Equally impressive are the restored ancient Tibetan farmhouses moved to Banyon Tree’s Shangri-La property, high on the Tibetan plateau. Here, the all-suite rooms are truly mammoth – two floors for each, with a downstairs dressing room the size of standard quarters. We didn’t want to leave premises – which is not surprising, as the high altitude saps energy. Complaints abound about the bathroom toilet location downstairs – leading to precarious mid-night descents – but we’re more concerned about the ill-fitting aluminum sliding toilet and shower doors.

The Zhongdian chef wowed our tour group with a Tibetan Barbecue cooking class, ranging from grilled yak meat to gargantuan Shangri-La trout, and steamed Tibetan ham with goat cheese. Disappointing was the tsampa toasted Tibetan barley meal that tastes like a mouthful of browned flour, and equally as palatable. Guess it’s an acquired taste, along with rancid yak butter tea. 4 ½ mangosteen

We’re so enamored by both properties, we’ver reserved again for early March ’11. Details to come, but plan your travel calendar now, and be sure to join us in China’s most beautiful province. We’ll begin late February, traveling first from Kunming to the province’s Southeast, and famed terraced rice fields. Then we’ll fly to Unesco-heritage listed Lijiang, and Zhongdian on the Tibetan Plateau, for the second half of the tour, staying in unbridled luxury, pampered with the best tastes.