We spent an easy day exploring the village of Baisha near Lijiang, at the base of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains, a tiny charming place that is much less overrun with tourists than Lijiang's Old Town. We met this Taoist doctor who has been featured in many articles and books, making him one of the most famous doctors in China. An old, eccentric man who studied Chinese medicine and treats patients with herbs found at the foot of the mountains, he didn't really say much except show us articles about himself and proclaim himself to be famous. It was an interesting experience.
Alice and Fred had to leave that afternoon, so we headed back to Lijiang. After they left for the airport, Xiaoyu and I spent a bit of time walking through parts of the Old Town we had yet to explore en route to the Black Dragon Pool Park. The Old Town, which is lined with cobblestone streets and traditional Naxi-style (one of China's many minority groups) buildings, consists of hundreds of little charming alleys. Although beautiful, it is completely geared for tourists, with hundreds of Naxi-style, hundreds more tourist shops selling beautiful wood carvings, shawls and handicraft, as well as restaurants selling Naxi food (very similar to Chinese - I can't really tell the difference). The most pervasive Naxi food is the "baba," which, depending on where you go, varies between fried dough and something closer to scallion pancake. We tried it at several places and decided it was too greasy.
The Black Dragon Pool Park is a typical Chinese park with a most-likely man-made pond in the middle surrounded by trees and rocks. However, it's claim to fame is it's location. In front of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains, on a clear day, you can see the mountains and the reflection in the water. However, despite many attempts to catch a glimpse of the elusive, snow-capped peaks, we were not lucky enough to see it. Although clear and sunny in Lijiang, the clouds congregated at the tops of the mountains surrounding Lijiang, obscuring the mountaintops.
The next day, Xiaoyu and I left for Lugu Hu. The lake is home of the last matriarchal society in the world supposedly. The Mosuo women practice something called a "walking marriage". Each night, they pick a lover for the night, and in the morning, the men goes home to their mothers house. They named the area Women's Kingdom to make it sound catchy and attract tourists. According to the Lonely Planet, the strategy worked and they are the richest minority group in China.
We arrived at the lake after a brutal 8+ hour bus ride through bumpy, mostly unpaved mountain roads. We passed through beautiful scenery of mountains and valleys. I was beginning to get grumpy until we caught our first glimpse of the lake when we descended the last mountain. The sun was out and the lake literally sparkled. It was breath-takingly beautiful there. When we finally got off the bus, we picked a guesthouse right along the lake in Luoshui, one of the villages along the lake, and then went exploring.
Maybe it's because I've lived in Beijing for too long and don't remember what blue sky should look like, but the sky was absolutely incredible - a brillant, rich blue color dotted by huge patches of cotton candy-like clouds that varies between pure white and stormy gray in the blink of an eye. I was mesmerized.
We had dinner with some people who came on the same bus as us before calling it a night.
The next day, we walked part way to Lige, another town around the lake before two of the guys from our bus found us. We hopped in their car, drove to Lige with them, where we had the opportunity to go inside a local family's home for tea since one of the guys, Lulu, is half Mosuo (on his mother's side, his dad is another minority). After that, we went to a Tibetan Monastery where Lulu's grandfather, a "living Buddha" of the Tibetan religion, resides whenever he is back at Lugu Lake. It was a truly unique experience. Since he resides in Lijiang, we hope to meet him before we leave Yunnan.
After lunch, we rowed out to the middle of the lake. We were joined by Lulu's childhood friend and a hard-core Taiwanese outdoorsman who brought his own kayak, mountain bike and ATV with hime. We grabbed a cup of coffee at a guesthouse before jumping into the water for a swim. Apparently it's not allowed according to all the signs posted around the lake, but the locals do it so we jumped in with them.
We grabbed dinner at a fish restaurant by yet another village. After we got back to Lige, we explored the village by foot, walking along the banks of the lake. And then we went to the performance and sort of learned some Mosuo dances. It was fun.
We left for Lijiang early the next day. The ride was truly bone-jarring, and I thought wistfully of seatbelts. The driver did not slept the night before (he told us this as we got into the bus) and then proceeded to speed up and down the mountains. I flew out of my seat many times. It was absolutely crazy. I was relieved when we finally got back to Lijiang.
