Shangri-la

I was reading through National Geographic magazine the other day when I read an article about Shangri-la. The article was about how this religious site is being affected my business and the progression of land development. Over the past decade this route has been transformed from just a humble dirt path to a tourist attraction.
Every year thousands of faithful Buddhist followers make the journey that usually takes around two weeks to climb a pass between Yunnan and Tibet. Along the way the pilgrim’s can place prayer flags which already cover the area. The airport road now has bill boards that promote cars and luxury travel. The increase tourism has helped many of the local people. Now there are more people to buy their products. Normally there would just be pilgrim’s that are going for religious reasons to Shangri-la but tourists are willing to spend money on products the local people are selling.
The lands that are fertile croplands are being threatened by the local government. The government proposed to build 13 dams in 2003 it has been reduced to 4. The dams would flood the fertile croplands which are few and far between. The dams would also flood the thermal pools which are public baths used by people to celebrate the coming of spring. Most of them are now being used by tourist resorts.
On the opposite side it has allowed for the people of Shangri-la to have better villages and more stable income. The people of the villages can now go to school and skills to help them find better jobs. These advances in the area have allowed for the people there to have dreams of a better life. Many of them now can go to the malls and shop where as before they could only shop in their local market.
With all of the new changes in Shangri-la there are both positive and negative ones. As the people around have more access to better homes and medical supplies their own traditions are being absorbed by the new culture entering the area. Only time will tell how much of their culture truly gets lost with the new advancements.
Jenkins, Mark.“Searching for Shangri-la”. National Geographic. May 2008.