Arrival in Lijiang, our local guide and free sweet wine

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The Lijiang airport was tiny, Monica said it reminded her of the Duluth airport, which I have never been to, but it should give some perspective on the size. We took a bus to our hotel, it was dark but we could see big valleys and mountains, and a lot of stars, it was already clear that Lijiang would be very beautiful. When we arrived, men with tricycle trailers took our luggage through the alleyways to our hotel. The area we were in was the old city, it kind of reminded me of the old city in Jerusalem, just random alleys and cobblestone streets with shops on both sides. It was pretty late so we just got some water and snacks from a shop and went to the hotel. Our hotel was pretty small, with a courtyard and a little fireplace to sit around. We talked to the two younger girls who worked there, they were both 22, one was married and she was the manager. They were very nice, but didn’t speak any English so we all had to practice our Chinese, and the people who were just learning Chinese weren’t able to talk with them. They had two dogs that lived at the hotel, 丑丑　and 美美 (chou chou and mei mei) which means ugly ugly and beautiful beautiful. Chou Chou was a standard small dog like they had running all over in Lijiang, I don't think they don’t believe in leashes in China, Mei Mei was a schnauzer, which is more expensive so she was more valuable, but Chou Chou was a lot more fun. He was full of energy and often walked with us through the streets, and always knew his way back.

The next morning we went to a museum. The museum was about the Naxi minority ethnic group in China. Specifically, the sub-group called Dongba, which have very few people left, but their culture is very evident in Lijiang. The most obvious characteristic of Dongba is the characters they use to write, they are similar to very old Chinese character. Each character is basically just a small picture of something, which is of course how Chinese characters originated, but by looking at modern Chinese characters you can’t really see an actual picture. We had a short lecture on Dongba culture, which seemed kind of similar to Native Americans, and then we had a tour of a huge miniature timeline. The displays were very impressive, and took three years to build, and they were still adding more. One of the guys who worked at the museum was really nice and wanted to work on his English, so he gave Holly his number so we could meet up later for dinner.

After the museum we went for lunch. We went to a typical Lijiang place, it was a small outdoor restaurant with a courtyard in the middle of the seating area. There were a few people just hanging out in the courtyard, see the pictures. The food was very good, the most popular tea in the area is called Pu’er, it was pretty good. They also gave us yak’s milk tea, which was not very good; it was too salty, and kind of tasted like milky tears. Once we finished lunch we headed to a nearby park. The park was absolutely beautiful; I think some of the pictures from there look like a backdrop. The lake was extremely blue, the trees were green and since it was a clear day the mountain shines gray in the background. After walking around for a while we decided to climb the hill at the park. It was very tiring because Lijiang is a very high elevation already, and now we were climbing stairs. I ran into Nikki, Holly and Elizabeth on the trail and decided to stay with them instead of going back to the hotel on the bus with the big group. Taxis are so cheap here it’s not really a big deal if we missed the group bus. We enjoyed the sunshine and overlook of the city for an hour or so, and then decided to go explore the city.

Outside the park gate there was a lady selling fruit. One of the fruits looked like a big shiny purple rock. We bought one and she cut a hole in the top and gave us straws, it turned out to be a big purple coconut, and it was delicious. After drinking the milk, we tried to break it open on the cobble stone street, but failed as a Chinese man laughed. He told us he could help us and brought us in his restaurant and used a big knife to cut open the coconut. The inside of the coconut was delicious, probably the best coconut I’ve had, but I haven’t had many. We decided to check out a shopping area that the guy from the museum had told us about, so we took a taxi to 束河，the shopping area. It was right outside of the city, closer to the mountain’s base. It was a typical shopping area with cobblestone streets, but especially pretty because of the mountain in the background. In Lijiang they have many shops that sell scarves; they usually have young girls dressed in traditional clothing weaving scarves on a loom. After shopping we called Dennis, the guy from the museum, to go to dinner. We took a small, slightly sketchy mini-mini-van to the restaurant because there were no taxis at the shopping area.

