Weishan, a pretty little town which was once on the ancient Tea Horse Road.

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After reading the guide books we decided that Weishan sounded an interesting town to spend twenty four hours in and as it was enroute (albeit a different road) to Dali, the next spot on our itinerary, we decided to head there. Or at least we thought that by buying a ticket on a bus with destination 'Weishan' on the front would be a direct bus but three and half hours later the bus skirted the outskirts of Xiaguan (new city of Dali) before turning back and heading a further hour and half to Weishan. Upon arrival at the bus station on the edge of the new town and after catching a moto rickshaw (4 yuan) to a hotel in the old town we were pleasantly surprised to see that the town actually matched the guide book description - 'an attractive small town of narrow streets lined with wooden houses, with drum towers at strategic points and a lovely backdrop of the surrounding hills'.
And the hotel (Weishan Hotel) - though not the one we asked to be taken to - was also lovely. Clean warm rooms, hot water and comfortable beds ( no wifi) for only 90 yuan a night. There was a wedding reception taking place in the courtyard and we had to go under the bridal heart (gauze covered frame) and accept small gifts of sweets from the bride and groom to get to our room. We spent the next couple of hours wandering the pretty cobbled streets. We loved it because the locals just went on with their lives and were happy to try to chat with us. They obviously had seen plenty of western tourists but were not suffering from tourist overload and were very happy to let us photograph them. We saw no other foreign tourists whilst there (in fact I don't think it would be on the average tourists list) but there were a small amount of local tourists. There were a few souvenir shops but mostly just local businesses. The streets were lined with lots of wobbly old adobe (mud and sticks) - we were surprised many were still standing as they were so lopsided! Dominating the old town was the large Gongshen Tower, a huge tunnelled gateway built in 1390 which marks the centre of the town. On the top is a wooden pavilion and from there you could see all the narrow little streets leading from it. In the evening it glowed with ropes of LED lights. The Chinese do love coloured lights - the more the better! The main pedestrianised shopping street, along which we had just walked, led to a smaller gate which was once the bell tower of the town. For dinner that evening we snacked on street food and fruit. Muslim pizza, hot chips cooked in a wok over a drum fire, and kebabs, grilled over open fires. Most of the food for sale did not look particularly appetising or even recognisable! Breakfast next morning was once again street snacks before we set out for another few hours of street exploring. We found a fabulous market - there was so much food for sale that we had never seen before. Still have no idea what most of it was. A odd fuzzy product, very smelly when cut, was very popular. I think it was very over ripe tofu (a bit like our blue vein cheeses) - and nothing would make me try it..... The meat market was as gruesome as ever - all pigs heads, slippery entails and lots of blood and flies. Some very healthy vegetables - lots of red carrots and unusual leafy green vegetables. We also saw many small noodle making businesses and one dressmaker who only made the local traditional clothes. We didn't see much traditional dress being worn in the town but it appears to comprise of a heavily embroidered tunic, trousers, apron like piece at the front and a head piece which appeared to be a wide half crown shape, decorated with pompoms on the crown and silver (plastic today) pieces dangling around the edges. The tunic is worn with a long belt which is also embroidered. The embroidery features flowers and today is machine made. Another industry which seemed prevalent in the town was the production of woven rattan stools which were covered in vibrant woven rope like strips. They were for sale everywhere and were surprisingly comfortable - though very low - to sit on. The footpaths outside the shops and houses were full of elderly people enjoying the sunshine. Most wanted to chat and though obviously language was an issue it didn't stop them.... We did understand the welcoming smiles though! As we wandered further we discovered a museum of sorts where the elderly owner happily showed us around his eccentric collection of bits. He was a definite hoarder but very proud of what he owned. He had literally dozens of wild cat skins with lots of interesting fur patterns and hundreds of old, mostly cracked, pieces of pottery. Though no admission fee was advertised he happily took our small donation. I wandered whether his wife, who was washing piles of dirty dishes in a big metal tub on the ground, was as happy with his collection as he seemed to be as it had totally taken over their house. We really enjoyed our twenty four hours in that charming little town - the first old town we visited on what was the old Tea- Horse Road between southern Yunnan and Tibet. We were now really looking forward to visiting another one, Shaxi, which we had read great reports about later in our trip.The ancient tea route was used for over one thousand years to carry tea and salt from Central China to Tibet and to India via Burma using horses and mules so the villages enroute were full of history.

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Photos

Latest Chinese winter fashion - fake leather..
Heaps of women wear tights, shorts and boots

Comments

[Rosemary]

I miss China
not sure what those food items were, number 3 may be cooked sweet potato skins? Gotta love the girl wearing her shorts and boots, Jinan was full of that fashion look too