Back to Shangri-La After Two and a Half Years (Part Two)

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Back to Shangri-La After Two and a Half Years (Part One)

At the end of the first section in Pudacuo, we waited for the bus to the second section. After about a ten-minute ride, we finally arrived at the second section — Shudu Lake. I heard this is where Xie Na and Zhang Jie held their wedding!

The first section had tired us out, so for the second section, we decisively chose to take a boat. The boat tickets weren’t cheap — I think it was around sixty or seventy yuan per person.

Before boarding, we looked around from the shore. The scenery was actually quite ordinary, not even as nice as the riverside back home. But since we’d come all this way, we still had to take a few photos for the memories.

We found a viewing platform where several people were taking photos, so we joined them. The wind was incredibly strong! After adjusting our angles for several shots, a sudden gust of wind blew my hat into the lake. It was a new hat, and this was its first time out for photos. Oh well, its mission was accomplished. (The scenic area has occasional strong gusts — you really need to fasten your hat strap tight!)

The boat ride lasted about ten minutes. The whole time, I was searching for beautiful scenery but couldn’t find any. It was basically just a ferry crossing — the boat ticket was truly overpriced.

Finally off the boat — it wasn’t fun, and now we had to walk along the long boardwalk.

Suddenly, looking up, I saw tree beards again. I heard golden snub-nosed monkeys love eating them, though I don’t know if they taste good. The scenery here was still just so-so — maybe the clouds had thickened. In short, the second section of Pudacuo didn’t have scenery as beautiful as the first section.

Walking along, I went to use the restroom. When I came out and sat on a bench, I noticed some women touching up their makeup. I suddenly saw a sign across the way that read “Vacuum Environmental Toilet 3595m” — I wonder what “vacuum” means in this context?

Hurry, hurry — off to the third section!

On the way to the third section, the altitude was definitely higher, and I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable. I frantically puffed on oxygen. But so many people around seemed unaffected, leisurely scrolling on their phones. Was I the only one struggling this much?? I refused to believe that. Looking around, I spotted two people using an oxygen concentrator — haha, that’s another good option.

The ride might have been half an hour, or maybe just ten or fifteen minutes — I was too miserable to tell. Finally, we arrived.

Shortly after getting off the bus, I saw a group of adorable cows. If I hadn’t seen them with my own eyes, I would have thought someone had Photoshopped the scene!

One of them was particularly cute — when it noticed the camera, it even posed for a photo!

Walking along the boardwalk, I spotted several cute-looking little squirrels.

This was when our prepared biscuits came in handy. These squirrels seemed to have poor vision, smell, and hearing — you could call out to them and they wouldn’t hear. I threw a biscuit to within ten centimeters of one, and it ran to within one centimeter of the biscuit but didn’t pick it up to eat. That’s what you call adorably clueless!

After feeding them for over ten minutes, my legs went numb. The squirrels had probably had enough — maybe they were stuffed. These squirrels had it made — they didn’t need to find food; humans were chasing after them to feed them.

Continuing along the boardwalk, I noticed a crowd ahead. Turns out, in the distance under the blue sky and white clouds, there were lakes, meadows, and herds of horses — so beautiful, like a painting, like an AI-generated image! But this was real — so beautiful it seemed unreal. This was just too stunning!

This was absolutely the most beautiful part of Pudacuo! We went crazy taking photos and videos with our phones and cameras, sending raw unedited images to friends. Some people even said it looked like AI-generated art or thought we’d applied filters, haha!

We stayed here for a long time before reluctantly leaving — it was truly so beautiful! The real thing was even more stunning than the photos.

On the way back, we spotted a crowd gathered around a cow. Fortunately, we still had some biscuits left, so we got to play with it again.

This little yellow cow (yellow fur — though I’m not sure if it was actually a yellow cattle breed) was quite greedy, stretching out its tongue and drooling profusely.

Before we knew it, it was around 5:30 PM, and we took the bus back to the visitor center. As soon as we arrived, we hurriedly jumped into a car, planning to head back to Dukezong Ancient Town.

While chatting away, something felt a bit too easy. A few minutes later, it dawned on me — our suitcase was still in the storage locker at the visitor center! We immediately jumped out of the car, walked quickly (I really didn’t dare run, and couldn’t have anyway), and made it back to the storage locker to retrieve our suitcase.

Coming out, we saw a tour bus and asked the driver if it went to Dukezong Ancient Town. He said yes, so we got on. This bus only cost 15 yuan per person — cheaper than the earlier 20-yuan ride.

I don’t remember what time we arrived at the ancient town, but I was starving. After dropping our luggage at the hotel (it was just a two-minute walk from the ancient town entrance to our hotel), we immediately went looking for food.

We went to a Tibetan restaurant that was supposed to be very delicious. It was just outside the ancient town but not far. As soon as we arrived, I was captivated by the tables and decor at the entrance — full of ethnic character, with excellent interior design.

The baba (flatbread) here was delicious! When I asked, they said it was fried butter with milk curds — it looked so sophisticated!

The Tibetan-style barbecue was also fragrant. I have to compliment this restaurant on their beautiful plating!

By the time we finished eating, it was quite late. We took a taxi back to the hotel. Last time we visited, we stayed at this same hotel — because it was clean, we chose it again. From the scenic room, you could even see the snow-capped mountain peaks, though it was June so there was no snow. However, we were very lucky — the next day, we saw clouds creeping over from the opposite mountain.

The hotel’s breakfast was very delicious, especially these rice noodles!