We took a day and half trip from Lijiang to Shangri La, an even older town than Lijiang located high in the mountains with great religious history.  We made a pit stop at Tiger Leaping Gorge, which was one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen.   It is located in the middle of two Himalayan mountains, and it is a giant bustling river around some very large rocks.  Pictures to follow- it was amazing!

As we ventured farther up into the mountains, we began to travel into the Eastern Tibetan region.  Once we arrived in Shangri La, I originally thought the town looked extremely run-down.  However, our tour guide started to bring us around, and it immediately reminded me of an older Lijiang.  The old town of Shangri La features small shops and restaurants, and between the two days we visited a Tibetan Buddhist temple and monestary, which were incredible to see.

Experiencing the Buddhist culture and religion firsthand was one of the most eye opening experiences I have had.  Something that stood out to me occurred in Shangri La old town.  At the Buddhist temple there is a extremely large golden cylinder that you spin around three times to bring good luck and health to yourself and your family.  Our entire class spun around the (very heavy) pole, which attracted some of the Chinese taking videos of us.

After spinning the pole around, you go inside the temple, where you prey to Buddha, grab a stick of incense from the Tibetan monk, and walk around the inside of the temple three times.  After this, you walk around the temple three times to complete your good luck.  All of the information I learned from our time at Shangri La and my firsthand experience with Buddhism greatly opened my eyes to everything that goes into this religion.  The Tibetan monestary was absolutely stunning as well.  Wi-fi is not being kind to picture uploading, so hopefully I will be able to get some pictures up from today tomorrow morning.

We leave Lijiang tomorrow morning to head to Dali.