Shangri-la

[grumbler]

Careful Monny. I hear your government kills the weak and bills the family for the cost of hauling the body to the local dog food factory.

  "Dog: food" means something completely different in Chinese, and they don't process them in factories, but in individual kitchens.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Meant for export.

Careful Monny. I hear your government kills the weak and bills the family for the cost of hauling the body to the local dog food factory.

  "Dog: food" means something completely different in Chinese, and they don't process them in factories, but in individual kitchens.

[DisturbedPervert]

Pics... of the Yeti please.

Recently captured Oriental Yeti

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7557799/Oriental-yeti-discovered-in-China.html

[Josquius]

How very disgusting. Looks like some kind of freakish mutant dog.

[Monoriu]

My wife has always insisted that she can't go to Tibet because of the altitude.  We just found out that -

Lhasa: about 3,600 metres above sea level.
Shangri-la: about 3,400 metres.  Some of the places we went to actually were over 4,000 metres above sea level.

I am going to visit: Tibet 

[katmai]

Well duh.

I was born at 3,000 meters above sea level.

[Monoriu]

Although Shangri-la is in Yunnan province, the majority of the population is Tibetan.  All the signs are bilingual - Chinese and Tibetan.  On the highway from Lijiang to Shangri-la, there were dozens of bill boards advertising Tibetan ceremonial daggers.   "Imitated by hundreds, surpassed by none - buy xxx daggers".  "Cuts iron like butter".  Etc.

It wasn't that long ago that we were on a road in a poor part of the world.  The trip reminded us of the Sri Lankan journey.  Now, Yunnan is one of the poorer parts of China.  But it looks much better than Sri Lanka.  The livestock looked normal, the roads were all paved, the houses were made of well-aligned bricks and had a proper roof.  In Sri Lanka, most of the livestock and pets looked like they were about to collaspe any minute, and there was not much between their skin and bones.  The houses were made of an assortment of trash that had plenty of holes.  The "roads" were just clearings and open spaces between buildings.  Most strikingly, there were hills of uncollected domestic waste on the roadsides. 

One thing I really don't miss is Tibetan food.  There are good reasons why Tibetan cuisine is not very well known, and there are few Tibetan restaurants.  Their best dish is hotpot (slices of meat, potato, tofu and veggies cooked in beef/chicken stock), which is decent.  Next is a bunch of dishes made from their unique "hairy cattle".  No matter what beef dish I ordered, the meat always came in thin slices.  That's a good sign that the meat is very chewy and dry, instead of tender and juicy. 

My altitude sickness was made worse by the fact that I developed severe digestive problems.  There was so much gas being produced inside me that if I slept for 2-3 hours, I would wake up looking pregnant.  I soon realized that my stomach refused to digest the Tibetan beef (I can eat beef with no problem anywhere else in the world). 

[Monoriu]

The hotel was built on a hillside, for the view.  First sign of trouble was when the Tibetan bell boy took our 22+kg luggage and walked up the 30 steps of stairs or so to get to our room, as if nothing happened.  I was carrying nothing but I couldn't follow him, at all.  My lungs were breathing as if I just worked out in a gym for more than an hour.  The temperatures were close to zero C, so I was breathing in icy air. 

Before we left HK, Yunnan featured in the headlines.  They were suffering from one of the worst droughts in living memory.  It rained/snowed non-stop while we were there.  I demand to be hailed as a deity. 

[starbright]

Did you take any part of that elevated rail line? That is one thing I want to do if I ever travel to China.

[Zanza]

I am going to visit: Tibet 

Imperialist oppressor. 

[Zanza]

By the way, I was under the impression that Shangri-La is a fictional place...

[The Brain]

By the way, I was under the impression that Shangri-La is a fictional place...

About as fictional as Rohan and The Shire in New Zealand.

[The Brain]

I was born at 3,000 meters above sea level.

?

[Josquius]

By the way, I was under the impression that Shangri-La is a fictional place...

It was. Then someone figured out renaming a place that would be good tourist advertising.

[Ed Anger]

By the way, I was under the impression that Shangri-La is a fictional place...

It was also an Essex class carrier.