Elite Traveler September-October 2016

elite traveler SEPT/OCT 2016 93

The outdoor show, which is performed by 500 local farmers with the mountain as a backdrop, tells the story of the Tea Horse Road and the life of the minority of people who walked the trails

directed by Zhang Yimou, who was the mastermind behind the opening Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. The brilliant hour-long outdoor show, which is performed by 500 local farmers with the mountain as a backdrop, tells the story of the Tea Horse Road and the life of the minority of people who walked the trails. The highlight is 100 red-caped caravan chiefs riding around the ring on horses, whooping and waving their hats.

Next I meet Diana He, owner of the Fu Xing Chang tea house in the Old Town, who talks me through the Pu-erh tea-making process. A tea master weighs the leaves out to exactly 12.5oz, steams and then flattens them into a round cake by standing on a wobbling stone weight. “Pu-erh tea was cheap and unlike other teas it could be stored for long periods of time. It also contains the lowest amount of caffeine of all teas so it can be drunk all day,” says Diana, explaining why the Tibetans liked it so much. “In Tibet, people eat a lot of meat and the tea helps with digestion.” The next day, I get the taste of a typical Tibetan diet when I head north to Shangri-La for lunch: yak hot pot, baba bread and yak butter tea, which is seriously salty. The houses here feel more Tibetan too, with cream adobe walls, intricately carved wooden window frames and racks in the garden for drying hay. After a wander through the mostly deserted town in the pouring rain I carry on, driving north, past fields of barley, wandering cows on the road and wetlands where the only sound from grazing horses is the jingle-jangle of their bells in the wind, until we reach LUX Benzilan. The town itself is one of the last in Yunnan before the Tibetan border and the delightful 30-room hotel is right next to the Yangtze River. Interiors are carefully considered and full of local touches, from the cluster of handmade black clay lights made in the nearby pottery village of Nixi that hang in the lobby to the original wicker baskets and horse bells once used by the mule-drivers, which were bought

Above left: LUX Lijiang, the first in a planned string of hotels to line the Tea Horse Road Above right: Baoshan Stone Village clings to the sides of a massive rock