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This town was most definitely the highlight of the trip. However, we’re also convinced that we’d hate it in any other time than off-season. This opinion was reinforced by the statements of our new friends at Sexy Tractor...a great resource for local info in town actually, and one of the most pleasant porches to hang out on for a day, watching the world walk by on the cobblestone streets below you.
I guess I’m at a loss on how to really describe Lijiang. Where Dali was a quaint town that had been overrun by tourist-led renovations, Lijiang somehow managed to keep its character as an old town where people actually lived their lives. As we wandered the backstreets of the old city, I was struck by how much it was a lived-in city, with all the qualities of a small, happy town, and full of people who had lived there for generations. In most of China I have found that the cities have been built with a plan to an extent that one city feels and looks very much the same as another. Lijiang was the exception. Yes, parts have the feeling of a bad theme park as flag-toting tourist guides lead baseball-cap-clad Chinese tourists, but once you leave the main drag shopping streets it’s like you’ve stepped back in time and into another world populated by women wearing traditional Naxi clothing, hawking their vegetables down the alleyways. I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves because all narrative in my stilted prose would fail to do it justice:
Oh, and did I mention that on our second day in Lijiang we accidentally hiked up to 4680 meters? Yes, most of it was accomplished by a gondola, but we sincerely thought we were only going up to 3000 meters, and then we get on the gondola and we just kept going up. There’s a stunning mountain in the Lijiang area called Yu Long Xue Shan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain), which you can see from pretty much everywhere, being as it towers up to 5,600 meters (18,360 feet) over the valley.
We were amazed at how long it took to hike up from 4506 meters to 4680 meters (the upper terminus of where silly tourists like us can go): two hours! But frankly it was worth it. We definitely had some oxygen and pressure issues – Doug on the way up, and me on the way down - we ate tons of food that night, and the cost was ridiculous for China (RMB 220 per person), but for the first time in my life I understand why there is an urge to climb mountains. The quiet and hugeness of it all was breathtaking (or maybe that was the lack of oxygen?). But in the end I can say I was at 15,354 feet…
One final note on Lijiang before I close out the China portion of the blog. A lot of places in the world have become replicas of themselves and many people have consistently argued that globalization creates homogenization of cultures and the loss of tradition and history amongst indigenous cultures and minority peoples. While not an opponent of globalization by any means, I have always been somewhat conflicted about the tradeoffs between significant increases in quality of life and health and life expectancy, and the loss of traditional values and entire cultures to the advent of “modern” life. In Lijiang we encountered something truly surprising. When all the annoying tour groups were gone from the streets and the tourist shops began closing their doors, something amazing happened in the central square every night. Young local people began converging in the square to dance and socialize. One evening we even saw an adorable old woman with an ecstatic smile on her face dancing circles around the younger women and men, teaching by example the joy she had for her traditions and culture. I took a short video, which doesn’t begin to capture the experience, but gives you a taste of the music, singing, and ritual to it all.
And so, I leave you with that for now...
Kunming
We got to Kunming, Yunnan Province without incident, despite the fact that up until the moment we got on the plane we weren’t sure if our tickets were valid. Our flight was canceled twice on two different days, and then we got moved to another airline…it was all very interesting, but taught the valuable lesson to check on your flights in China. We arrived in Kunming to very clean air, and checked into our hotel room at the Greenland Hotel, only to find that apparently our room came retrofitted with a personal sauna. Seriously, it was in the corner of the room and had a tape player in which you could pipe in Tchaikovsky while taking a sauna. Doug took a picture lest no one believe us:
The next morning we got on a bus to head off to Dali. The pollution was so bad heading out of the city that you could see whole valleys disappear into hazes of smoke and toxic fumes. I was happy we were only passing through those areas. It is hard to believe that people live their whole lives in places so polluted that I can’t take a deep breath, and that in the 21st Century it is getting worse rather than better. In valley after valley we saw houses right next to toxic smelting plants and industrial wastelands. I wonder sometimes how people live past the age of 3 in these places. I’ve seen locations like this when working, especially in the coal areas of Ningxia, but I still find it hard to believe that it happens. Fortunately, we are able to leave it all behind and keep going. I only wish something could give me hope that the situation will get better for the people left in those valleys…
Dali
Doug and I have decided we’re not sure what we think of Dali. Our hotel, Jim’s Tibetan Hotel (http://www.china-travel.nl/english/guesthouse.htm), was FREEZING. I mean, the temperature outside was in the 60s, but inside our room it was about 50. Oh, and the water was heated by solar panel, so the 2nd day we didn’t have hot water…I am apparently a soft westerner because an icy cold shower in 50 degree temperatures is not my idea of fun.
However, the town had some very interesting aspects as well. Not the least of which is it appears to be heaven for anyone who wants to drop off the face of the earth and just hang out. There also seemed to be a large proportion of the westerners interested in…let’s just say alternative lifestyles…Like all small Chinese towns, it truly seemed like a different world, as if you stepped back in time a century or two into a place where buildings were made out of mudbrick and grey tiles with shops wares spread out for all to see:
On our second day in Dali we headed off to Cangshan to hike in the mountains. It was lovely to get out of the noise and craziness of most of China and up into the hills. We had a good 13km walk along a paved trail (there isn’t much in China that’s left to wilderness or even good old hiking trails), weaving in and out of mountain valleys where we didn’t see another soul for hours. I realized that it was the first time in a couple of months that I was surrounded by a completely peaceful environment. In all, a lovely place to be.
