Can the map image be posted in better resolution, perhaps downloadable? As others have said this version is useless even when zoomed in.

Great article but there is a location inaccuracy. Benzilan is not in Sichuan but rather still in Yunnan just across the Jinsha River from Sichuan. The town on the Sichuan side is Derong.

Chengdu already has non-stop flights to the US(SFO), why only "transit service" for Kunming and how is that any different from what is currently offered to the US?

No worries, its original pre-fire incarnation was my watering hole for many years along with the new one, so I'm a bit nostalgic over that place and what Jason and Joel have going now. I can say for sure that last year over the summer there seemed to be a general rumor across the tourism circuit in Yunnan in places like Dali and Lijiang where everyone was being told that Shangri-La was indeed completely burned down and not to go there. This is what many tourists who did actually come up would say people in other towns had told them. It's too bad these rumors seem to still be persisting; it didn't all burn down and now the reconstruction is essentially finished. The cold in the winter has always kept it a seasonal place though, everything shuts down in the winter. Which is why I've always liked the town so much because it always maintains a quaint atmosphere that Lijiang and Dali don't really have anymore.

Small factual error: The Raven is not a bookstore, it's a bar.