By combining tourism with culture, Shangri-La has found a new way towards holistic tourism.

In Jinjiang Town, a museum in honor of the Red Army' crossing the Jinsha River during the Long March in 1936 is almost completed, and it will open to tourists soon.

"Jinjiang is a historic place, hundreds of years ago the Mongolian army crossed the river here, ushering in a new chapter of Yunnan history," said a staff member with Diqing Prefecture Tourism Development Committee.

Next to the museum, a rural center, a basketball playground and a monument are built up, wih clear and high folk music going on.

Not far away, the Anle river, Jinsha River's tributary, was roaring out of high and verdant mountains with white waters.

Round rocks lie at its banks, where little flowers and lush crops abound. If you love nature, these do form a visual feast.

At the Ancient Tea-Horse Road Ethnography Museum, more than 2,000 horse reins and Tibetan folk items are showcased. They were used by local merchants in the days gone by.

The museum lies in the Heping village of Xiaozhongdian Town, Shangri-La City, and the ethic items are collected by two Tibetan brothers and a girl named Jangchu Chunping, whose forefathers went to and fro between Dali's Jianchuan County and Lahsa in Tibet.

Now the museum is a window to demonstrate Tibetan tradition, and it is also expected to bring more income by attracting more tourists who are interested in stories related to the Ancient Tea-Horse Road.

The tourism plus culture practice proves to be helpful.

Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest Yunnan received 13.19 mil tourists in the first seven months of 2017, said Chen Min, director of Diqing Prefecture Tourism Development Committee.

Chen said this at an interview on August 14 with reporters from Yunnan Daily Press Group, who are on a four-day reporting trip on holistic tourism development of the the refecture.

The prefecture registered a grass tourism income of 16.1 billion yuan in the past seven months, a year-on-year increase of 26.7 percent.

750,000 foreign tourists visited the prefecture during the same period.

Reporting in Shangri-La by Eric Wang / Yunnan Gateway