It was with reluctance I pulled myself away from Dali, as my time in 1995 was limited and I wanted to reach Lijiang. Another enthralling journey passing ethnic villages, roadside markets and packhorse trains headed off to remote, isolated settlements. And as we moved further north, views of the snow mountains were increasingly breathtaking. I was reaching the edges of Himalayan China and as a geographer I simply could not get enough.

Walking through the Old Town of Lijiang, along stone-paved alleys parallel to fast-flowing water channels I was reliving many scenes from Beyond the Clouds. Indeed I could find myself torn between there and Dali for I had found some great cafes where I could happily spend all day writing, talking or just dreaming. My personal romance with northwestern Yunnan was becoming deeper. Certainly cycling way beyond the town into quiet countryside, I increasingly felt I was discovering another area that could fit my dream of Shangri-La. I was again in a personal heaven to sit beside meadows where horses grazed, to look up toward forested slopes eventually giving way to the sheer rocky and icy slopes of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. I was looking out across classic landscapes I had studied as a geographer back in Scotland.