended up having lunch at a Lanzhou lamian restaurant before headed back to Shangrila train station.