Since 1999, the central policy of "Open Up the West" has introduced state-sponsored tourism and global commercial market into Shangrila, a regionally peripheral and economically marginal county in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Over the decades, the political economy of state-sponsored tourism and globalization have brought along external aggressions of commercialism and modern mode of production and thus caused tremendous socio-cultural changes in Shangrila's landscape. In my research, the major social difficulties caused by external aggressions include the emphasis on economic growth over cultural preservation, inequity, and transformation of traditional social structure. In response to these negative socio-cultural changes, Tibetan cultural preservation in Shangrila organizes itself into a form of sustainable development that reacts against and negotiates with the overarching structure of state-sponsored tourism in order to guarantee both preservation of traditional culture and local society's incorporation into modernity. In details, local preservation activists utilize tourism as a niche, in which modern technology is introduced and traditional social structure is preserved. By doing this, they also intend to convey correct representations of Tibetan culture to the general public, enhance tourists' and locals' appreciation of Tibetan culture, and improve locals' economic and social well-being.