A national park complex with the most excellent name of ‘Greater Shangri-La’ is being constructed near the Three Parallel Rivers in Yunnan. The complex includes Potatso National Park, Meili Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-La Gorge, Tacheng National Park for the Yunnan Golden Monkey and many other scenic sites.

So it will be big, colorful and will pull yet more tourists to the area which is under the supervision of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The Three Parallel Rivers area is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. And rightly so. Three of China’s great rivers — the Yangtze, Nujiang and Lancangjiang — run roughly parallel from north to south for 170 km. The Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture accounts for 49.2% of the total area which is a magical group of alpine landscapes.

Presently, the Potatso National Park is mapping out its second phase of construction. The road construction up into Meili Snow Mountain will begin soon. By the end of this year, several projects will start equipping the Tacheng National Park for the Yunnan Golden Monkey with a security system and Damo Cave with an asphalt road.

To include the formerly independent Bitahai Lake and Shuduhu Lake into the complex, a 69-km environmental-friendly asphalt road and a 10-km plank road constructed with advanced Finnish technology are being installed. All of which links these areas of outstanding national beauty into one.

The problem will be dealing with all of the visitors who want to go there. However, the parks of this area have much experience and will almost certainly keep it under control. Doubtless there will be loud lamentations from those who would like to keep this a wilderness with only a selected few — basically themselves — visiting. However, there does seem to be a concerted effort to keep the project under control and not impinge much on the area’s natural beauty.
Source: China.org.cn

Amanresorts has signed a co-operation agreement with Beijing Zhaode Property to build a five-star Amanresort in the Shangri-La area of Yunnan province. This according to the Yunnan Diqing Tibetan Autonomous District Government.

More than RMB300 million (US$38 million) will be spent on the resort, which will be built around the Pudacuo area and will feature local minority architecture. Which sounds pretty plain and straightforward. It is anything but for this resort, which will be the extension of the dreams and visions of the world’s most remarkable hotelier, Adrian Zecha.

The question has been asked whether the introduction of a hotel which is, effectively, part of a chain be a suitable move for an area which you can think of as Shangri-la, Yunnan. In fact, there is only one hotel group that you would seriously trust to get it right and that is AmanResorts. It was the first luxury Bali hideaway built by Adrian Zecha which showed how a stylish and expensive, hotel could blend into a country setting. From there the Aman chain went from strength to strength. There was a bit of drama a few years ago when an American company had control but the reins are now firmly back in the hands of Adrian Zecha.

He is obsessed, no other word, at the idea of creating hotels which do not intrude, do not damage, but become part of the locality. Yes, the result is expensive — never less than US$500 a day, probably US$1,000 — but the result is perfection in a landscape. Adrian Zecha was a most remarkable publisher. He is also, almost without any argument, the most creative, caring and stylish hotelier in the world.
Source: TTG Travel Hub