Beware of local scam: men selling nut and sweets by weight for an outrageous price.
Another tourist trap is the Tibetan medical man in a Tibetan herbal museum , where most of the guided tour will arrange to visit without inform you. The medical man in a private room, will look at your palm, and telling you that you suffer from certain health problems, and they can help you to cure it by their herbal prescription. If you are from oversea, they will suggested a 3 months prescription, costing hundreds to thousands Reminbi(Chinese dollars). You may be facing undue pressure by their sometime health threatening talk or persuasion. If you are from the same religion, it will be added psychological pressure. An obvious tourist trap using medicine and religion.
Tangka painting - private tour will take you to a tangka exhibition, a form of Tibetan traditional painting. Tangka painting is linked to religion, not purely traditional painting. A guided tour will bring you to the exhibition, a lecture related to religion will take place in a room, after the talk, the speaker will give you a card with religion content, and pursue to buy tangka painting under undue pressure to buy linking with religion. It is �100 per tangka.
Herbal medicine, they will say it is better as it is grow in the higher attitude than Schechuan or other part of China. Unless you know the price and quality of the herbal medicine, it is better to avoid it as it is very expensive.
Oxygen - The tour guide will tell you that oxygen is a must in snow mountain tour, they will tell you the oxygen you buy at Lijiang or other place is of lesser quality, sometime they will tell you it led to poisoning. The oxygen you buy is of better quality, it is pure oxygen. Advise to take one tank before going to the snow mountain, and buy another tank to be used while at the mountain. Each bottle or tank is cost �50-55, �100 for 2 bottles. The tour guide that warned you of highland sickness will earn a commission on that as a little card issued by the shop will be given to tour guide to exchange with a bottle of mineral water. A little card determined how many oxygen bottles been sold. A bottle of oxygen will normally cost �15-20 per bottle. Oxygen requirement depended on the individual health condition, normally you do not need it, if you are fearful of the highland sickness, just buy one bottle. There will be unused oxygen bottle available as many may not need that. It was surprise when we went to highland in Switzerland, there is no commercial persuasion of that type in the country.
Don't panic, just avoid large group organised travel, or hiring a guide through large agencies. Check first if guides run on a kickback basis (the norm and officially sanctioned throughout Yunnan.)
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Shangrila
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Shangrila - updated Apr 2024
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Shangrila Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
