Drolkar’s 12-year education experience in Beijing makes her understand how to better promote Tibetan culture. (Photo/Wang Yuzhe) 

Drolkar graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University seven years ago. She followed her parents’ wish and opened the first Tibetan inn, Bird of Paradise Inn on Jinlong Street in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province. 

Seven years has passed and Drolkar now owns five inns in different places in Shangri-La. She hopes to promote the authentic Tibetan culture via presenting tourists with authentic Tibetan life, namely, staying in a Tibetan house, eating Tibetan food and living among Tibetans.  

To make guests experience the authentic Tibetan culture while staying in her inns, Drolkar collected old Tibetan items, such as Thangka paintings, carved patterns in villages, and used them to decorate her inns. 

As for employees, Drolkar only hired Tibetan people. She contends that only native Tibetan people can better promote Tibetan ethnic culture. And tourists can directly learn about Tibetan’s ideology and outlooks via communication. 

With respect to foreign tourists, Drolkar would serve them by herself since she majored in English.  

Drolkar also hopes to promote Tibetan catering culture via providing tourists with authentic Tibetan food she has eaten since little. She can see some foreigners who used to have coffee with cookies now having coffee with Tibetan tsampa cakes. Some foreigners even think Tibetan tsampa cakes are tastier than cookies, which is some comfort for her in a way. 

Running inns for seven years, Drolkar has accumulated rich experience and she can roughly figure out tourists’ thoughts on sight.  

Drolkar said she could classify tourists into different consumer groups and put ads accurately for the target customers.  

Drolkar’s five hotels vary in grades, prices and services. So that Drolkar can get in touch with more people and offer them better accommodation services. 

The last seven years saw the number of inns in Shangri-La increased from hundreds to about 2,000. Drolkar manages to keep her original intention in the process.  

Drolkar is to open a new inn, whose decoration has taken two years. She spent another four months further consummating its details via trial operation. Drolkar is very satisfied with the new one. 

Drolkar loves home inns and she will keep working on them. She plans to bring in higher-end services to inns, specifically, to better display Tibetan culture and offer Tibetan service. 

Blessing ceremony for Drolkar’s new inn was just finished. (Photo/Wang Yuzhe) 

The views from the window are also quite Tibetan. (Photo/Wang Yuzhe)  

The carved patterns collected from villages are made into new Tibetan decorations. (Photo/Wang Yuzhe) 

Authentic Tibetan hot pot can be enjoyed on the terrace. (Photo/Wang Yuzhe) 

Besides Tibetan rooms, tatami and rooms of their styles are also available in the inn to cater for tourists’ demands. (Photo/Wang Yuzhe)