Today, we are heading up to Shangrila, formerly known as Zhongdian (not as catchy as Shangrila - they renamed it to attract tourists a few years ago). Unfortunately we do not have enough time to head up to Meili Snow Mountains, which is supposed to put the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains to shame (well, we still haven't seen any snow!), near Deqin due to time restraints, but I'm still looking forward to seeing some Tibetan villages.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Lijiang
Except for a few short trips, one to Dunhuang (where I went to the amazing Mogao Caves and the Crescent Moon Lake in the middle of the Gobi Desert) and one to Shanghai to visit January who just moved there, I've pretty much been in Beijing. I finally left last Friday for my 7-week trip across Asia. My first stop is northwestern Yunnan Province in southern China.
I left on Friday the 13th and the trip did not get off to a good start. My flight sat on the runway forever due to poor weather in Beijing. We did not land in Kunming until 4am in the morning, at which point it did not even make sense to leave the airport. My flight to Lijiang with Alice left at 7:15am, so we had to spend a few hours at the airport waiting for our flight. We found Julia and Lauren, who were traveling with us as well. Their flight to Kunming did not take off until 2:30am and they made it to Kunming just in time for our flight to Lijiang. Luckily, our flight to Lijiang took off without any problems, but at gate 13... and Alice and I were in the 13th row. Lijiang was rainy when we arrived. We went directly to Mama Naxi's Guesthouse, a charming place run by Mama Naxi, who seriously treats every traveller like her child. We spent the morning recovering from our flight, grabbed some lunch, then spent the afternoon exploring Lijiang's Old Town while waiting for the last 2 people in our group, Fred and Xiao Yu to arrive from Shanghai. But the continuous rain put in doubt our plans to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge the next day.
The next day, the weather looked okay, so we headed off to Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the deepest in the world, as planned. Although it was sunny when we started the hike, we were lucky we bought rain ponchos. It was a grueling 2 hour uphill hike in the hot sun to our first stop - Naxi Guesthouse, 6 km into the hike. We had lunch there and then left, prepared to hike the infamous 28-bends, an even more grueling 1+ hour uphill hike to the highest peak. However, less than half an hour later, it started to rain. We found a small shack, which we reached just in time before it started to pour. When the rain let up, we took horses up the 28-bends, the roads too slippery for a bunch of novice hikers to go up. At the peak, we got off the horses and hiked another 2 hours before we reached our second stop, the Tea Horse Guesthouse, were we had amazing Naxi Sandwiches - layers of pita-like bread with cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce and egg. After we finished eating, we quickly left for our last stop of the night, Halfway Guesthouse. The name is pretty self-explanatory. It's the half-way point of the gorge hike. About 2 hours later, with just a bit of sunlight to spare, the 6 of us rolled into the guesthouse and collapsed on the terrace to enjoy the amazing few of the mountains enshrouded by misty clouds, and the gushing gorge far below. As the sun set, the moon and the stars appeared, casting a silvery light over the mountains - it was simply ethereal.
It rained all throughout the night, and most of the morning. We hunkered down at Halfway, hoping the rain would let up. Even the guides were predicting tough hiking conditions. It was still 2-3 hours to our final stop, Jane's Guest House at Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge. We hung out with a group of 3 Belgian guys doing the hike, and a couple of other Europeans. When the rain slowed to a drizzle, we started out again. We passed the beautiful Guanyin Waterfall and reached Jane's early in the afternoon. After grabbing lunch, we hiked 2 km down to the bottom of the gorge. We clambered onto the Tiger Stone, where we enjoyed the amazing vista that surrounded us. Then we made the grueling 2 km hike back up to the low road. I was completely beat by the end. We got into a car which made the treacherous drive in pouring rain back to Lijiang. The roads were covered in loose rocks and flooded in many sections. I was so glad when we got back to Mama Naxi's.
The weather predicted rain for the next 3 days. So we scrapped plans to go to Lugu Hu and instead, decided to stick closer to Lijiang. A plan to go to Baisha villaged morphed into a full-day horseriding trip up to Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. Horseback riding - so much easier than hiking. Our amazing guides hiked the whole way, and did not even seem the least bit winded. We went through a forest of moss-covered and cloud enshrouded trees. At 4,000 meters, we learned that we picked the wrong path to go up. Instead of going up the left path and coming down the right, we had asked to go up the right path which is too steep at the top to go up to 4,900 meters on horses. So we ended up having to hike 2 kms up to the meadow at the top. As Alice said, we were like little mountain goats. The hike was hard, but nothing compared to the gorge. And the views at the top, even more incredible than the ones at Tiger Leaping Gorge, were worth the hard work. We were surrounded by green mountains on top of this meadow covered by grass and flowers. On the way down, we got amazing views of the valley. The trip took us 7-hours, not the 2 our original tour guide told us it would. But the weather held up, with only moments of slight drizzles, so we have absolutely no complaints!
