Those of us not too tired from the previous days hike (I won’t name names)
spent a few hours in the morning, hiking from Tina’s Guest House down to Tiger Leaping Rock.This was another beautiful hike - on average, I’d have to say the scenery was even better than a lot of the previous days hike, because it covered more vertical terrain in a shorter distance.
A few hours later by minivan, we arrived in Zhongdian. This town was actually renamed to “Shangri-La” by the Chinese, presumably in attempt to bring in some more tourism dollars. It is indeed a pretty town, but I’m not quite sure that it lives up to the name Shangri-La. I was told, however, that in May/June the flowers cover the mountains and it’s much more beautiful.
Zhongdian does have a nice Old City area, with a lot of restuarants, shops, and nightlife. This was the first town where we encountered the strong Tibetan culture, with giant prayer wheels, and, every evening in the town square, a dance takes place.
The Tibetan dance is particularly intriguing. It takes place in every downtown square, every evening. Every walk of life participates - young, old, male, female, professional, farmers, etc. The picture below is the evening dance from the newer part of the city - there were absolutely no tourists here, and they were surprised to see me there - but as in every part of Tibet we visited, everyone was extremely friendly.
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