It took us another 2 hours’ drive to get from Tiger Leaping Gorge to Dukezong, and the drive up gradually increased in elevation: from 1,900 meters at the Gorge to Dukezong’s 3,200m. Dukezong is a Tibetan town in Shangri-La county, and its ancient town center saw many visitors about, dressed up in Tibetan apparel.
Guishan Hill is located inside Dukezong Ancient Town itself, and is famous for its very large bronze giant prayer wheel where visitors can spin it clockwise for good fortune. Just to be sure, this is a team effort: you’d need at least a dozen people pulling the wheel at the same time for it to even begin to turn! I also need to emphasise the hill part of things: it’s not a tall hill and perhaps just 150 steps up. But the climb up was exhausting, largely because of Dukezong’s 3,200m altitude. There is seating along the way up for you to stop and take breaks as often as you need, so the climb was finally quite manageable. The bell is situated at an observation platform that lets you have great panoramic views of Dukezong.
Pictures!
That’s a wrap for Day 05 today. Our itinerary is light tomorrow, so we’d be getting some much-needed rest and having a later-than-normal breakfast before checking out the couple of places in the vicinity.