About Diqing

Diqing means Auspicious & Nice Place in Tibetan, is Shangri-la that people have been searching hard more than half century for. It’s located in the northwest of Yunnan, where Yunnan, Tibet and Sichuang Provinces join together. Diqing is the only passage that connects Yunnan with Tibet, in the ancient time, it was a section of famous Ancient Tea Caravan Way, a lot of local merchandise from Yunnan, tea, salt, fabrics…were transported into Tibet via Diqing, at the same time herbal medicine, furs, livestock from Tibet were continuously imported into Yunnan the same way. It’s a very important distribution center of trade between ancient Yunnan and Tibet.

The territory of Diqing covers an area of 24 thousand square kilometers, connected with Tibet in the north, with Sichuang Province in the east, with Lijiang Prefecture in the South and Nujiang Prefecture in the West, including Shangri-la County, Deqing County and Weixi County, among which Shangri-la is the capital of prefecture. Total population of Diqing is around 330 thousand, consisting of Tibetan, Naxi, Bai, Yi, Hui, Miao, Nu, Pume, Lisu, etc, 25 ethnic groups go well with each other and live altogether. Deqing is autonomous prefecture of Tibetan people.

Deqing is the highest part of Yunnan, the average altitude is over 3300 meters. Ancient tableland, grand snow mountains and big rivers are the main component parts of local landform, the big height difference between river valley, where elevation might be only 1480 meters, and major peak of snow mountain, where altitude hits 6740 meters, can be over 5000 meters, such combination created spectacular views and often brings visitors heartquakes. Temperate Zone Climate and Frigid-temperate Zone Climate are the dominant climate types over locality, annual average temperature ranges from 4.7 degrees to 16.5 degrees, yearly highest temperature is 25 degrees and the lowest is minus 27 degrees. The best time to visit Deing is in Spring and Summer, but even in Spring and Summer, weather is very changeable and sometimes snowy.

The tourism resources in Deqing is rich, snow mountains, low-altitude glaciers, grand river canyons of upriver Yangtze and Mekong, countless alpine lakes, colorful meadows and big amount of rare fauna and floral species are the components of Deqing’s attraction. Besides, the mysterious religious culture also draws people, 25 ethnic groups live together in Deqing through generations, and they hold different beliefs, Tibetan Buddhism, Christianity, Catholicism, Islamism, etc, all amazingly coexist in the same region even in the same village. In addition, colorful ethnic festivals, traditions and elaborate handicrafts are also come-hither to travelers from all over the world.