Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / Songtsam
Songtsam hotels
Tibetan lodges form guided circuits along the old Tea Horse Road, through villages and monasteries.
Songtsam makes a journey through Tibetan landscapes and culture out of a series of intimate lodges along the old Tea Horse Road. Documentary filmmaker Baima Duoji began by turning his childhood home near Shangri-La into a lodge in 2000, and the collection still places regional architecture, craft, and guiding at the heart of the experience.
5 Songtsam hotels in 1 country on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.
- Founded by Baima Duoji
- Worldwide: 12 to 18 lodges across the Tibetan Plateau in Yunnan and Tibet, China
- On the atlas: 2 High Luxury, 3 Core Luxury
History
Baima Duoji’s experience of a small hotel in France helped him see how hospitality could express culture. He brought that idea home through Tibetan materials, building techniques, and the places around each lodge. The collection’s routes connect stays to villages, monasteries, and local economies, making the journey part of the same cultural experience.
Timeline
- 1990s — Baima Duoji works as a camera assistant on British director Phil Agland's documentary "China: Beyond the Clouds," then studies at the Beijing Film Academy and directs acclaimed Tibetan-culture documentaries for China Central Television, including "The Portrait of Mountain," winner of the Cannes TV Festival's Excellence Award in 1998.
- 2000 — While attending the Cannes Film Festival and discovering the concept of the boutique hotel, Baima returns to Shangri-La and converts his own ancestral home, a four-story building he grew up in, into Songtsam Lodge Shangri-La, the brand's first property.
- 2001 — Baima devotes himself fully to Songtsam, developing the Lijiang Linka and Lhasa Linka retreats as the start and end points of the first "Songtsam Circuit," which follows the ancient Tea Horse Road, the G214 Yunnan-Tibet highway, and the G318 Sichuan-Tibet highway.
- Early-to-mid 2000s — Songtsam expands its Yunnan cluster with Songtsam Meili Lodge, Songtsam Lodge Cizhong, and other properties around the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
- 2009 — Songtsam Linka Retreat Shangri-La opens.
- 2022 — The Songtsam Tibetan Art Museum opens within Songtsam Linka Retreat Shangri-La in August, housing roughly 380 pieces from Baima's own personal antiquities collection, including thangkas, statues, and Tibetan furniture.
The houses to know
- Songtsam Linka Retreat Shangri-La, Shangri-La, China — The Tea Horse Road terminus that became a museum: 92 rooms built around roughly 380 pieces of Tibetan thangkas, statues, and antique furniture from Baima Duoji's own collection.
- Songtsam Meili Lodge, Deqin, China — The seventeen-room lodge faces Meili Snow Mountain, a sacred peak in Tibetan Buddhism.
- Songtsam Lodge Cizhong, Cizhong, China — A 13-room lodge in a village where a 19th-century French Catholic mission once introduced Bordeaux grapevines still growing in local vineyards today.
- Songtsam Linka Retreat Lhasa, Lhasa, China — The Lhasa retreat extends Songtsam’s Tibetan hospitality route beyond its original Shangri-La setting.
- Songtsam Lodge Laigu, Laigu, China — A remote lodge on the Songtsam Circuit's Sichuan-Tibet leg, following the G318 highway deeper into the Tibetan Plateau than the brand's original Yunnan cluster.
Newest openings
- None of the Songtsam hotels selected by the Atlas has a recorded opening year of 2023 or later.
Opening next
- No confirmed announcements were identified in the sources reviewed through 2026-08-28.
Every Songtsam hotel on the atlas
China
- Songtsam Linka Retreat Shangri-La — Shangri-La · High Luxury
- Songtsam Meili Lodge — Deqin · High Luxury
- Songtsam Linka Retreat Lhasa — Lhasa · Core Luxury
- Songtsam Lodge Cizhong — Cizhong · Core Luxury
- Songtsam Lodge Laigu — Laigu · Core Luxury
Open The Maison in the atlas for Songtsam's full dossier, with prices and maps.