The long-awaited day has finally arrived! I went up a snow mountain and see snow for the first time in my 23 years of life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The highlight of Day 6 was the Shika Snow Mountain which stands at 4400 meters above sea level! It was the place that I looked forward most to for this Yunnan trip and I took great care and precaution, ensuring that I did not fall sick or experience high altitude sickness such that I can hit the peak. During the past few days, a few of my tour members had experienced high altitude sickness where some had diarrhoea and vomited while others had breathing difficulties. So Mum had been very smart, making sure that we drank this mulberry chrysanthemum tea every night before we slept so that we had a stronger foundation before visiting Shika.
You have no idea how excited I was.
The prayer wheels of the Tibetian culture
Spinning the wheels for good luck as we went up to the tourism centre...
Other buddhism structure...
Do you know that the Tibetans (who are also buddhists) have several forms of burials when one passes away? The first one is sky burial which involves chopping the body into several pieces by a master up in the mountain and leave them for the vultures to feed on. They believe that vultures are spiritual birds as you often don't find the bodies of dead vultures. According to our local guide, when vultures know that they are going to die, they will fly and eventually explode. Hence, the Tibetans believe that vultures can bring their souls closer to heaven.
The second form of burials is water burial. I thought that means placing the body on a raft which will ultimately flow into the sea but the guide spoiled it when he told us that the body will be chopped up again and just thrown into the river for the fishes. The third form is ground burial and the last one is cremation. The more commonly practised burials will have to be the first two as buddhists believe in returning to nature and benevolence. They believe that our bodies are just carriers of our souls and that when we leave the world, we do not need this carrier anymore and instead of burning it, we use them for greater purposes such as feeding the animals. Complicated huh?
Our local guide (man) and our Singapore tour leader (woman with sunglasses)
Some tourists or rather adventurists came to Shangri-La specially for trekking. That is one of the routes they take to reach the Shika Mountain.
The cable car made two stops. One is at this place where there is a huge farm which the locals bring their yaks, sheep, cows up during the summer to graze.
No animals in sight as summer just began. The farmers were still on their way up the mountains.
Playing with this colourful shawl that I bought from Lijiang! The wind was so strong, the sun was shining, the pasture so wide and the mountains at the back so pretty!
Took this artistic shot for bro!
Making our way up to the next stop where the snow was!
Yay! Mum made it to the top, well not exactly the peak yet as there was still some climbing to be down but she decided to just rest here while waiting for us.
I'm so proud of you mum!
Bro and I made our way up to the peak. Even though there were stairs for us to climb, certain parts were steep. In addition, we felt shortness of breaths and panting hard. The sun was incredibly close to us too and we just took turns inhaling the oxygen from our bottle! For the first time, I felt like a mountaineer! LOL
Finally seeing snow! So happy!
And then the snow got so near to us! Must touch it so I know what it feels like! It was such an emotional and iconic time of my life, feeling snow. A bit 3 8 I know! LOL
BUT, snow just feels like ice shavings haha...
I thought I was a little overdressed as most of my tour members were wearing thin jackets. But man I was glad I brought this jacket along! It was freezing cold up there and the wind was so strong!
YAY bro, we made it to 4400 m above sea level! Next goal: Tibet!
I finally understood Shangri-La. This is paradise to me! The view is so awe-inspiring. And here, I see the beauty and power of God's creation. Never-ending mountains... SO, SO BREATHTAKING!
In case you don't know, my chinese name has a snow in it (xue) and mum told me that she named me xue li because she wants me to be as beautiful as the snow. But I had never seen snow then so I had no idea how beautiful it was. Now I finally understood. Unpolluted snow is so white and pure!
Azalea which only grows in the mountain, making it especially rare and a precious herb.
We spent the afternoon at this ancient town (yes another one) in Shangri-La where we met a Singaporean who set up a bed and breakfast business there. How brave was he to leave his family and set up business in this ulu place. Then that night, we took a domestic flight back to Kunming for two more days of sightseeing!
By the way, I'm going to Penang this coming Saturday with my family and so more travel pics to come! Have a great week!
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