Dukezong Ancient City in Shangri-La City - A castle built on a rock

Dukezong Ancient City is located in Shangri-La City, Yunnan Province. It is a city with a history of more than 1300 years and is the best preserved and largest Tibetan residential group in China. During the Tang Yifeng and Diaolu period (AD 676-679), the Tubo set up a fortress on the top of the Big Turtle Mountain here, named "Dukezong", a Tibetan pronunciation contains two meanings, one is "castle built on a rock", and the other is "moonlight city". The later ancient city was built around the fortress on the top of the mountain. Dukezong Ancient City is the oldest castle on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road. For the horse teams crossing the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, Dukezong Ancient City is a key town on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road and the first stop after the horse teams enter Tibet. This is a quite comfortable journey. Main attractions: 1. Sifang Street, which has always been the thoroughfare for the tea-horse trade between Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet, is now a commercialized tourist ancient street. 2. At the end of the ancient city is the Moonlight Square, where the bronze horse team on the square seems to remind us of the horse team that was walking in the past, reminding people of the glorious history of Dukezong. 3. The small hill on the east side of Moonlight Square is Turtle Mountain Park, which does not require a ticket. Climbing up the park to look out, you can see the endless snow-capped mountains, overlooking Shangri-La City, all in sight, no high-rise buildings, but see the smoke curling up, the sparkling Qinglongtan. The bright sunshine, pure blue sky and white clouds, solemn Dafo Temple, and golden prayer wheel form a moving picture. From Moonlight Square, you can climb up to the Han Temple. If you turn around from left to right, you will come to the world's largest prayer wheel. Looking up, the entire prayer wheel is five stories high, majestic and spectacular. The body of the drum is pure copper and gold-plated. On the upper end of the drum wall, the four great bodhisattvas, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Guanyin, and Ksitigarbha, are carved in relief. The eight treasures of Buddhism are carved on the lower end, and the drum contains sutras, mantras, and various Buddhist treasures. Each turn is equivalent to chanting the Buddha's name 1.24 million times. If you turn three times, you can pray for disaster relief, good luck and happiness. tips: 1. There is a parking lot at the entrance of the ancient city gate. It is not recommended to park. It is still a kilometer walk to Turtle Mountain Park. It is best to park in the underground garage on the left side of Moonlight Square, and you will reach the main attractions in a few steps. 2. The altitude here is high, prepare warm clothes in advance before traveling. To prevent altitude sickness, you can take Rhodiola a week in advance, and also prepare a portable oxygen bottle. 3. Stick to low-carbon and environmentally friendly travel and protect the living environment.