Nixi Pottery Village is a small Tibetan village nestling along the popular adventure route from Deqing to Zhongdian of the famed Shangri-La in Yunnan Province. Nixi Village is the most "Shangri-la" part of Shangri-la.  

However, the Nixi Pottery Village is by no means a one-hit-wonder. It is well known for the century-old art, making pottery. Around 70 out of the 100 families in the village are engaged in this traditional art. Many of them have built pottery workshops. It's amazing to watch the locals processing the item. The item is purely hand-made which makes it unique and precious. The raw material clay, is taken from a mountain three kilometres away.

The pottery items made here include pots, jars, stoves, basins, teapots and some others. Nowadays many visitors will make a stopover here, perhaps buying some pieces or just watching how the locals deal with their ancient art.

The Yunnan Shangrila Grand Canyon National Park has worked with renowned Tibetan musician Tashi Nyima to produce a record titled "Returning to Balagezong" to promote tourism in the region.

The park, located in Nixi Township, Shangrila Town, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwestern Yunnan Province, covers an area of 176 sq km and is the only scenic area named after "Shangrila" in Yunnan.

According to Sina Dingzhu, founder of the park, the Bala Village is the only village in the grand canyon. It is said that the villagers are descendants of a heroic tribe in neighboring Sichuan Province and moved to the canyon 1,300 years as they were tired of war.

Years ago, the canyon was still isolated from the outsides world and the locals could only travel elsewhere via paths on precipitous cliffs and it would take two or three days to get out of the canyon.

Sina Dingzhu, a native of the village and successful businessman, invested 160 million yuan building his hometown in the national park.

The record centers on the story of Sina Dingzhu and with the traditional Tibetan culture, it will also display the unique and magnificent sceneries of the park and the tough spirit of the Bala people.