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Published: January 22nd 2008
Our flight from Chengdu to Lijiang went very smoothly. We got an English newspaper to read, a meal (nasty dried tofu), water to drink and during Donna's security frisk at the airport she got her bum squeezed and felt by the female security guard! We were wondering where the Chinese were going to get rid of their spit and hocking when on the plane, but we soon realised that the sick bags would be their solution. Donna's rucksack had yet again been covered in unknown liquid...to date she has had dead llama juice, beer, rotten fish juice, dog wee, oil and now what smelt like baby lotion cover her rucksack.
We shared a taxi to the Old Town area of Lijiang with another backpacker and our first impression was that it looked stunningly pretty at night. The Chinese really know how to light things up tastefully. People had told us that it would be warmer in Lijiang than Chengdu, but this was not the case as even though Lijiang is further south, it is at altitude. It was cold and our room did not have heating despite it having internet and cable TV...but an electric blanket was provided. Waking up
on our first day in Lijiang, Neil had somehow managed to burn his backside on the electric blanket, we think by lying for too long in the same position on top of the heating element! Do these things come with a health warning?
Lijiang is a nice, fake and staged but never the less very pretty with gushing canals of crystal clear water with goldfish swimming around, leafy lined cobble streets with little bridges arching over small waterfalls. It's beauty could almost bring a tear to your eye in a similar way as Mickey Mouse kissing Minnie Mouse in Disneyland would. There are many restaurants in Lijiang but they do seem to have a dual pricing system in place with high prices for the Western tourists and another for the Chinese. We noticed that the most expensive on the Chinese menu was 8 Yuan (50p) and the cheapest thing on the English menu was 18 Yuan (£1.30), you get the picture. We wouldn't mind this so much but the Chinese tourists that were here seemed to be really affluent city slickers on a short break getaway and were happily ordering rounds of 10 bottles of Corona at 40 Yuan
(almost £3) a bottle! There was even a huge bar street which was heaving with these city slickers and what seemed to be Chinese stag and hen parties with bouncing disco music, flashing neon and laser lights and very fake Tibetan and Naxi stage shows. The Chinese tourists seemed to like this but we weren't so fussed.
Naxi is a matriarchal society which is unique to this area of China. Women run the society and men defer to the women. The Naxi system even went so far as women being able to choose their mate and they can have several partners. Men do not have to be responsible for the children they father, this is the women's job. But men cannot own land, property or businesses either. We don't know if this is a coincidence but we spotted two lesbians kissing next to the canal in broad daylight in full view of everyone, which suggests that things in this area of the country are more liberal than other parts of China we have seen.
Our second day in Lijiang and Neil was badly coming down with Donna's head cold but we had wanted to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge
and so we arranged to do this in just one day rather than two days due to Neil not being well and Donna was still recovering from her illnesses. We met up with Nathalie and Frederic, a French couple we had met in Chengdu, and we decided to do the hike together as it would work out cheaper for all of us that way. We arranged this ourselves as it worked out a lot cheaper than an organised tour and it also skipped the shopping involved on that tour too! It cost 30 Yuan each way to Qiaotao (2 hours by mini van with no heating), we had to then pay entrance to the Gorge which was 50 Yuan each and then we organised another mini bus from there to Teacher Zhang's house to start the hike (40 Yuan each return). The hike took us on a trail down to where the mythical tiger supposedly leap across the gorge, we had to pay 10 Yuan each to use the trail and then the trail back up to the road near to Tina's Guest house was another 10 Yuan. So the total cost of the day out was around 170 Yuan
each (just over £10 each).
The hike was very nice and took approximately 3 hours. The trail lead down through colourful leafy forest with a rest for lunch next to the Yangtze river. The trail back up was a little more testing as it involved going uphill (obviously!) and along very narrow trails with sheer drops down into the gorge at the side. This was made worse by a part of the trail called the 'Sky Ladder'...which was about a 30 feet climb up a ladder which was attached to the sheer cliff-side and not attached very securely we might add. It didn't seem very scary at first but half way up when your hands become sweaty with fear and you realise that chicken wire is the only thing holding this ladder (and you) onto the cliff-side both of us got a small case of vertigo! Coupled with the fact that the 'rungs' of this ladder where very far apart and made of either slippery metal or sloping wood, the climb was very tough. Only when we reached the top on our now shaky legs did we realise there was a much easier route than the 'Sky Ladder'...there was
a path that winds around the cliff and is a lot safer! Take a look at the pictures of the sort of scenery that you see on this part of the trek, we would have loved to have done the two day trek as this one day adventure was in our top 3 highlights of our visit to China.
After spending 4 nights in Lijiang, we bought 'executive' tickets for a 9 hour bus journey to Kunming for 170 Yuan, which would be one of the last places in China on our visit.
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rath
non-member comment
i just love your blog, really funny writing, great photos, and videos too! those cliff edges looks scary!! i can't wait for your next entry to kunming! take care.