Trapped in Shangri-La: Seven days of (mis)adventure

Wed, 12/14/2011 - 05:00 — Anonymous Our drive starts out calmly enough. The
plan is to rent a SUV from the scenic town of Zhongdian -- also called
Shangri-La -- in northern Yunnan province, China, with a local driver for
three days to circumnavigate the majestic Meili Snow Mountain range.  After
that we would head over to the Tibetan-Yunnan border town of Deqin before
bearing south and ending our trip in the hyper-commercialized ancient town of
Lijiang. But like most adventurous trips, almost nothing went to plan -- we
veered far off our anticipated route. And our trip was all the better for
it.read more