Today, it is nice and sunny. We definitely plan to take advantage of the amazing weather.
I left on Friday the 13th and the trip did not get off to a good start. My flight sat on the runway forever due to poor weather in Beijing. We did not land in Kunming until 4am in the morning, at which point it did not even make sense to leave the airport. My flight to Lijiang with Alice left at 7:15am, so we had to spend a few hours at the airport waiting for our flight. We found Julia and Lauren, who were traveling with us as well. Their flight to Kunming did not take off until 2:30am and they made it to Kunming just in time for our flight to Lijiang. Luckily, our flight to Lijiang took off without any problems, but at gate 13... and Alice and I were in the 13th row. Lijiang was rainy when we arrived. We went directly to Mama Naxi's Guesthouse, a charming place run by Mama Naxi, who seriously treats every traveller like her child. We spent the morning recovering from our flight, grabbed some lunch, then spent the afternoon exploring Lijiang's Old Town while waiting for the last 2 people in our group, Fred and Xiao Yu to arrive from Shanghai. But the continuous rain put in doubt our plans to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge the next day.
The next day, the weather looked okay, so we headed off to Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the deepest in the world, as planned. Although it was sunny when we started the hike, we were lucky we bought rain ponchos. It was a grueling 2 hour uphill hike in the hot sun to our first stop - Naxi Guesthouse, 6 km into the hike. We had lunch there and then left, prepared to hike the infamous 28-bends, an even more grueling 1+ hour uphill hike to the highest peak. However, less than half an hour later, it started to rain. We found a small shack, which we reached just in time before it started to pour. When the rain let up, we took horses up the 28-bends, the roads too slippery for a bunch of novice hikers to go up. At the peak, we got off the horses and hiked another 2 hours before we reached our second stop, the Tea Horse Guesthouse, were we had amazing Naxi Sandwiches - layers of pita-like bread with cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce and egg. After we finished eating, we quickly left for our last stop of the night, Halfway Guesthouse. The name is pretty self-explanatory. It's the half-way point of the gorge hike. About 2 hours later, with just a bit of sunlight to spare, the 6 of us rolled into the guesthouse and collapsed on the terrace to enjoy the amazing few of the mountains enshrouded by misty clouds, and the gushing gorge far below. As the sun set, the moon and the stars appeared, casting a silvery light over the mountains - it was simply ethereal.
It rained all throughout the night, and most of the morning. We hunkered down at Halfway, hoping the rain would let up. Even the guides were predicting tough hiking conditions. It was still 2-3 hours to our final stop, Jane's Guest House at Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge. We hung out with a group of 3 Belgian guys doing the hike, and a couple of other Europeans. When the rain slowed to a drizzle, we started out again. We passed the beautiful Guanyin Waterfall and reached Jane's early in the afternoon. After grabbing lunch, we hiked 2 km down to the bottom of the gorge. We clambered onto the Tiger Stone, where we enjoyed the amazing vista that surrounded us. Then we made the grueling 2 km hike back up to the low road. I was completely beat by the end. We got into a car which made the treacherous drive in pouring rain back to Lijiang. The roads were covered in loose rocks and flooded in many sections. I was so glad when we got back to Mama Naxi's.
The weather predicted rain for the next 3 days. So we scrapped plans to go to Lugu Hu and instead, decided to stick closer to Lijiang. A plan to go to Baisha villaged morphed into a full-day horseriding trip up to Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. Horseback riding - so much easier than hiking. Our amazing guides hiked the whole way, and did not even seem the least bit winded. We went through a forest of moss-covered and cloud enshrouded trees. At 4,000 meters, we learned that we picked the wrong path to go up. Instead of going up the left path and coming down the right, we had asked to go up the right path which is too steep at the top to go up to 4,900 meters on horses. So we ended up having to hike 2 kms up to the meadow at the top. As Alice said, we were like little mountain goats. The hike was hard, but nothing compared to the gorge. And the views at the top, even more incredible than the ones at Tiger Leaping Gorge, were worth the hard work. We were surrounded by green mountains on top of this meadow covered by grass and flowers. On the way down, we got amazing views of the valley. The trip took us 7-hours, not the 2 our original tour guide told us it would. But the weather held up, with only moments of slight drizzles, so we have absolutely no complaints!
Today, it is nice and sunny. We definitely plan to take advantage of the amazing weather.
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