Shangri-La and Meli Snow Mountain Tour

Welcome to Shangri-La, the Heaven on Earth!

According to your flight schedule, your private tour guide and driver will pick you up outside the Baggage Claim Area of the airport on time and then transfer you to the well-selected downtown hotel. The rest time of the day will be free for you to explore this beautiful and mysterious place.

After breakfast, we will first head to the Songzanlin Monastery, which is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Yunnan, also known as the Little Potala Palace. There are numerous treasures inside, including the Buddha statues, the palm-leaf scriptures, the thangka paintings, the golden or silver censers as well as the altar lamps which burn days and nights. The whole monastery was built on the mountain, like an ancient castle.

After appreciating the religious culture here, we will go to the next stop, the Potatso National Park, where you will be totally healed by the pristine ecology. "Pudacuo", means the lake where all living beings reach happiness and enter the paradise in Tibetan. The forest, meadow, wetland and lake, all these will present you wonderful sceneries each step and bring you peace of mind. Here, you can also encounter a variety of wildlife, which will not be afraid of you at all. Being ignored by the wild animals means that you are accepted by nature, and the boundary between human and nature becomes less clear at this moment.

At the end of the day, we will pay a visit to a Tibetan family home, where you will follow the locals to sing and dance, watch their performance, drink special buttered tea and taste delicious Tibetan hot pot. You will have a deeper understanding of the Tibetan life and culture, and the warmth of the Tibetan people will make you feel sad when leaving.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

Today, we will embark on a journey to Deqin to appreciate the amazing Meili Snow Mountain. On the way, we will first have a chance to see the Nixi Village from a distance. If you see chickens on the way, don't be surprised as the local chickens are free-range and they prey on insects, herbs and wild fruits, and drink water from the 3,000-meter (9843-feet) high snow-capped mountains. You can have a try at lunch to see how different it is with the normal chicken. Then we will visit the world wonder Jinsha River Great Bend, where the river makes a graceful turn in the shape of "Ω" around the pyramidal Rizhui Peak, very majestic and spectacular. Afterwards, we will come to the Dong Zhulin Temple, which is the birthplace of the Tibetan Buddhism in west Yunnan. Please kindly note that it is not allowed to take photos here.

Then we will continue to drive to Deqin. Upon arrival, you will have a short rest in the carefully selected hotel and then we will head to visit the Feilai Temple, which was built more than 400 years ago. Facing Kawagebo, the main peak of the Meili Snow Mountain, the Feilai Temple is a perfect place to shoot the "Sunshine Gold Mountain". If weather is fine, we could enjoy the magnificent view of the sunset over the Meili Snow Mountain.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

Today, we will get up early to watch the sunrise over the Meili Snow Mountain. The wake-up time will depend on the month of your visit, generally from 6:00 to 8:00. Getting up early is annoying, but trust me, when seeing the scenes of sunrise and sunshine gold mountain, you will feel it’s all worth it. The Meili Snow Mountain is one of the most beautiful snow mountains in China as well as one of the four sacred mountains for Tibetan Buddhism, so you will also enjoy the wonderful combination of nature and religious culture here.

Afterwards, we will visit the Mingyong Glacier, the longest and largest glacier among the four glaciers of the Meili Snow Mountain, extending 11.7 kilometers (7.27 miles) in an arc from the Meili Snow Mountain at 6,740 meters (22,112 feet) to the virgin forest zone at 2,600 meters (8,530 feet).

After finishing the visit, we will drive for around 4.5 hours back to Shangri-La.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

This morning, we will head to the last stop, the Dukezong Ancient Town, which is one of the largest and best preserved Tibetan residential complex in China. Here you will also have a chance to paint Tangka, which is a unique art form of painting in Tibetan culture, covering the history, politics, culture and social life of the Tibetan people.

After that, your guide and driver will see you off at the airport for your flight to the next destination. We sincerely hope you have enjoyed the tour. Bon Voyage!

Meals: Western buffet breakfast