The last day in Dali I was pretty sick, so didn't do much more than relax and drink water. And then we headed out to Lijiang...
So despite the fact that most people can’t remember a time that the international flights from the U.S. into Beijing were late, Doug’s flight came in 4 hours late on December 9th. As a result we only had one day to relax and hang out in Beijing before leaving for our planned travel. We had some cool dumb luck that it happened to be the first snow of the year that day, so we wandered about Houhai Lake for most of the morning around all the Hutongs (old courtyard house areas built ages ago). I took some great pictures of the iced over lake and snow everywhere, but as those are on the 35mm camera, can’t post them here.
Doug also had his first taste of really good hotpot. For those of you who’ve never had it, hot pot is a boiling pot of a broth (oil, white, spicy red, or two or more types, etc.), into which you dump a variety of meat and veggies and cook yourself then dip in yummy sauces (my personal favorite is the sesame). I’m convinced that I need to find a great recipe for hotpot and open a chain of restaurants in the states…it’s one of the best foods ever for a cold day/night.
Guilin (http://wikitravel.org/en/Guilin):
On Tuesday we took off for Guilin, Guanxi Province. Guilin is supposed to be beautiful with a lot of parks, karst peaks, etc. However, we landed in a haze of smoke from them burning off the rice after the harvest, and frankly the city was overrun by businesses catering to tourists, and prices were ridiculous. We did manage to find some excellent Pijiu Yu (Beer Fish), a local specialty, and it was absolutely delicious, eaten in a restaurant where we were the only white people.
But in the end we were very happy to hop in a car and head down to Yangshuo at 9am on Wednesday morning. Yangshuo (http://wikitravel.org/en/Yangshuo):
We arrived in Yangshuo through a cool car drive out of the haze and into the mist. We had wanted to take the boat ride down the Li River, which is apparently THE thing to do, but the river is exceptionally low right now, and no boats can get through, as you can see here:
We got dropped at our hotel, the Magnolia Hotel, a real splurge in town at RMB 220/night (http://www.yangshuoren.com/magnolia_en.htm). Then we proceeded to find a great dumpling place, Dynasty of Dumplings, right around the corner for some yummy food. Then we managed to rent a couple of nice bikes from the folks next door to the hotel (no deposit necessary since we were staying at the hotel) and got out of town.
We rode down the road, fighting trucks and tour buses, out to Yueliang Shan (Moon Hill). It was quite the hike uphill on about a million stairs…I swear…there were a million. But I have to say, despite the panting and pain in my mildly sprained hamstring (from my Badminton match with my tutor), it was more than worth it. Here are a couple of pictures from the top:
That night we found ourselves at an expat-friendly resto-bar called Kelly’s Café. I broke down and had some good ol’ American food cause I couldn’t help myself. We woke up this morning to much colder, but much clearer weather. We were pretty sore from our hike yesterday, so we rented the bikes again and decided to head out to the Yulong River on side country roads. We ended up getting sidetracked to take a bamboo raft upriver as far as we could go before it dried out. It was gorgeous, practically uninhabited, and perfectly silent, a rarity in China to say the least. I could say more but I think the pictures from our bike ride and boat ride speak for themselves:
We have enjoyed Yangshuo greatly, I think largely because we came on off-season and there were practically no tourists in town. I can only imagine how crazy it gets here in the summer, and much of what we loved would be crowded with people, taking away from the relaxation we’ve had here.
Tomorrow we head off to Kunming, and Saturday we have a 5-hour bus ride from Kunming to Dali in Yunnan Province...
Thoughts on the Experience:
Well, in the end I think I found out I was a bit less flexible than I thought in my lifestyle and my ability to drop my own ideas when faced with something different. One never wants to find out you are less tolerant and open-minded than you thought, but I guess it’s a good learning experience to know where your boundaries are.
For anyone who wants a crash-course in learning a foreign language, I would definitely suggest going to the country and living with a family that doesn’t speak English. It’s amazing how much the mind can learn if it doesn’t have a choice if it wants to eat or know where it can get water!
I missed home more than I expected, but also made some great friends. All my tutors have been especially great to get to know. The badminton match (see prior post) was brutal on my muscles but lots of fun. Whether or not I actually want to return to this house, they have been more than kind and have repeatedly told me that this is my house too now and anytime I’m back in China I must come see them. I knew from prior experiences that people in China are hospitable to a fault, and now I’ve experienced it in its largest form. Don’t underestimate the persistence of the head of households in China!
What’s Next?:
Doug and I are off to Guilin, Yangshuo, Dali, and Lijiang next week. From everything I hear they are beautiful places, and I’m looking forward to seeing something new. I will likely bring the computer on the trip so will probably post from there. Doug and I wanted to go to Dali ten years ago when we were students in China but didn’t have enough time to get there by train and back. This time we’re flying, so should be a little bit shorter.
Tomorrow this time I'll be out with friends in Beijing, celebrating the fact that I've at least managed to stick it out and learn what I can in the time I allotted myself. Only time will tell if it's worth it, but at this moment I can truly say I accomplished something.
