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Published: October 27th 2009
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Jade Dragon Snow Mtn
view from shuttle to hostel from the airport Alarm was set for 5:10am, but Pete woke up at 5:07am so we got up a few minutes early. We packed the night before and showered so we could just throw on clothes and get out the door. We turned in our room key and then we were out in the street by 5:15am.
It was still pitch black outside and now we needed to get to the busy street to hail a cab. As we turned the bend in the street we saw a few people getting in and out of cabs. I wondered at this time in the morning were the people still out from the night before or just up very early like Pete and I. In Chengdu it is a known fact that cabs are hard to come by during busy times of the day, the hostel said we should be fine but they are not allowed to call a cab company to schedule a pick up. We ran down the street(felt like Amazing Race) and we got a cab very quickly. 50 kuai later we arrived at the airport around 5:50 with our flight scheduled to leave at 7am.
This time we flew with
United Eagle Air and our flight boarded, left and arrived on time. We were excited that we broke the trend of the 2 hr delay we had flying from Shenzhen to Chengdu. We had really good Chinese style breakfast sandwiches on the plane as food is served on even this 1hr 15 minute flight at NO CHARGE. No peanuts/pretzels served on airlines in China, no $2 cokes, no $8 sandwiches. All included in the price of our flight, imagine that USA airlines.
As we got off the plane it was noticably colder since it was only 8:15am and the mountains had blocked the direct sunlight. As we got on the bus, 15 kuai=$2.19 per person, the sun peaked over the mountain range it was beautiful. The elevation in Li Jiang is 2460 meters=8,071 feet rounded up. The air was so clean and fresh compared to all the large cities we have traveled to in China.
Quick fact per Wikipedia largest poplulated cities in China:
#1 Shanghai metro area- 18,884,600(both have been to)
#2 Beijing metro area-17,430,000(both have been to)
#3 Guangzhou metro area-15,000,000(Pete has been two times to)
#4 Shenzhen metro area- 13,300,000 we live here
#6 Chengdu
metro area- 11,300,000 visited on this trip
Way down the list Li Jiang-1,126,646 in year 2000
So we just haven't traveled to the #5 largest city in China which is Tianjin, which I have never even heard of, otherwise we have hit the top 6 most populated cities in China. It was time away from the masses of people in Li Jiang.
We stayed at the Panba Hostel which was 120 kuai=$17.57 per night it was in the Old Town/Ancient Town area with stone roads and very quaint little town. This part of China has lots of minority ethnic groups. 94 or 96% of China is Han nationality and the other 4-6% has 50+ ethinic groups. These groups are the only people that can have more than the "One Child Policy" in China. The hostel was really cute but the beds were the hardest yet in China, most beds are hard compared to the USA, no pillow tops here.
We walked around for about 3 hours the Old Town area, had lunch, viewed the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain( Yulong Xue Shan) which is 18,360 ft high at the peak. Breath taking.... then headed back to the hostel
to relax since we got up at 5am. We bought a few Christmas gifts but we had to be careful what we bought since Pete and I both packed for the week in our backpacks. YES!!!! I finally have been able to simplify my life down, which is what this experience in China was also about, to pack for a week vacation in a back pack.
The next morning we scheduled a bus ride out to Tiger Leaping Gorge, another new adventure for me hiking for hours on end and sleeping over night along the way. Get ready for some AMAZING pictures in our next blog.
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scott
non-member comment
reminds me of the riverwalk in old San Antonio, except for the mountains.