Feilai Temple sits on a ridge above the Mekong gorge about 10 kilometres before Deqin on the road from Shangrila, at an altitude of around 3,300 metres. The monastery itself is modest in scale — a handful of prayer halls, a courtyard, and resident monks — but its setting is extraordinary. The south-facing courtyard frames an unobstructed view across the river valley to the full sweep of the Meili Snow Mountain massif, with Kawa Karpo's icecap visible on clear days as the dominant feature.
The practical reason most travellers stop here is the sunrise over the peaks: in good conditions, the morning light paints the snow gold for fifteen or twenty minutes before the sun rises high enough to flatten the colours. Most guesthouses in Feilai Temple village will call your room when conditions look promising. The stretch of highway from Shangrila to this viewpoint passes through some of the finest high-mountain scenery in Yunnan regardless of the weather, and the temple itself is worth a short visit even in cloud.