Live Your Best Lives
For the knowledgeable You Xiaojun, there are very few TV dramas that can make me exclaim "Wow", but there is a recent drama that is really amazing, and it exudes the word "beautiful" from beginning to end.
Friends who are following the series have probably figured it out! The drama "Sito" tells the story of a vine monster born in the southwest, who comes back to life and searches for her kind and herself. As soon as I saw the first frame, I felt like this drama was a sure thing!
Jing Tian, wearing a cheongsam and with thin willow-shaped eyebrows, perfectly captured the Republic of China style of Si Teng. The male lead Zhang Binbin is also very handsome and has good acting skills. The performances of the male and female protagonists are both good, which means that this drama is half successful.
The other half of the success is attributed to the crew's conscientious real-life shooting, including Shangri-La, Dali, Xishuangbanna, Puzhehei, Wuxi... the whole thing is like a road trip film!
After seeing it, I really want to go there again immediately. Recently, it is a small off-season in Yunnan. Taking Hangzhou as an example, a one-way ticket can be done for about 300 yuan, which is more than half cheaper than the peak season.
So let’s follow You Xiaojun today to see where Si Teng went in Yunnan?
The first episode begins with a tourist bus driving over from an underwater highway. The lakes on both sides are very close to the highway. From a distance, the car seems to be driving on the water. The lake surface is like a mirror, clearly reflecting the clouds in the sky. This is Napahai in Shangri-La.
The director must have been just as captivated by Napahai’s looks as You Xiaojun! Roughly counting in the first two episodes, this spot appeared at least five times!
Even when the male protagonist was lying on the plank road by the lake, his heart as dead as a ray of despair and all thoughts gone, You Xiaojun couldn't help but exclaim, "What kind of paradise on earth is this! I want to go!"
However, if you want to go here and see such beautiful scenery with your own eyes, you have to choose the right time. Napahai is a seasonal lake on the plateau. In late summer and early autumn every year, rain falls frequently and the lake surface increases, which is what it looks like in the drama.
From late autumn to summer and autumn of the following year, the lake water level drops and this place will gradually turn into wetlands and grasslands, becoming a paradise for animals such as black-necked cranes, bar-headed geese, and white cranes. They will forage and play in the swamps by the lake, and many bird watchers and photography enthusiasts will come here at this time.
Napahai also appeared in the Yunnan episode of the third season of "Aerial China". The lake water completely flooded the road. When the car drove on it, it felt a bit like the sea train in "Spirited Away". It was so dreamy!
There is another particularly stunning place in the first episode, which is the forest where the hero falls off a cliff and accidentally resurrects the heroine. The sun is shining, the stream is gurgling, all things are lively and full of vitality, and it is so beautiful that it seems unreal like Middle-earth.
But in fact, this is real. Such scenes are not uncommon in Shangri-La. We speculate that the actual shooting location should be in Pudacuo National Forest Park.
It is located in northwest Yunnan, in the heart of the "Three Parallel Rivers" World Natural Heritage. Its main attractions include Bitahai, Shudu Lake and Militang subalpine pasture. It has lakes, wetlands, forest meadows, river valleys, streams, rare animals and plants, etc.
However, due to environmental reasons, two scenic spots here are currently closed for renovation, and only Shudu Lake is still open to the public. I look forward to the day when it will all be open!
The male protagonist discovered that his appearance would undergo terrible changes after he left Si Teng. On the way back to Si Teng, the small town he passed by was the ancient city of Dukezong.
Dukezong Ancient City is the best-preserved and largest Tibetan settlement in China. It is built on the mountain and has a history of more than 1,300 years.
Although it is not as well-known as Dali, Lijiang and other ancient cities, it is also an important town on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road and the first stop for horse caravans after entering Tibet. The ethnic cultures of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Yunnan are integrated here, making it a quaint, quiet and beautiful place.
There is also the world's largest prayer wheel here, which requires at least 20 people to turn.
But unfortunately, a fire on January 11, 2014 burned down nearly two-thirds of the ancient city, which was heartbreaking. Most of the buildings we see now were rebuilt later.
