www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

chinadaily.com.cn
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Top of the world view

Updated: 2012-08-20 14:40
By Ellie Buchdahl ( China Daily)

Top of the world view

The Songtsam Meili is one of four Songtsam Lodges sitting halfway up the Meili Snow Mountain. The spectacular scenery can be enjoyed most of the year, but roads are closed in winter. Photos provided to China Daily

Top of the world view

Huge picture windows in the library of the Songtsam Meili allow guests to be struck speechless by the majesty of the mountains in the distance.

Ellie Buchdahl goes on adventure in Shangri-La and finds that comfort and quirky charm are just some of the attractions offered by the luxury lodges there.

Soaring mountain peaks, smiling ethnic villagers in bright clothes, and a sense of spirituality to convince the most ardent atheist Tibet is the top choice for every off-the-beaten-track China traveler. But we failed to meet the Tibet group requirements and had to find an alternative.

In my family's case, the authorities didn't see eye to eye with my mother having a different surname to my brother and myself. Mom, who had been relishing the idea of "roughing it", panicked.

She contacted a British travel agent for an alternative holiday to include Tibetan-style elements of natural beauty, rich culture and few tourists, but with the options of comfy beds and breakfast. The travel agent suggested northern Yunnan.

"There are some very nice small new hotels here now," he wrote. And so my mother, brother and I booked into three of the Songtsam Lodges.

Songtsam's founder Baima Dorji established his first hotel in Shangri-La (Zhongdian) in 2001 as a mid-range backpacker hostel. Inspired by boutique hotels in other countries, Baima wanted to combine comfort with quirky charm and allow guests to get up close to the local culture of his own hometown of Shangri-La.

Now there are four Songtsam Lodges - Shangri-La, Benzilan, Meili and Tacheng - with a fifth in Cizhong scheduled to open later this year. Together they form a circuit around the three parallel rivers - the Yangtze, the Mekong and the Nujiang (Salween).

At either 900 or 1,600 yuan ($140-250) per night (depending on the lodge), they are no longer backpacker hostels. But, as executive general manager Jia Liming told me when I met her in Beijing before we set off, the idea is still "to create the feeling of coming home".

"It's not a luxury shining lobby, a five-star hotel with a big bathtub," she says. "Our purpose is travel, to bring people to some really remote places where they can experience the culture and the nature in comfort."

For "luxury shining lobbies", you have the Songtsam Retreat in Shangri-La, a 75-bedroom whopper of a five-star hotel established by Baima in 2009 and now managed by the Accor group. It was here that we spent our first night in Yunnan.

The king-size beds of the retreat were nice, but we reckoned it must be a good sign that local officials seem to prefer the lodge.

The Songtsam Lodge had no "eggs your style" stand at breakfast, no spa center, and the complimentary toiletries were a tad more limited than those of the retreat. But from the small, shady front courtyard filled with trees, wooden trellises and wicker armchairs, it was obvious that the lodge was going to win on character.

Inside, polished floors and creaking, narrow staircases were crammed with Tibetan antiques - a wooden chest painted with tigers, for example, or a bronze statuette of a Buddha.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

8.03K
 
Hot Topics
Photos that capture the beauty of China.
...
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产一区二区三区四区在线观看 | 久久亚洲国产成人亚 | 亚洲福利国产精品17p | 黄色毛片免费在线观看 | 直接在线观看的三级网址 | 暖暖在线精品日本中文 | 日韩欧美在线观看一区 | 亚洲欧美日韩精品永久在线 | 在线播放国产一区二区三区 | 欧洲一级大片 | 真人一级毛片免费完整视 | 日韩综合色 | 92自拍视频 | 美女黄色片免费 | 国美女福利视频午夜精品 | 久久久香蕉视频 | 手机看片久久高清国产日韩 | 日韩精品一区二三区中文 | 黄色美女视频免费 | 久久精品国产99久久久 | 日韩免费三级 | 午夜伊人 | 一区二区在线免费视频 | 欧美日韩大片 | 成人免费一级片 | 日本高清在线中文字幕网 | 欧美成在线视频 | 亚洲香蕉一区二区三区在线观看 | 亚洲国产日韩精品 | 99热久久国产这里是精品 | 欧美大陆日韩 | 高清午夜线观看免费 | 天堂一区二区三区在线观看 | 亚洲不卡视频在线观看 | 一区二区三区精品国产欧美 | 久久视频6免费观看视频精品 | 99热在线免费 | 国产欧美日韩在线视频 | 美女国产在线观看免费观看 | 精品国产品国语在线不卡丶 | 一本久道在线 |