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Photo: Baldiri, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Impressive structure becoming less of a monastic institution, more of a tourist destination. The temple was restored by an architect named Xu Wei Han in 2005 to reflect its past glories. Minor restoration are still done (August 2017) which could limit access to some parts of the monastery.
The Ganden Somtseling Monastery, also known as Somtseling and Guihuasi, is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery situated 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the city of Shangri-La at elevation 3,380 metres (11,090 ft) in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan. Built in 1679, the monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Diqing and is sometimes referred to as the Little Potala Palace. During the 9th century, high demand for trade goods on the path to Lhasa brought Naxi administrators, Han merchants, and Bai metalsmiths into permanent settlement in what is now modern-day Diqing. This transformed the town into a linguistic and cultural buffer zone where minority groups acted as economic intermediaries between the low valleys of Yunnan and the high Tibetan plateau.
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迪庆红军长征博物馆
A museum about the Long March.
迪庆藏族自治州博物馆
Take at least a half-day, if not a full day, to visit the park.