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Exit Chengdu and enter Lijiang in Yunnan province, a couple of hundred miles north of Kunming for you geography buffs. In Chinese folklore, Yunnan was where all the naughty little boys and girls were sent to and we thought we were destined for it!We decided to fly after getting annoyed with the ridiculously long train journeys and were rewarded with an arbitrary upgrade to first class courtesy of pushing to the front of the VIP queue and using the ignorant foreigner trick. On arrival in Lijiang we had a further pleasant surprise - our first glimpse of the night sky for almost two weeks helped by being 8000ft closer to it; a break in the blanket of pollution that enveloped the major cities we had previously visited.
The next day was spent relaxing as we formulated plans to tackle Tiger Leaping Gorge and wandered around the old town of Lijiang, a kind of Chinese Disneyland. A few years ago, Lijiang was devastated by a major earthquake and they spent the reconstruction funds on an incredibly compact and efficient technique of separating tourists from cash cunningly disguised as an ancient Chinese town. Luckily for us, and the rest of the tourists, the locals are friendly and we are content to being mildly overcharged given the fact that the town is gorgeous and surrounded by mountains.
Buoyed by the good weather and a couple of Tsingtao we agreed to go for a bike ride with an Australian couple to a village about 10k north of Lijiang. On the way there we had a great time howwever as we rode under Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (5500m fact fans) the rain started to fall possibly due to the blonde dragon invading its territory. So we ended up wet at the village where the locals sorted us out with some coffee and negotiated a cab back for us and bikes to Lijiang.
On the evening of the third night we blundered into a bit of luck; Rachelle while trying to pay for an additional night of accommodation got dragged into a Chinese drinking game and I got sucked in as I always seem to. After a few drinks of a fairly nice Chinese spirit and broken conversation we decided to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge with some Chinese students the next day. The gorge itself is stunning and although we had to settle for one day instead of a 3 day trip due to the weather and still managed to get soaked. The gorge is up there with some of our favourite sites, sitting with the pandas and the great wall. The pictures really don't do it justice but the middle tiger leaping stone at the bottom of the gorge shots are amazing (where according to legend a tiger leapt across the gorge to escape hunters but which is obviously b******s). The way back was fun as well as we were at one point confronted with a choice of a safe road or a 'dangeroos' ladder, we obviously chose the ladder and to my panicked mind it seemed to be attached to the cliff face by bamboo and faith, perhaps it was but we all made it to a harrowing taxi ride back to Lijiang punctuated by screeching stops as rocks fell onto the road from mini landslides in the heavy rain. Today has been relaxing as we took stock and looked forward to Guilin tomorrow where the weather will be good (fingers crossed) and all will be right with the world.
Love R & A
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