Lijiang, Shangri-la & Dali

After hiking the gorge, we traveled to Shangri-la, Lijiang and Dali. All 3 cities are small by Chinese standards with Shangril-La being the smallest. It was actually called Zhongdian until 2001 when the local government thought that renaming it after the mythical place would attract more tourists. All three cities are famous for having "old towns" that were not fully destroyed in the last 100 years as so much of China was. 

View out the window as we climbed onto the Tibetan  plateau 

Monastery being "upgraded" the white square buildings are older while the  higher buildings with gold roofs are being built.  

Tanya and some prayer wheels and flags outside Shangri-la

Streets of Shangri-la

View outside of our hotel, Linden Center, in Dali, rice fields.

Old Dali, people playing cards and mahjong in the park on a dreary afternoon.

Our hotel in Dali. It was a home built in the 1940s. It was occupied by the army during the cultural revolution.