Getting to Shangri-La was easy – a 1-hour flight from Chengdu. Getting from the airport to the hotel was a little more difficult – because of construction, it took longer to travel the 2 miles to the hotel than it did to fly here. Getting out of Shangri-La was a different story altogether.
There are only 2 reasonable ways to get from Shangri-La to Lijiang, our next stop: a public bus with stops and transfer, or a private car and driver. We chose the car and driver, not knowing this:
- 110 miles, but took over 4 hours
- Very old van with worn-out shocks and no seat belts
- Rough, winding road
- Slower vehicle in front of us? Blind curve? No problem. We’ll pass anyway.
The best parts are not on the video because I was holding on.