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Lijiang landscape
As seen from a hill overlooking the city.Lijiang has undergone a decade long operation. The operation was a huge success. Incidentally, the patient is now in a coma.
What was once a quaint town mostly housing the Naxi minority was earmarked for tourism development ten years ago. Ten years later, the once 30,000 strong Naxi minority living in the old town has dwindled to a few thousand. What has replaced it are souvenir shops run by Han Chinese (the majority in China). When you see a Naxi in traditional dress, he does so for the benefit of the tourists. the result is the saccharine feeling of Disneyland. You half expect someone dressed up as Naxi Mouse (whatever that may be) to show up and hug the kids.
Sadly, this trend is quite prevalent across China, with perfectly nice little villages becoming the target for development. At some point comes the stage where the indigeneous people are relocated "For their own protection and preservation", which leaves room for all those tacky tourist catering establishments to move in and replace what was once a perfectly viable community. You would think they would have the sense to properly preserve what they wish to market. But enough ranting about Chinese
Lijiang landscape
As seen from a hill overlooking the city. conservationism. Even though Lijiang has been gutted from it's original inhabitants, doesn't mean that it's lost it's beauty. And it is quite beatiful after all.
I arrived in Lijiang towards nightfall and walked around looking for a place. For those of you who do not know, this last week, starting May 1st is "Golden Week", when all of China goes on vacation to celebrate Worker's Day. The result is hordes of Chinese tourists occupying every available square meter of Lijiang, and every other major tourist destination in China. It also means that you cannot find a decent bed to sleep in at a decent rate. The "decent" is barely applicable to one of those during this week.
Luckily, I discovered that Lijiang has it's own version of a Jewish Mother. She's called "Mama" by everyone. I think SHE barely remembers her own name. She runs a guest house where all the Israelis come to stay. In turn for their patronage, she cuckles around them, handing them fruits (free of charge) and cooking amazing dinners for a ridiculous price. The result is the biggest congregation of Israelis this side of the Yangze. At any given moment you can organize
a minyan without having to break a sweat.
Of course, I did not know all of this when I got off the bus, straight out of Sichuan and not really up to date on best practices of Lijiang. It took two days in an overpriced hostel and a running into two Israeli girls in an alley for me to find out this vital piece of information.
I was planning on seeing the town for one day, doing the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek for two more, and moving on to Dali for some R&R after the exhausting backdoor route into Yunnan. I ended up staying for five days. Sometimes it's just nice to be pampered.
While there, I ended up meeting some interesting people, getting in touch with my Singaporean roots (more on this some other time) and having one of the most memorable periods of my trip so far.
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anonymous
non-member comment
that horrible eeeeee