Bob & Vik's A-Z of China

Asia » China » Yunnan
January 13th 2007

Published: January 25th 2007

A is for…Adoption: We met a Chinese girl who worked for an agency that sold - sorry, provided - children to foreign couples that wished to adopt Chinese babies. Apparently the largest consumers of Chinese babies (no reference to E is inferred) are Americans and there are places in China where it is possible to find hordes of American couples living in the same area waiting for their mandatory f... Read Full Entry

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Bob & Vik

Occasionally Bob

Years of staring at maps, debating routes, saving money and boring anyone in earshot with constantly changing plans finally culminated in our D-Day. 28th August 2006. The day that Vik and Bob went global. Having made it to New Zealand without taking a single flight, we reached the conclusion that neither our finances nor our sea legs could stomach another container ship journey so we've cheated and taken a flight from New Zealand to Bangkok. From Bangkok we hope to stick with the overland theme and take a route home through Southern Asia: China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey... U... full info

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Goat-cam - Tiger Leaping Gorge

Path becomes waterfall - Tiger Leaping Gorge

Traffic - Tiger Leaping Gorge

Scarey Bus Journey - Tiger Leaping Gorge

Quite apart from the fact that the bus was packed to the point where the limited aisle was full of baskets, luggage and Frenchmen; it was less than comforting to realise that large sections of the "new" road along the sheer cliff face had been swept away by rockfalls. It was best not to look out the window at the seriously long drop to the bottom of Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Lijiang Market: Dead Produce Section

The men stand around and smoke, spit and argue while women with less teeth than fingers massacre pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs, pigeons and other assorted livestock with alarming efficiency right infront of your eyes. There's no room for queasiness and animal rights here. Rows of these women fill the meat market, turning the floor a sticky red in a furious flurry of cleavers. I never really believed that death had a smell until I came here. Needless to say it was pasta and vegetables for dinner that night.

Dog to go

No bowls, leads, beds or designer pet wear here; the only thing with their names on it is a bloody cleaver and a restaurant menu.

Veggies

Just incase the meat produce section turns you vegetarian, Lijiang market caters for all tastes.

Restaurants in Lijiang

Writing in Water

For some reason, the main square in Lijiang is the setting for lots of people to practise caligraphy using giant brushes and water. Dads bring their kids here to learn from the masters.

Corny Photograph

Mobile Hair Salon

Check out the seat for reclining in while they wash your hair. The Chinese can get anything on a bicycle.

Three Wells, Lijiang

The top well is for drinking, the next one is for washing vegetables and the last is for washing your clothes.

Waterways of Lijiang

Making Baba in Lijiang

Baba is a Lijiang speciality and is cheap, greasy and delicious. A bit like fat greasy, flakey pancakes, they can be served sweet or savoury and are readily available at street stalls like this one.

Random Temples, Lijiang

The best way to travel in China

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain...

... or something like that. This is the view from Lijiang Old Town toward the aforementioned mountains.

Guesthouse in Lijijang

We're not sure what the place is called as it was all in Chinese and the staff spoke no English. All I got was that it was owned by a Naxi woman and that I could help myself to tea. We found it by accident and would stay nowhere else in Lijiang - it was superb.

Suits you sir!

I think I've featured Chinese men and their desire to wear suits for every occasion but this was so brilliant I couldn't not feature it. This bloke is wearing a suit and smoking a cigarette while he does some spot welding in the dark. Gotta love that style!

Build Your Own Truck

Who needs a bonnet anyway? Bodywork on a truck is so overrated.

Random Roofing in Lijiang

26th January 2007

Jenn
non-member comment

You've done it again
I think this may be your best blog yet. Wonderful job! It helps me remember China exactly as it is. Have fun in Vietnam, you'll have no lack of things to write about there as well!

29th January 2007

Po
non-member comment

Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers quote...
'Bye China - Good morning Vietnam...... keep on bloggin'.....

9th February 2007

thewug
Michael

You do have a way with words... LOL...

7th September 2007

Marco
non-member comment

Exact view of China
You really told it as it is. I live and work since 3 years here in China and many parts of this culture still pisses me off (refer to F,H,I,Q,R, especially S,T,W,Y,Z did i mentioned S already?!). Anyway, there are many nice things too...... I have some trouble to recollect them now, but i am sure there are. About Z, as a foreigner your chance to get hit by a car on a Zebra crossing is dramaticly reduced due to the widely spreaded believe that a foreigners live is too much worth and the costs for treatment would ruin the live of the chinese driver, and this is why i like it to just walk into the traffic as if i dont care to force the drivers to slam their brakes as they never did before. Another free advise is to complain loud and agressive if something is not ok, dont try to be friendly in the beginning because you will not succeed until you became really angry. Since i dont like to be angry, i will begin my complain already in a way that seems that i will explode if i got any denial. This works great! Greetings from Chongqing (The Capital of "S")

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