Suddenly I remembered the lyrics of "Red Bean" "Nothing will last forever". We are in a world that is changing every moment. If you want to go somewhere, you must go as soon as possible!
In the first few episodes of the drama, their activities were mainly in Cangcheng Mountain. Seeing these three white towers, no one should not know that this is Dali.
The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali have a history of more than a thousand years. Although they have been damaged in the past, they have been repaired and reinforced by rulers of successive dynasties and still stand on this land, facing Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake in the east.
This road is Cang'er Avenue, located in the southern part of Dali Ancient City. It starts from the intersection of Cangshan Avenue between Dali University and Dali Finance School in the west and ends at the Xiadui intersection of Dali Highway in the east. The road extends along the undulating terrain, and the self-driving experience must be great.
The building in the picture below is the Shangri-La Backpacking Ten Years Youth Park, located in Chengni Village on the west side of the Shangri-La Big White Pagoda, close to the airport. On one side is the Shangri-La city and on the other side is the beautiful Paradise Grassland Ranch. The words on the wall read "On the vast grassland, we are just a ray of light", which corresponds to the location of the youth hostel.
The bridge where Si Teng and Qin Fang walked is the Xingsheng Bridge across Erhai Lake. The overall style and the surrounding buildings are very European. Many newlyweds come here to take wedding photos. Seagulls circle under the bridge from time to time. It is a must-see attraction when visiting Dali.
The building below, surrounded by houses, is the southern gate of the ancient city of Nanzhao - Longwei Pass.
The famous "Battle of Tianbao" took place here. In the tenth year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty (751 AD), the Tang general Zhang Qiantuo was greedy, immoral, cruel and tyrannical. The King of Nanzhao had no choice but to rise up in resistance. The Tang Dynasty sent troops to fight several times, but returned without success. About 200,000 soldiers were buried in the border area. Longwei Pass was one of the main battlefields.
Bai Juyi wrote in "Song of Barbarians" that "Xianyu Zhongtong led 60,000 soldiers, but all were killed in a single battle against the barbarians. To this day, the banks of the Xi'er River are covered with arrow holes and knife scars, leaving withered bones."
The above are the approximate filming locations for the series that have been released so far. According to Reuters photos, there will be Xishuangbanna and other places later. The wonderful stories in the series are still continuing, and outside the series, there are some seasonal highlights belonging to Yunnan that are also quietly being staged.
Starting from May every year, for about 20 days, the alpine rhododendrons in the mysterious Qianhu Mountains in Yunnan are spread out like a carpet.
The altitude here is about 3,900 meters, it is rarely visited by people, and it is surrounded by virgin forests. Walking along the dirt road, you can see plateau wild flowers all over the mountains and snow-capped spruce reaching into the sky.
Bigu Tianchi Lake in the heart of Qianhu Mountain is the secret location where Chen Kaige filmed the movie "The Promise". There is a rhododendron forest hidden in the forest beside the lake, mostly yellow rhododendrons, red rhododendrons and white rhododendrons with large corollas and bright colors.
What blooms by the lake are dwarf rhododendron bushes, which are intertwined and dense, forming an amazing purple-red carpet.
The Dulong River is the main stream of the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River. It originates in the southeast of the Boshula Mountains in Zayu County, Tibet Autonomous Region. As one of the core areas of the "Three Parallel Rivers", it is recognized as a "natural museum of wild plants" and is one of the areas in my country where the original ecology is most intact.
Among the Dulong people, young girls have the habit of tattooing their faces, and are called tattooed girls. Today, the tradition of tattooing has been abandoned. According to statistics, there are only more than 20 tattooed girls in the world, and the youngest is already in her sixties. Perhaps in more than ten years, tattooed girls in China will become history.
The scenic area was previously closed due to road conditions and the epidemic. Since March 15, 2021, which was yesterday, the scenic area has reopened.
You need to make an appointment in advance to visit. Currently, the number of people is limited to 300 per day. It is a place with few people and beautiful scenery. Follow us and you will be 100% allowed to enter. Come and have a look while it is not popular yet!
