Dukezong Ancient Town in Shangri-La – the Garden of Eden in Southern China

Dukezong Ancient Town, a quiet place belonged to Shangri-La Yunnan, is the Garden of Eden in Southern China. May be few people know that Dukezong is titled as “the city of moonlight”.

 

The quietness of Dukezong is unique. This ancient town was built according to the Shangbala – an ideal country which was described in the Buddhism script. With about 1,300 years history, Dukezong Ancient Town once experienced the battle scene in the past, the prosperity of the Ancient Tea and Horse Road, and the development of Shangri-La.

 

In the Tibetan language, “dukezong” is the pronunciation referred to two meanings, one is “the castle built on the stone”, and the other one is “the city of moonlight”.

 

Dukezong Ancient Town is quiet in most time of a day. The glaring sunlight which shines on this place during the mid-day causes Dukezong quieter than any other time. Although it is now a place for people to find out the quietness, it also has been experienced disturbs from the noisy world. The most serious one happened in the 1910s. During that time, Shangri-La had been invaded by brutal brigands for three times. Since that time, Shangri-La became a poor place. Merchants were afraid to run their businesses there, and the Tea and Horse Road gradually became decline.

 

Dukezong Ancient Town is not very wide. Taking the Guishan Park as the central living area, residences have dwelled here for generations, Giant Buddha Temple and the world’s largest prayer wheel are built on the peak of Guishan Mountain. Dukezong is built based on the mountain. The endless road in zig-zag shape has been shaped by the time. Sometimes it may cause people an illusion that we may lose ourselves in this ancient road. The time-old stone used for building this road now is still keeping the footprints of horses. It may be the clue for the world to trace the past prosperous time.

 

Behind the Dukezong Ancient Town, there is a small size mountain called Xiaoguishan. In the mountain, there is a palace called Chaoyang Palace which was built in Qianlong Period Qing Dynasty. Because of its high location, the palace is more like the one inside the sky and surrounded by clouds, very magnificent scene. And on the top of the mountain, there is a large prayer wheel. It is said that it is the world’ largest prayer wheel that has been recorded in the Guinness World Records The golden wheel is always shining and stretching into the sky. With the blue sky and white clouds accompany, the prayer wheel is always working for protect the residents in this moonlight city away from unhappiness,
 
 

The shops along the street, no too much different from the ones in Dali and Lijiang, while not as crowded as that in Lijiang.

 

Yak meat chafing dish is the brand cuisine of each restaurant in Dukezong Ancient Town. I was just a little afraid of the yak meat which was hanging on the wall. Not got used of this taste, but it was really a time-old restaurant which had been existed for 127 years,

 

The scenery outside the ancient town, still keeping the Tibetan style which emphasizes the beauty of the reality.