Day 11 - Black Dragon Pond & Lijiang Impression Show

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Today was a busy one but GREAT and made the trip to Lijiang worthwhile...

We went to the Black Dragon Pond today and again no-one spoke English. To get into the place we had to pay $80￥/$15AU each which is only payable for non-residents of which really we are the only ones in Lijiang!!! The place has a huge lake, bridge, beautiful buildings, waterfall and gardens. You could spend all day there wandering but we didn't have that long to spare.

We then went back to the hotel, shared some fried rice from room service as we were now in a bit of a hurry and got a Taxi to go up to the snow mountains to see a show called 'Lijiang Impression'. We were at a really high altitude and there are signs saying to be careful of your health, we managed ok but it was definitely harder to breath. When we booked the show through the hotel they failed to tell us we had to spend another $80￥ each just to get on the mountain. This show was becoming quite expensive as our Taxi was $150￥ for a return trip as the driver has to wait for us during the show as there are no other taxi's to catch in the mountain.

We bought our tickets at $190￥/$35AU each which were for general seats. Not sure how we have been so lucky to be constantly given upgrades but they escorted us to the VIP seating area and so we sat VIP and didnt have to pay the extra money!!! Bonus for us. We were all given a poncho - not like our ponchos you wear at the football, these were huge and thick like plastic and as Tam and I are both short - it covered our entire bodies. I had light blue and Tam had Navy, there were many colours in the audience as EVERY person was wearing them and it was a packed house of like 1000 people - CRAZY

The show is put on in an arena 360 degrees round at an elevation of 3100 meters. There are 500 performers and 100 horses, it was amazing. Their dancing, acting and singing were great and it was interesting to hear the performers are all local farmers, etc. None of them are actors, singers or dancers. Every person put in 100% into their performance and were very professional - it was amazing. It has made the trip to Lijiang so worth it!

We then got the Taxi home and were forced to listen to Chinese Techno music (on tape cassette) which was turned up loud. I had a sub woofer behind my head - oh it was painful!

When we got back to the hotel we were both so worn out, probably also from the altitude making it hard to breath well. We both had a bath to relax and headed to dinner - again at the hotel. This is what we ate:

* Steamed Rice
* Grilled Veal, we didnt realise it was just one piece so cut in half to eat - it would have looked strange but we didnt care.
* Salted Fish & Eggplant Hotpot. This was delicious. It was also spicy as is most of the food we have had in Lijiang.
* Fried noodles & 3 shredded ingredients. This title doesnt give much info so we werent entirely sure what to expect but turns out it is vermicelli noodles with a strange tasting sauce, seafood and slices of vegies. We ate what we could but it barely looked like we touched the food.
* Jasmin Tea

Back to the room now and we are watching a show on the discovery channel and then off to bed

Wanan (goodnight) xo

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