The restaurant was a small fish place, it’s always good to go out with the locals because they usually bring you places you would never try otherwise. We got to pick out our own fish from the tank and watch them get netted and weighed. Less than an hour later, the fish was cut up, cooked, and on our table to eat. The restaurant was similar to hot pot; the fish was in chunks in a kind of soup. First you eat the fish, then you put in veggies and turn on the fire to heat up the soup and cook the veggies, it was very delicious. We got some beer and wine to go with dinner. The people at the restaurant had trouble opening the wine and ended up with two bottles with the cork inside. Instead of watching them struggle with a third, we told them we’d buy the other two if they gave us a discount, and they agreed. Other than the cork, the wine was the best I’ve had in China, most Chinese wine is much too sweet, but this kind was good. Dennis told us about Lijiang and about himself, it was a really fun dinner. One thing that stands out other than the great food and discussion is the bathroom, or actually the trip to the bathroom. It was a public bathroom about a block away. Behind the restaurant was a big compound of storage units, but instead of stuff in them, there were couches TVs and beds. I’m not sure if they were permanent residences or temporary for farmers who sold things in the farmers’ market, but hopefully the latter because they didn’t look very comfortable. I asked Dennis but he didn’t know. I think it could be either one because I have seen compounds like that before for people who work at shops, like the jade wholesale place we stopped at today on the highway. It’s hard to believe that people live for an extended time in basically just a one car garage.

After dinner we went back to our hotel to pick up Zoey so we could go out and explore, but she was sick with a cold so she stayed in. After hanging out at the hotel for a while we decided to check out the bar street that Lijiang is famous for. The bars are on either side of a canal and there are lights and red lanterns everywhere, it was very beautiful. We went into a couple bars but they were crowded and extremely expensive. Eventually we met up with some more people from the program and sat with them because they had ordered some things. Some people danced but I didn’t feel like it so I went to sit outside and enjoy the clear cool air.

I was sitting on the ledge of the canal when a couple Chinese girls inside the bar knocked on the window, I must have looked cold because they waved me to come in and sit by them. Who am I to turn down two pretty girls, so I went in and talked to them for a while. There are a lot of bad things that can come from talking to random pretty girls in China so I knew I should be careful, but after talking to them they turned out to be normal nice girls. The older one was 26 and she had a husband and a baby, the younger one was her sister-in-law and was 22. They both spoke a little English but not much so we mostly spoke Chinese, their Mandarin was very clear so it was pretty easy for me to understand. After about 20 minutes the music at the bar stopped, all the music at the bars in Lijiang stop at 11:30 to keep the quiet relaxing atmosphere that is associated wth Lijiang. They invited me to meet up with their friends and go to a small bar where there would be music, so I agreed. Although they seemed very nice and their friends were also very nice I figured I should be safe so I called my friends. Alison and Nathan said they would come with me. We got to the small bar and it was awesome, it was more of a living room then a bar. There was a guy playing guitar and another foreigner playing a drum, I forgot what it’s called but it sits between your legs and you play with your hands. The foreigner was from Australia and also had a friend with him. The people that owned the place brought us out free homemade plum wine; it was very good and sweet. We sat and talked and listened to music for a long time, it was one of the coolest things that I’ve stumbled upon in China. At one point the man playing the guitar told everyone his name and the girls screamed. It turned out he is a famous TV host in China, of course that meant nothing to me because I’ve never really watched Chinese TV, but the Chinese people were very excited.

Eventually the night had to end, so in the wee hours of the morning we started heading home. Since it was only the second night in Lijiang and the streets are like a maze, it took quite a while to get home. We eventually had to ask a guard how to get there; he was very nice and actually walked us all the way to our hotel. We felt a little bad because they lock the doors at midnight so we had to ring the bell and wake up the girl who works there, but she is very sweet and was more interested in what kind of fun we had than getting mad at us.

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