Shangrila, Yunnan: I'm here at last! It's been raining non-stop since I arrived but my guesthouse (and the cozy bar across the street) keeps me warm with big woodstoves and an ample supply of yak-butter tea. The tea is a staple of the Tibetan diet and it's perfect for warming you up from the inside. It's made by mixing black tea with yak butter and milk in a long thin churn. The resulting tea is thick and creamy but salty. If you let it go too long, the butter will congeal on top. (That happened to me the first time I drank it and I ended up eating a bowl of butter so I wouldn't seem impolite!)


I've arrived yesterday just in time for start of the Horse Festival. Every June, after the planting time and before mushroom picking season, Zhongdian (Shangrila's original Chinese name) holds a three day festival of dancing, horse racing and general revelry. I found out today that there's also a snake lady tent, a dog show for Tibetan Mastiffs and plenty of wierd food on sticks. The fair grounds were filled with Tibetans in traditional dress (pink headresses and long aprons for the women; big capes and sabers for the men) and a stage in the middle showcased traditional dance. There were a few fanny-pack laden tourists, but the festival really seems like a local celebration.

My favorite part of the day was meeting a group of children from a nearby orphanage. They were sitting on the wall of the racetrack, cheering for one of their schoolmates who was pulling ahead in the race. They looked really happy perched there (rosy cheeked and muddy), and it reminded me that Shangrila is everywhere, for everyone.