Day 312 - First of many monasteries

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Gemma was suffering with the cold that Ed had kindly passed on, so stayed in and around the hotel whilst Ed went off for a guided day around Lijiang, capital of the Naxi kingdom. Lijiang is a UNESCO site and the status actually refers to the old town, where we were staying, and a couple of historic villages nearby. Some highlights here included a camellia tree, supposedly with 10,000 blossoms, Black Dragon pool and lots of ancient murals. The best bit was meeting Doctor Ho, who featured in Michael Palin’s Himalaya series. When he found out that Ed was English (something he should have already known if he actually had the powers he claims) he went off inside and came back with a letter of thanks from Michael Palin for his help. A shopkeeper told Ed, via Hamlet the translator, that the snow leopard skin hanging up in his shop costs about 20 quid. Somehow that sounded like a very fake snow leopard, especially when the cow hides in the next shop were going for much more. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain towers over the area and a 3km long cable car runs up to 4500m. Here you can look at the southernmost glacier in the northern hemisphere and walk (slowly, given the thin air) up to 4680m. Very cold and very tiring, and an achievement that many visitors missed out on as, despite their oxygen tanks, they turned back moaning! Back in Lijiang, Ed walked around a beautiful and typically Chinese park, with lakes and bridges and temples, and finally visited a museum on the Naxi people’s Dongba religion. It wasn’t all that interesting unless you’re heavily into anthropology, but one thing stood out - by chance, the paper that they made centuries ago turned out to be incredibly long-lasting, and so 600 year old writings looked as if they dated from 20 years ago.

Gemma joined in the fun for a spot of tea tasting, and this time we were seduced by something called Snow Tea. It’s actually a moss that grows on the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain but tasted pretty good so we added some to our collection. And then in the evening we went for a classically tacky tourist extravaganza of a Dongba cultural song and dance show. It was okay, although in contrast to the amazing feats we saw in Beijing the performance here didn’t exactly scream ‘talent’ and looked like what any bunch of enthusiasts could come up with given a bit of rehearsal time. The main 70 year old shamen guy was very impressive though.

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