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Published: November 20th 2007
We have gotten so behind with our blog! Sorry! We still have more of China to share with you, not to mention our month in Vietnam! We’re now in Siem Reap, Cambodia but here and Vietnam will have to wait for another day!
So, from the glitz of Hong Kong and Macau, we arrived in the small town of Lijiang, in the north of the Yunnan province, in the south-west of the country. Yunnan offers visitors a China that is quite different from the large cities of the east. This is largely due to the 26 minorities who live there and who comprise 50% of the population (though in many of the smaller towns this percentage is much higher) Though extremely touristy, Lijiang has a gorgeous old town with winding cobbled lanes (really slippery when wet though!) which take you through a maze of traditional buildings and over numerous small streams. These streams really are the life blood of the town with some homes perched over them with only wooden planks as access. We’re not sure how much of the town is original though as an earthquake destroyed a lot in the mid-90s and it has since been rebuilt -
has an original feel about it at least! The whole place lights up by night - from the lights below the many bridges to the red lanterns that hang from what seems like every eave, it must have the largest power bill of any small town we’ve been too!. The old town is also the largest we’ve seen, with the huge expanse of old fashioned buildings visible from the top of the hill the town backs on to.
The amount of tourists in town was a bit overwhelming, mostly Chinese tourists though there were definitely quite a few westerners too. At times the place felt like a circus, especially at night when the cafes lining the main lanes of the town turn into bars. The noise level was extreme with each bar pumping out their own music and girls singing (screaming) out traditional style songs - on a street about 2 metres wide, it was definitely full on!
Our hostel was away from the main drag so returning there was a nice break after a day of walking past shop after shop as every house there has some type of tourist shop on the ground floor. The hostel
proved pretty hard to find at first though but I’d imagine anywhere in Lijiang would be until you get an understanding of the laneways. Our hostel was nice with great staff although we could have coped with out the 6am truck alarm that drove past our bedroom each morning. As we were there during the Autumn Festival the staff invited us to join in with their feast of moon cakes, nuts and fruit, which was a neat experience.
About a km or so from the main old town was the Black Dragon scenic park which has a massive lake, lovely bridges and pavilions. On the right day you can see the snow capped mountain that is the source of Lijiangs water. The water has formed a major part of life in Lijiang and they have maintained rules involving its use for hundreds of years to ensure it remains pure. After being in a number of towns in China where the waterways were littered with rubbish, it was nice to see the crystal clear water in Lijiang.
100 kms or so from Lijiang is the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world. Though you can do a 2-3
Black Dragon scenic park
On a good day you can see snow cap mountains in the backgroundday hike along its sides, we decided to go the 1 day tour as the descriptions of some of the hiking paths sounded damn scary! And so we joined a Chinese tour………………an experience we will not repeat! It was a day of being virtually ignored by the tour guide (the Chinese got the same treatment though so it wasn’t a language problem, the guy just needed an attitude adjustment!), waiting around while 3 other members of the group decided to cruise down a river, the mandatory visit to a shop and the last item on our itinerary being scrapped as the tour guide and majority of Chinese tourists didn’t feel like going anymore (none of the 6 westerners on the trip were consulted) We did get to spend a couple of hours at the gorge which was pretty cool - huge volumes of water teaming down the river with waterfalls feeding water in. We met a nice couple from Israel who helped make the day more pleasant at least!
Next stop was the town of Dali. Though still a tourist destination, Dali was a lot less over run and we got to witness real life in the ancient walled
town. As in Lijiang, we got to observe the minorities in the traditional dress (only really the women though) and unlike Lijiang, most of it wasn’t for the tourists benefit! Some of the womens clothes are really beautiful and they wear it no matter what they are doing - from lugging baskets full of veges to working on construction sites! As we were in Dali on the weekend leading up to Golden Week - a national week long holiday in China, we decided to reserve a hostel before we arrived. The illustrious Hotel 6 looked like a building site when we first walked in (though after a bit of vacuuming and furniture rearrangement it wasn’t too bad) and both the toilet and shower needed some seriously tinkering to get them to work. But the best feature of the hostel would have to be the location next to a public toilet and the fact that our window was broken in the open position - literally propped up leaning on its frame, let it be said that our curtain remained closed! (but it was all good, you didn’t need to see it - you could smell it no problem!), and although the
Market square at Lijiang
In the old days they used to dam the river and let it flood the square once the market was done so to wash it clean sound of the national Chinese hocking comp each morning did travel up to our 1st floor room, the hostel was at least located within the walls of the old town. That said, it was pretty much as a far away from the action as possible, though this did enable us to experience the non-touristy area of the town which we enjoyed.
One of the highlights of the Yunnan province was the quality of the food, which after a month or so of eating tummy upsetting items in the rest of China was definitely welcomed and Dali certainly performed in the food stakes!
After a couple of days in Dali we jumped on a bus and a short 6 hours later arrived in the provincial capital of Kunming. As far as Chinese cities go Kunming is really quite nice which was lucky for us as we ended up spending a week and a half there waiting for our Vietnamese visas (the consulate was closed during Golden Week) After a couple of days at a basic but nice hotel near the bus station we moved to another basic but nice hotel (most Chinese hotels seem to be a carbon copy
of each other) in the university area after stumbling across it on our wanderings. It’s here that most of Kunmings expat community hangs out and we had a nice few days hanging out in cool little cafes and watching the Rugby World Cup at ‘Chapter One” with a great group of Aussies, Kiwis, Brits plus a few other nationalities thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately it was here that we watched Australia followed by NZ bow out of the Cup - still managed to have a good time though!
