Lijiang

I've already written a little about Lijiang in my post about hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge in June. The gorge was one of the main attractions; the other is the old town of Lijiang, which is a maze of Naxi architecture and canals. The Naxi people are the dominant minority in the area, with their own language and hieroglyphic script, food, dress, and more, and the old town in Lijiang is better preserved than in Dali.

Canal in the old town.

The first night, we stayed in a traditional Naxi courtyard house in the heart of the old town. It was a great experience, but there were shared bathrooms with squat toilets, so when we got back from the gorge we stayed in another courtyard house, but one that had its own bathroom (it was just outside the old town and had a hideous color scheme of purple, yellow, black, green, and pink--tradeoffs we were happy to make for the last couple of days, I have to admit!).

Our courtyard hotel.

One night we went to a concert by a traditional Naxi orchestra. Some of the instruments were original--the musicians saved them from the Cultural Revolution by burying them. The oldest musician in the group was 88, and there were several in their 70s and 80s. A lot of them wore glasses, I think so the audience couldn't tell if they were sleeping! There was a lot of talking in between songs, most of which was in Mandarin, so that was a bit boring, but overall it was worth the $17 tickets. It's supposed to be just about the only place you can go to hear traditional Chinese music played as it was meant to be played--although my favorite piece was a haunting Tibetan song that was sung a capella!

Naxi orchestra.

Besides hanging out in the old town, we rented yet another tandem bike and went to Black Dragon Pool park. Its entry fee had only gone up to 60 from 10 ($8 instead of $1.30), so we sucked it up and paid, especially since it's the most famous park in the south of China. It was a little cloudy that day so the pictures didn't turn out how we'd have liked, but it was still beautiful.

Black Dragon Pool park, with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background.

We also go to see a traditional dance in the park, which was fun. The aprons and caps that most of the women are wearing are what the older Naxi women actually wear every day (except for the white caps--usually they wear black or blue hats that look sort of like railroad engineer hats).

Traditional dance.

The food was another thing we loved about Lijiang. The Naxi are famous for their ham (real ham! not Spam! miraculous!) and cheese (which is more paneer--firm, squeaky, and a bit tangy). We especially loved the Naxi sandwich, which has fried bread, cheese, veggies, and an egg and/or ham.

Mmm, Naxi sandwich!

There was an earthquake in the 1990s, and a lot of Lijiang was destroyed--except for the traditional buildings. Beijing was impressed, so they restored the buildings that were damaged instead of tearing them down to make way for new ones. Or something like that.

Traditional Naxi house (with "guard" dog).

It was a smart move, because the old town is yet another huge tourist attraction now. During the day it's great, but at night, it's impossible. Some of the streets are wall to wall with bodies, and the busiest ones are filled with competing noise from street performers and vendors (another reason why we didn't mind sleeping just outside the old town!).

Tourists, tourists everywhere!

All in all, Lijiang is a unique, charming place that feels like it's in a world of its own (probably because it is--we didn't have to fly to Chengdu for nothing!). It was worth the effort to get out there, even for such a short time.

Hanging out in the square.

So long, Lijiang.

Dali

Due to three different traffic accidents (involving among them an overturned apple truck, an overturned chicken truck, and a smashed-in minibus), we barely made our train from Guilin (Yangshuo) to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. We had showed the bus driver our tickets, and he did a great job of getting us there, but we had to run as fast as we could and still only made it with 2 minutes to spare (literally!). I really didn't think we were going to make it, but thankfully we did. Sometimes the travel gods smite you (thank you, Philippines), but sometimes they smile on you.

After our overnight train ride to Kunming, we headed straight for the bus station and bought tickets to Dali, a picturesque village about 5 hours away. We had just enough time for a quick lunch and we were on our way. As you might imagine, all that traveling can be exhausting, so we were relieved when the first hotel we tried not only had rooms for us, but was simply gorgeous. Between the mountainous backdrop, purple flowers everywhere, antique furniture in the room, and a private bathroom, we were thrilled. (It was MCA Guesthouse, by the way, for anyone who might be traveling there.)

Sunset over the city gate.

The walled old town of Dali is the main attraction, and our hotel was right outside one of the city gates. The first day we wandered around the old town, which mostly consists of travel agencies, restaurants, souvenir shops, and tourists. Still, it was charming and a nice change from the chaos of downtown Yangshuo. There was even a great bakery called Sweet Tooth that had super cookies and bars (have I mentioned how difficult it is to get good baked goods in China??).

Chillin' in Old Town.

China is home to more than 50 minorities, and the Bai people live mainly in Dali and the surrounding area. It was interesting to see the architecture, which to our eyes looks a little different from Han (majority ethnic group) architecture but probably looks massively different to the Chinese.

Bai architecture tends to be white with blue decorative painting--pretty!

On the second day, we rented a tandem bicycle to explore the neighboring villages, Lake Erhai, and the three pagodas. The three pagodas are the most famous site in the area, and were built more than 1,000 years ago. They're just outside of town, so we went there first.

Three pagodas.

Just to give you an idea of how much and how quickly China is changing, our guidebook, which was published in 2006 and the latest edition available at the time, said that the entrance fee was 10 RMB, or about $1.30. When we got there, we were stunned to find that the fee had been raised to 121 RMB, or $17! We were completely unprepared to spend that much, so we just admired the view from the parking lot.

Our real view of the pagodas! (Note the ubiquitous tour buses.)

Our next stop was a little village on Lake Erhai, an ear-shaped lake a few kilometers away from the old town. We thought we'd walk along the lake, but that turned out to be impossible--the village ran right up to the water and there wasn't anywhere to walk. It was nice to see some unrestored Bai architecture, though, and to escape the tour buses.

Authentic Bai architecture.

The ride to and from Dali was the best part because of the way the sun was shining on the rice paddies and mountains. It was sunny and the air was clean and clear (no smog!).

Hope you're not tired of rice paddies yet...

Dali was a great stop for us to recharge our batteries after traveling for so long, but beyond that, there wasn't a lot to do and we had limited time, so after a couple of days we left for Lijiang, about 3 hours away by minibus.

Getting Better and Better

Just a quick update (more details to come later)...we moved on from Yangshuo to a little town called Dali via an overnight train to Kunming and then a bus to Dali. Yangshuo is in an otherworldly landscape, but after the first day, the hordes of tourists started to get to us. Domestic tourism is booming, and the streets were packed with Chinese travelers, mainly in large tour groups. Dali is a lovely place with old city walls and Bai minority architecture, and our guesthouse rocked, so it was a nice change from Yangshuo. But again, tourists were everywhere! Aside from one barbershop, we didn't see a single shop in the old town that didn't cater to tourists--all seemed to be restaurants, snack shops, tourist agencies, souvenir shops, and so on.

This morning we took a short bus ride (3.5 hours) to Lijiang, and it's the best stop yet. The tourists are still here, but somehow not as noticeable, maybe because it's just so amazing here that it cancels them out. Tomorrow morning we leave to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge, about 1 hour out of Lijiang. We'll hike for a couple of days and then come back to town for a day or two. Tuesday is our last day in the southwest; we fly to Chengdu that night. We would have preferred to take a train or bus (i.e., save money), but Lijiang is isolated enough that we would have had to take an overnight bus to Kunming and then an overnight train to Chengdu, which would take a couple of days and only save us $70 (not chump change, but considering the alternative, I'd say it's more than worth it!). We'll see the pandas in Chengdu, and after that we only have 1 or 2 more stops until we get back to Beijing, hopefully by the end of next week.