Five Days in Shangri-la (3) By dandelion

Yunnan Shangri-la Travel

云南旅游香格里拉游记

2005-10-4

According to the hiker’s recommendation which I printed before and took with, we found Qin Ke Hostel. The old town was like Li Jiang. Many old style hostels, shops were there, but not so commercialized as Li Jiang. Generally, these houses were built with wood, and curved with delicate patterns.

We bought two fried cakes as our lunch, then got going to Song Zan Lin Temple松赞林寺by bus No.3. Ticket was RMB 10. You also could go into from White Tower for free. However I don’t recommend it. RMB 10 is not very expensive, and this temple is worthy of this price. Why do we save this little money and left bad impression here? We should escape only those tickets which not worthy their prices.

Song Zan Lin Temple were composed of several temples, the main temples were two. We followed a male guide, but his voice was not so clear, so we choose a female guide to follow. She explained very well. I know some historic and religion knowledge from her. The most famous frescos should be “Drive elephant into Tao” and “Six Taos Samsara”. It’s very interesting. The top of temple were splendid golden roof.

Came out from the biggest two temples, I parted from him, cause I wanted to visit White Tower. That was a Tibetan style tower, under the blue sky, it seemed special white. Many slates written scriptures were piled beside. Many colorful flags were hanged from the top of slate-pile to the ground.

There were many sword shops at the outside of Temple. I didn’t like sword, but he liked. So we spent much time here. I thought the quality of Tibetan sword was not good. They just had complicated silver decoration on scabbards, interior was made by wood, and even some swords couldn’t be pulled out smoothly. Some swords with good quality were from Yang Jiang, Guangdong, so we hadn’t bought anyone.

Back to old town, we past though the Young Hostel. I wrote our route of tomorrow on the blackboard, want to invite any partner, then we could share the transportation fare. Luckily, I received a call this evening, so I made an appointment with a driver.

Tips:

l Don’t escape ticket.

l Follow a guide.

l Walk along temples clockwise.

l Take off your hat and sunglasses. Taking photos is not allowed in some places.

l Don’t trample the doorsill. Do step into by left leg, and step out by right leg.

(古城)