One of the sights near Kunming is the Dian Chi lake and the mountain Xi Shan that sprouts from its side. Starting in 1781 (and taking 54 years) Taoist monks built passageways through the mountains cliffs and created temples clinging to its sides. After following the directions in the Lonely Planet on how to get there (which included catching a series of buses and minivans) we ended up with no idea where we were (the 2007 edition sucks)! Thank goodness for taxis and the fact we are now used to such difficulties! After the nice taxi driver dropped us off we rode a cable car over the brightly coloured lake
(looked some type of blue green algae had infested it) and up part of the mountain. Though it was a bit rainy and hazy when we were there, the construction of the temples and passageways was really quite amazing and offered great views of the lake and the city in the distance.
From Kunming we made our last stop in China at Yuanyang, a small, remote mountain town surrounded by amazing rice terraces, a 7 hour bus ride from Kunming. Yuanyang has been on the radar of French tourists and photographers for awhile but has only just made it into the Lonely Planet China this year. As a result there were hardly any other independent travelers there and only a handful of French package tourists. This added to our experience greatly as the town is really not affected by tourism and you get to observe the local Ye and Hani people just going about their normal lives in the amazingly scenic town literally perched it seems on the side of a mountain (the bus ride up was a tad scary!). Though autumn is not the best time of year to visit - during winter the rice terraces are filled
with water and turn into series of reflective pools, which must be stunning, Yuanyang is a really special place no matter what time of year. After spending a day just looking around the town and wandering through the Saturday market, we were really happy we had made the effort to visit. The following day we jumped on a local minibus and were taken an hour away to another market where up to 6 ethnic minorities converge from surrounding villages to sell and shop. As the local people (mostly the women) wear the most amazingly clothes it made for a very colourful affair!
On our way back to Yuanyang from the market we jumped off the minibus and wandered along the road for a few kms looking at the rice terraces and the people working them. Literally every part of the steep mountain sides and valley floors are covered with the terraces which were created over a period of hundreds of years by the local Hani people. There’s apparently 12,500 hectares of them in total so pretty much anywhere you turn in the area, you’ll see a rice field!
There are maybe half a dozen hotels/guesthouses in Yuanyang and
we chose to stay at the largest hotel in town, basically as it was the easiest to find (called the Yunti Hotel) and it was here that we had a nice chat one night with 3 young guys that had just moved there to work in the gift shop and assist tourists and to basically practice their English in preparation to sit an exam to become tour guides. The only other place we found geared towards tourists was a place called Window of Yuanyang. Set up by a guy from Hong Kong that has lived in Yuanyang for the last 7 years, it is affiliated with World Vision and works with the local women to give them a place to sell their handicrafts and is looking to assist them set up home stay opportunities for tourists. Along with being a place to have a drink and buy some pressies, they are just there for a chat and to offer info about the area. We also met a young guy called Penknife - his Chinese nickname means small knife so when it came to picking an English name Penknife it was! He is from a small village 2 hour bus ride
followed by a 2 hour walk away from Yuanyang, pretty remote hey! He is learning English so to become a trekking/tour guide and is acting basically like a kind of apprentice to the guy from Hong Kong whose main job is conducting treks.
From Yuanyang it was supposed to be a quick 4 hour bus ride to the Vietnamese border but due to the current construction of a motorway the road in a lot of parts had turned into a muddy mess and that along with the numerous trucks extended the trip to 8 hours. If we had been on a nice comfortable bus it wouldn’t have been a problem but we were on a very “local” bus and Anthony scored the seat above the wheel arch so sat with his knees raised up for nearly the entire trip. Definitely made for an interesting experience though - the amount of rice and people that fitted on the bus was amazing (we didn’t get chickens though like some of the other buses we saw!) We did get to spend some time with the locals, who weren’t overly open but after awhile offered a few smiles. After arriving 4 hours later
than planned we were worried that the border would have closed as everything we had read stated it was only opened till 6pm and we arrived at 10 past. Luckily, it was alive and kicking when we got there and we managed to cross a bridge into Vietnam without any dramas.
We saw some wonderful things and met some lovely people but China was not the easiest place to travel. This was definitely in part due to the language - we can’t help but think what a different experience we would have had if we could speak Mandarin. The Chinese definitely are culturally different to us and even to each other (region to region) and this can be observed in the simplest day to day actions - some good differences, some bad and a lot of annoying habits but that is obviously from our Western viewpoint!
So that was China……..we have had a love/hate relationship with the place but now feel that we can go almost anywhere and do almost anything. Can’t wait to tell you all about the rest of it when we get home!
Promise that the entry on Vietnam won’t be too far away!
Love,
Vanessa and Anthony
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DnA
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To fellow travellers
Hi guys, Great to get your blogs. Have been wondering how and where you were and when you would be coming home. We arrived home a week ago. Seems like you are certainly survivors...or your Mandarin has improved out of sight. Great colourful photos. We really enjoyed them. Hope the belly bugs are well and truly gone. Rohan just about to blog our Egypt adventures..so stay tuned.