Yunnan. Three Rivers. Day 6

 Early in the morning we step quietly onto the veranda with a first coffee in our hands. People come to the platform, preparing for morning prayer.

Then it happens. The light spills over the edge of the horizon, slowly touches the glacier's edge – and suddenly the entire ridge ignites in a silent, surreal orange. For a few minutes, the Meili Snow Mountains glow incredible beautiful.

Kawagebo has never been climbed, as we already know. In the 1990s, a group of Chinese and Japanese mountaineers tried. Local villagers warned them. The mountain is sacred, they said. It does not want footsteps on its head. Weeks later, the entire team was lost in an avalanche. No summit attempt has been made since.
The mountain remains untouched – not because it is too high, but because it is too holy.

We take our time this morning. After a generous breakfast with views that still feel cinematic, we descend slowly into one of the nearby valleys. Our goal is not a sight, but a story.

Here, in a small and rarely visited village, lives one of the last traditional winemakers of the region. A woman who continues a craft brought here in the 1860s by European missionaries. To celebrate mass, they needed red wine. And so they taught the villagers how to make it. In stone urns, by hand, with grapes from these high-altitude fields. She is the last of her kind. Her small vineyard, her weathered tools, and the church still standing just up the path. All carry the traces of a quiet,  stubborn beauty.

We taste her wine. It’s not polished. It’s not perfect. But it tells a story..

In the evening, we return to our lodge. Dinner is exceptional – local, creative, refined. A small team of chefs turns highland ingredients into dishes that surprise without trying too hard. Later we enjoy watching the sunset with a local drink composition on the roof top terrace of our hotel.

Above us, the mountain still watches. Still untouched.

Overnight stay in a 5-star luxury hotel on the tea-mountain