Shangri-La & Meili Overland: 8 Days

Arrive in Lijiang (2,400 m) and settle into a quiet-side courtyard inn. The evening is for the old town's canals and bridges after the day-trippers leave — lantern light, running water, and the first night at altitude taken gently.

Drive two hours to Qiaotou and walk the gorge's famous high trail: the Twenty-Four Bends to the ledge guesthouses, lunch with the whole gorge below, and the afternoon along the path above the Jinsha river. The night is booked on the ledge — the gorge's own dawn included. A real walking day that doubles as the staircase's second step.

Morning descent to the gorge floor and the river's leaping narrows, then the road up the staircase to the plateau — barley fields, prayer flags and the first sight of Songzanlin's gilded roofs. Shangri-La (3,300 m) welcomes with an early night; the day's honesty is that the body, not the itinerary, sets the pace from here.

A deliberately gentle plateau day: the Songzanlin monastery with a resident guide — the halls, the monks' lanes and the kora circuit around the lake — then Dukezong's white-walled lanes and the giant prayer wheel. Butter tea, an early dinner, an early night.

West on the road the railway never reached: over the passes, down into the Lancang gorge and along it to the Feilai viewpoint (3,400 m) under the thirteen peaks. The afternoon is free for the viewpoint's terraces; the briefing is simple — two dawns are booked, and the mountain decides.

Pre-dawn on the viewing terrace: the valley fog, then first light walking up the thirteen peaks until Kawagebo's ice wall holds the pink. After breakfast and a hot lunch, the Mingyong glacier road — the village path to the range's lowest glacier tongue — or a rest afternoon if the mountain was generous.

The second dawn attempt — insurance, and often the better light. Then the Yubeng side-valley: walk or ride to the valley mouth and up the pilgrim path as far as the day allows, mani stones and old forest under the wall. The final night at the viewpoint for the farewell light.

The long road back — the Lancang gorge, the passes, the plateau and the staircase in reverse, with stops as the legs allow. Evening arrival in Lijiang for onward flights or rail; the mountain stays where it is.