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Published: October 16th 2010
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Early morning calm
Typical early morning street scene in the pedestrian area outside our hotel. Most of the buildings have doors that are really panels that are removed and stored away for the day allowing easy access to the business. The holiday started early Sunday morning when the driver picked the three of us (a friend, Linda, Dianne and Peter) up at 5:30. Maybe we have to start travelling to some places closer to home so we don’t have these early mornings! Our first destination was LiJiang which is about as far as you can go in south west China without leaving the country. It is a World Heritage Site and came highly recommended to us by the doctor at the travel medical clinic when we were first getting ready to go to China. To get there we flew from DaLian to ChongQing (one airline) and then ChongQing to LiJiang (a different airline).
Day of arrival The hotel offered free pick-up at the airport which proved to be very useful. It was a long drive into the city and the road was full of construction. As we approached the city our driver got busy on his cell phone. He pulled up at the curb and dropped us off and waved good bye. We were then met by a hotel bell man standing there with his baggage trolley. He loaded our luggage onto his trolley, strapped everything down, and we
Breakfast centre
We would stroll across the walkway to the House of Tibet for breakfast. We could sit on the deck or inside where the windows have been removed allowing great views of the street scene developing before us. went towards what we thought was the hotel. It turned out the hotel is in the middle of a pedestrian-only area and we had to walk about three blocks to get to it. Once we got our bearings, it was great. Certainly quiet. But the first time we went out I wished we had some bread crumbs to drop as the area was confusing - winding walkways interspersed by numerous larger canals and smaller waterways and stone bridges.
The first order of business was to find a place that sold wine so we could buy a bottle to enjoy during “happy hour” in the beautiful, quiet courtyard of the hotel before we headed out for dinner. After trying many places that looked promising but were really just wine bars that wanted exorbitant prices for a bottle of imported wine, we discovered ourselves back at the hotel. We asked the chap at the desk who directed us to a hole in the wall “convenience store” where a man happily sold us a bottle of “French” wine (bottled in China) for under 100 kaui. Pretty decent and very convenient as we had four nights in LiJiang.
Thanks to our trusty
Easy access to water
Most of the walkways had channels of the river running along them. The businesses could access them for water for the many pots of flowers that lined the streets. And rinse other things too. But it was very neat and clean. Workers with long poles would patrol the walkways scooping up any garbage that happened to sneak in. guide books and the internet we had several recommendations for dinner places, all “western” restaurants. Some took a little exploring to find but that was a “good thing”. Western is a concept. They are usually still Chinese restaurants but the food is pretty good. There are few restaurants where you can’t find pizza on the menu and they are usually very tasty. The pizza I had at a Tibetan restaurant was as good as any Canadian pizza.
The cost of our rooms included breakfast at the House of Tibet across the street from the hotel. They had a full menu with all kinds of choices, if you wanted to pay. The “included” breakfast was: two fried eggs, toast, tea or coffee and your choice of yogurt and fruit or porridge. Breakfast was great and the location perfect. Because it is a pedestrian-only area and crisscrossed by canals, LiJiang is very restful. We were able to sit and relax over breakfast watching the town come to life, kids go to school, etc. A great way to start each day.
Day 1 Our first day in LiJiang included a walk around the Black Dragon Pool. A beautiful area at
More flowers
Everywhere you went, more flowers. the base of Lion Hill, it is a pleasant spot to walk and, given more time, to sit and read or just enjoy the quiet and beauty of the lake. At one end of the Pool is a museum dedicated to the Naxi Minority. It is very interesting as it devotes a lot of space to the Dongba. This term can refer to the religious priests, the culture, and the hieroglyphic script of the Naxi people.
The trip to the Pool from the hotel allowed us to pass the Nordic Café which had been opened some years ago by (who’d have guessed?) a Norwegian who lived in the area. A great place for lunch and afternoon coffee. One thing we have discovered on our travels is that you can buy cappuccinos and other specialty coffees “everywhere”.
In addition to being a World Heritage Site, LiJiang is very much a tourist area. The whole of the old town was full of beautiful pots of fall mums in a stunning array of colours. There are literally hundreds of small shops lining the pedestrian walkways selling all kinds of items. Linda was very interested in the pashminas, bracelets, earrings and other
Entrance to the Pedestrian area
The cab dropped us off here at the main square. The flowers in the previous picture were behind us and we walked through this display to find our hotel. items that she says make great gifts for her friends and family in Canada and England. Dianne found a real friend in a silver shop (one of MANY) where the fellow was very proud of the fact that he had designed and made the bracelets she thought were the nicest. We saw a lot of these shops. Say no more.
The squares were filled with many older people dressed in traditional costumes. We assumed they are paid by some tourist authority to be available for pictures because they certainly were happy to be photographed. Several groups performed at various times in the main square.
We tried to walk to the highest point in the town which led to much backtracking and visits to more small shops. We eventually got to the “top” of the old town. We thought the view over the rooftops was interesting until we took our trip the next day. But first, we had to deal with a nasty surprise when we checked our emails at the end of the day. Our flight from Dali to ChongQing on Sunday, the first leg of our homeward trip, had been cancelled! It was the only flight on that
Large Water Tanker
Double water wheels are very popular in China. Almost as common as people taking photos of them. Never did figure out why the map showed them with this heading. day. There were no flights on the Saturday (Dali is a small centre).
Day 2 After breakfast, Dianne contacted CTrip, the company that had booked our flights. After considerable discussion and negotiation (it is a long story), we got flights on the Monday. And even better, the second leg of the trip, with an unrelated airline, was rebooked at no cost. Whew!
With this adventure behind us, we embarked on an activity that was a lot more physical. At one end of the Black Dragon Pool is a path that leads to the top of Elephant Hill. It’s a vertical rise of about 1,000 feet (sounds more impressive than 300 meters) and from the top you get great views of the LiJiang valley. We thought the views from Lion Hill were neat but the panorama from Elephant Hill was spectacular. Even better was that there was another way down so we didn’t have to return the way we came. We were lucky because we had some shade on the strenuous up-hill portion of the trip. The folks who did the trip the other way had to climb in the hot sun.
The weather forecast for the
Typical street scene
The walkway meandered down to the left. Very beautiful, especially at night whole National Holiday week was thunderstorms or showers. While we got rained on frequently, the downpours held off while we were on our treks into the mountains. Walking around town was easy even in the rain as long as you were careful not to get poked in the eye by the many umbrellas that appeared.
After lunch we took a cab to ShuHe, one of the other ancient cities in the area. Each city charges a fee to help pay for the maintenance of its old town area. At 80 kuai per person for LiJiang and 50 for ShuHe, we weren’t out of pocket that much and the towns are able to maintain themselves as pleasant tourist destinations. We ate lunch at Mamma Mia’s, an Italian restaurant! The Manager, very Italian from the Lake Como region of Italy, opened the place three years ago. We enjoyed our chat with him, especially when he was interrupted and had to give instructions (with an Italian accent) to the staff in Chinese.
Although the towns are very similar in some ways (they are only about 5 miles apart), ShuHe gave us a much greater sense of the traditional life of the
Electronic help
Here and there throughout the town were these touch screens that told you where you were (very helpful), where restaurants and attractions were located and lots of other things. Unfortunately, the displays were in Chinese. Wait! Here is a button that says English! Oops. Naxi people. After a walkabout in some beautiful trails almost to the edge of town, we returned to LiJiang by cab for our nightly Happy Hour in the hotel courtyard before going to dinner. An unbelievably full day considering we had spent most of the morning rearranging flights!
What a pleasant time we had been having. How much more excitement can we expect tomorrow? Little did we know!
To be continued…
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