Dukezong

Dukezong means Moon Castle that is built on Rock. It was built in Tang Dynasty by Tibet Tu-Bo kingdom with history of over 1,300 years. It is indeed the “real” part of Shangri La City as local people think.

Brief

The current Shangri La City has two parts that separated by one street only; the modern and the old part; the most restaurants, hotels…etc are now built in the new city, the new part of Shangri La city; The old part of Shangri La, the Dukezong still remains what it was like ever since it was built;

Layout of town

The layout of the ancient city is like Eight petal lotus flowers, its center is Moonlight Square of which is surrounded by the quaint Tibetan huts one after another, local people live peacefully in here. The Turtle Mountain park is built on the west of the Moonlight Square, in which the largest Praying wheels of this world (recorded by Guinness World Records) is nearby.

“Guo-Zhuang” dance in Dukezong

Tibetan “Guo-Zhuang” dance is one very popular dance in Tibetan, it is played by local people almost every night starting at 19:00pm at Si-Fang Street northwest of the Turtle Mountain park.

Museum

The Red Army Long March Museum is situated in the houses of the streets on the north of Moonlight Square, which opens from 10:00am – 17:00pm. The entrance of this museum was built in Qing dynasty, and is also known as “Tibetan Scripture Hall”, its architectural style is a mixture of Han people, Tibetan, Naxi people. The Di Qing Tibetan Prefecture Museum is built on the south of the Red Army Long March Museum, it opens from 08:30am to the 18:00pm, free of charge. Tibetan knife, Yak meat, Tibetan ornaments are the mostly common products that you can find in local shops. Meals are mainly served as in Sichuan cuisine and Tibet cuisine; It was also one of the main stops of the ancient Tea-Horse Trading Route

Unfortunate fire

In January 2014, a huge fire that lasted for over 10 hours destroying a large of this old town, and caused countless damage to this old city in both property and cultural; The rebuilding work was activated soon after the disaster, from January 2016, it has been reopen for the public

How to get to there

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Dukezong is indeed a part of Shangri La city at its south end near the road to Shangri La airport.

It can be easily reached by foot or by taxi or by bus