Yaks

---

Back from the week long excursion through North Yunnan!! We went through Dali, Shaxi, Li Jiang, and Shangrila.

Dali and Li Jiang were very similar. These two cities were both touristy and pretty much the only thing to do in the old part of town was shopping. In Dali, the people were very friendly and were generally very helpful. Li Jiang was much bigger than Dali and therefore much more touristy and I don't think I actually liked it very much. Although in Li Jiang if you hike up elephant hill on the edge of town, it's a much better atmosphere. We also went to a Naxi (a minority grp in China) music performance, there were some pretty cute 80 year old men. One of the best things about Li Jiang was the discovery of Yak Yogurt .. Yum.. (say that kinda like the hot pocket commercial)..

I have now found my new favorite small village Shaxi. Outside of Shaxi on Shibao mountain, which when we first got there a large amount of monkeys greeted us. At the top there's a great view of the neighboring mountains and lake and definitely super relaxing.

In Shaxi, about half us convinced the program director to let us do a home stay with some of the families in the village. I ended up living with an almost self sustaining farming family. It was a great experience. They spoke bai, a dialectic in that region that I couldn't understand at all. Their daughter spoke mandarin very well, and a small bit of English, so that worked out well. It was very interesting to see their courtyard that was full of trees and plants and a small garden and right next to all of that was a small wooden structure that held a few pigs and chickens. This family had their extended family living with them while their oldest of their two daughters was in the neighboring county studying high school. The town was very peaceful and all the people in the village knew each other and many were related (as I found out when we went for a walk after dinner). Usually the village is quieter, but while we were there a tv show was filming and all the crew and actors were living in the town.

Zhongdian or Shangri-la was definitely a place I would want to visit again in the near future. Their culture is most like Tibet. Shangri-la is considered by Tibetans as part of East Tibet. It's at an altitude of about 3200 m or 10,500 feet. This was the highest point of our trip. Shangri-la also has an old town but, it was much less touristy. In the middle of their old town there was the most elaborate temple I have seen. Right next to the temple is the world's largest prayer wheel. Here in Shangri-la a large portion of the food is made from yak. Yak meat is pretty decent, we found a pretty amazing yak burger and a tibetan meat/bread thing called Shabala. Also, they have made yak butter tea. Pretty much butter in a cup. (doesn't that sound delicious.. ). We also visited the only orphanage in the county. The orphans are soo cute and can all dance. The director who runs the program doesn't allow anyone to be adopted, which is definitely much different than most programs. She basically wants the orphans to feel as though they're in a family.

---

Photos

a small house we passed by
i wonder if the spray painted add water sign was there before the drought

a lady in dali..
i'm not sure how old this lady was but, her feet were bound and that's really sad..

monkeys!
there were swarms of them when we got to shibao mountain

a grp of us that made it up to the top of shibao shan
swan, me, liz, grayson, lye-ching and peter.

Shaxi Home stay
The grandfather at my home stay making a table. He was cute and liked to talk but, couldn't exactly hear well.

Shaxi Home stay
courtyard of house. on the left is the semi barn area where they have 3 pigs and two chickens.

shaxi
on the left side is the old tree cafe. my fav cafe for juice. they squeeze the juice in front of you. on the right is the town museum type place.

lake on the bus trip..
if i were a farmer.. here is where i would want to farm

cute guy that sang yunnan opera esque song
he has great expressions

conductor who lu yuan (the director of the program) knew super well
he was in prison for about 20 years during the cultural revolution.. guess how old he is. 82.. he says he exercises his brain and has never exercised or done taiji

mosuo woman weaving a scarf
the mosuo are a matrilineal society that also does walking marriages. where men will work all day and live with their mothers and at night will walk to their wives house to spend time with her.

on top of a arch on elephant hill
a few of our group singing

Comments

[Tiff]

1. so basically you did not steal an asian baby for me 2. you really like yaks 3. and you fit in well in a village of monkeys good to know

[Wendy]

How does he ex his brain?

[manycats]

he thinks. a lot.

[Tiff]

it's a love pagoda

[Tiff]

you do have friends!!!!!!!!!!

[Tiff]

sounds like someone else we know ;)

[Tiff]

if i were a fish i'd want to be in this pool

[Tiff]

oh hey baby!!!!!! please bring him home

[Tiff]

ditto

[manycats]

sure.. in my suitcase.. he'll def fit

[Darion]

Heeeeeey
Sounds like you're having fun China looks like a pretty interesting place. Do yak burgers taste like cow burgers? And did the orphans teach you any cool Chinese dances? And did you learn how to give amazing massages?

[manycats]

yes it's a pretty fantastic place. Yak doesn't exactly taste like beef. It has a bit stronger flavor but it's very tender. Really the bread made all the difference too. Well.. they tried. I stink at dance so i don't remember any of it. Haha.. probably not too amazing at Chinese massage.. I never really understood one of the key massage techniques..