on the road to Ligang

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We have our car and driver again today. We head north. It is only about 200km to Lijiang, but we are taking the old road and will take us about 8 hours. You never quite get out of the towns as the houses are all built on the sides of the roads. The traffic is horrendous; trucks, cars, buses motorbikes, push bikes, goats, buffalo, horses and people. On top of that there are several types of all those things.
China reminds me of one huge ant’s nest. Everybody moves about very business- like. There seems to be little impatience, anger or emotion. Just everybody doing their job.
When they construct a road, the whole length begins at once and while the road is being built, the traffic is using the new road; a bit disconcerting at times.
We travel through huge pine clad mountains, with fertile valleys squeezed in between. Corn and tobacco is growing everywhere. We go off road and stop at a little village for lunch named Shaxi. Apparently to this day when Saturday markets are held no money is exchanged. It all works on a barter system. We ate a great lunch for 73 Yuan for the 5 of us. We had to pay for the drivers lunch.
As we are wandering around town, we meet a young lady with a tribe of children in tow. She has volunteered to teach the children English, as none is taught in the school. There is always someone interesting in every small town. She is an aspiring novelist who is about to have her first work published. She originally came from Mongolia. She inquires whether we may share some conversation and a ‘bing pi jo’ with her tonight, but we had to decline since we are moving on.
Climbing the last mountain before we reach Lijiang, we looked back further down the valley to see a fast flowing red river cutting its way through the mountains. A truly majestic scene.
Arriving safely we bed down in our typical local guesthouse, which is a change from the hotels. All the rooms open into an open courtyard with dogs to boot. (tongue in cheek). When one goes to bed every one does

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Comments

[Maree Stewart]

Cooooeeeee!
Very interesting....enjoying following/reading about your trip! Fabulous scenery - love the photo looking back down over the mountains to the Red River. Hope you are all well & enjoying your wonderful experience. Travel safe & take care xox the Stewarts