Situated just outside Shangri-La, Napa village offers visitors a chance to experience genuine tranquility and Tibetan hospitality.

Napa overlooks a lake of the same name that, when flooded, completely cuts it off from the main road into Shangri-La. Hike up the mountain behind the village for great views across the green lake bed, and poke your head into the small hillside huts where villagers make Tibetan yak cheese. Locals have supported themselves in the past by cutting down trees in these mountains, but as in Wenhai, advocates of Napa's new guesthouse are hoping tourism will provide an alternative to logging.

Indeed, Napa villagers are so excited about their town's new tourism prospects they will likely invite you into their homes for meals and even dancing. But whether you stay with a family or in the family-run guesthouse, be sure to try yak cheese sprinkled with sugar and served with fried dough (while sitting around the woodstove, of course). True, you'll be offered the less-than-appetizing yak butter tea more times than you'll want to drink it, but at least the process-mixing the butter, hot water and salt in a small urn-is interesting to watch. As mentioned, dancing is a popular pastime here. At night, in their vast second-floor living rooms, neighbors often gather to dance and sing together-so loudly, or so it's said, that they keep the cows awake (farm animals are kept in stalls on the ground floor).

The Napa Guesthouse, which opened this spring, offers doubles with fresh white duvets and a shared bathroom. From the second-floor balcony you can look out onto bright yellow fields and watch the herders bring in their animals each evening. The teenage daughter of the family and her elderly grandmother do most of the cooking and meals are served in the family's living room, which features hand-carvings by the father, An Wu. An Wu speaks Mandarin and can arrange guides for hiking up the mountain. Following the success of the Napa Guesthouse, other families in the village are renovating their giant Tibetan farmhouses to accommodate guests.

While Napa is billed as an 'eco-farm', the project would be better described as sustainable tourism than eco-tourism, since raising the standard of living for villagers is the primary goal and environmental protection a secondary, though important, benefit. The guesthouse is funded by a loan from a local Tibetan businessman, and part of the agreement is that a percentage of the profits should be contributed to the community. A recent donation was spent on expanding the village school.

Napa Guesthouse

For more information contact the Tibet Cafe in Shangri-La (www.tibetcafeinn.com/tibetcafe/home.htm).

The Tibet CafÈ can arrange overland trips to Tibet and excursions in Sichuan and Yunnan.