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Driving distance

Zhongdian is 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lijiang. The road is good-conditioned, but has many mountainous curves. Figure on a minimum of 4 to 5 hours. Kunming is nearly 500 kilometers (300 miles) away.

Windshield sightseeing

The drive from Lijiang to Zhongdian to Deqin offers spectacular mountain and valley vistas. The closer you get to Deqin, the more the culture, architecture, clothing, food and ethnic features become Tibetan.

Shangri-La to Lhasa

You can visit both Shangri-La and Tibet on the same vacation without having to take a long, roundabout, plane-switching trip (which used to be the case). There are now scheduled daily flights between Shangri-La (Zhongdian) Airport and Lhasa. There are also scheduled flights from Chengdu, Dali, Kunming, and Lijiang.

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