China has a fantastic gift for confusing the boundaries between the ancient and the modern. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Yunnan, where China has given certain “old” towns and villages new life, a facelift of sorts, all while convincing everyone around them that the new actually is the old, and not the other way around. Those of us lucky enough to have been around for awhile have actually seen this phenomenon in action. While Lijiang’s Old Town is actually old, many of the older buildings were destroyed during an earthquake that took place in 1997. The bulk of the buildings in Lijiang’s Old Town, while built in the old style, are not particularly old themselves. We give Lijiang, and Dali for that matter, a pass because of its history, and because there are many legitimately old buildings in these cities, but other places are harder to ignore.

When I first visited Shangri-La 7 years ago it was called Zhongdian and was a relatively obscure place, well known only among hardcore travelers, mountain climbers, and students of Tibetan culture. I wouldn’t say it was off the beaten path, particularly, but the path was certainly not as well trodden as it is now, and, to be honest, Zhongdian was simply at the time not the kind of place that would attract a whole lot of your typical tourists. It had a main road with several western style cafes and guesthouses, a beautiful nature preserve, a monastery, and in the distance there was the Meili Snow Mountain. Of course, Zhongdian still has all of these things, but now it has a whole lot more, including a new name. Having decided that Zhongdian was, definitively, the place written about in Lost Horizon, the local authorities officially renamed Zhongdian Shangri-La, and Shangri-La it set about becoming.

Shangri-La, Yunnan (photo: 517et.com)

We went to Shangri-La again this summer, it being one of the few places in Yunnan that my husband had not yet visited. My husband was counting on me to be at least somewhat familiar with the city, but my knowledge proved out of date. We arrived in Shangri-La and discovered that there was now a Lijiang-style Old Town. The Old Town, like other Old Towns, used to be part of the Tibetan quarter, and of course, in this area the buildings were always older than the rest. However, on top of these old buildings a layer of newness, of tourist-trap goodness had been built. The Old Town was now a cluster of bars, guesthouses, shops for trinkets, Tibetan silver jewelry, minority clothing, and even a square, where nightly dances were held, just like in Lijiang or Shuhe. Shangri-La’s Old Town had been commercialized. In fact, whereas 7 years I had only been vaguely aware of the existence of an Old Town, and it certainly wasn’t a place that would have warranted much attention, except, perhaps, a walk around to look at the architecture, the Old Town seemed to now be the central part of Zhongdian – I mean Shangri-La’s – tourist industry. When I returned to Kunming I asked my friend Mike, who had been with me in Zhongdian all those years ago, if he remembered anything about an Old Town, and he was equally mystified.

The biggest perpetrator of all, perhaps though, is Shuhe, which did not in fact exist in anywhere near its current state until roughly 4 years ago, when an investment company came in and gave this nondescript village at the foot of the mountain a huge makeover. Previously Shuhe was similar to any other village in the area – perhaps more picturesque than most, with its streams and canals and with its location on the edge of a mountain, but it was still a rather ordinary place, as far as Yunnanese villages go. I came upon Shuhe for the first time after trekking up the mountain and coming down on the other side. At the time I was not even aware of the existence of such a place, so imagine me and my companions, coming down a mountain after trekking for nearly 6 hours and happening upon a town, a miracle of tourism that, when we had visited as recently as a year previously, simply wasn’t there. It felt like a mirage! Today Shuhe, which, remember, 5 years ago was just a simple village at the foot of a mountain, is a bustling tourist center which boasts a live music scene, many cute guesthouses, great food, excellent shops, and most astoundingly, charges a 50RMB entrance fee (up 20RMB from 3 years ago!) to enter what is, for all intents and purposes, a brand new old town. Whether or not anyone is fooled into thinking that Shuhe is actually some ancient town, I am not sure, but Shuhe, despite the relative lack of old-ness, is one of my favorite places in Yunnan, so they must be doing something right. Giving the ancient a modern twist, or in some cases reinventing it entirely, is an art that China has perfected. Travelers seeking a purely authentic experience will often be disappointed to find that in this country, “authentic” is a bit of an anathema to the powers that be. Those back alleys that, to foreigners, represent the China of the past, to many Chinese themselves represent a dark period in history. Cities like Shangri-La or Shuhe aim to capture the best of both worlds -- the charm of the ancient and the progress represented by all that is new and shiny, and in some cases they just about succeed.

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Related Links

My Favorite Places in Yunnan
Heaven on Earth—the Ancient Town of Lijiang
Minority Report: Preservation or Exploitation?

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