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Asia » China
September 8th 2006
Published: September 10th 2006
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Chengdu, China


August 14, 2006

Sean: Everybody loves pandas.

Did you know:
• That there are only 1,590 (est.) giant pandas roaming around in the wild and only 170 in captivity?
• That they have an extra digit on their fore-paws that acts as a pseudo-thumb and helps them to grasp objects?
• That they require about 110 pounds of fresh bamboo daily and will “excrete” about 25 to 65 pounds of football (American, of course) shaped pellets in that same time period?

Today was spent roaming around the huge expanse of land that constitutes the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. This is where the majority of magic happens in their black and white world. From genetic research to dietetics to matchmaking, everything you want…nay need to know about this uniquely Chinese animal is all located right here.

Sadly, the heat of August isn’t conducive to their rambunctious nature so they tend to slowly mope around the grounds - listlessly punching the clock - and they only perform these maneuvers in the early morning (usually before 10am). We got there around 7:30 so we did get to witness a few out and about in their very cool,
You'll Never Break Me!You'll Never Break Me!You'll Never Break Me!

Rest assured that he was hovering around the door because that's where all the action was. He had access to a bigger and more interesting yard than most people.
very large Swiss Family Robinson type play areas (they seriously live better than many Chinese people we’ve seen), but it didn’t take long before they retreated to the comfort of their air conditioned abodes in the faux rock cliffs. And because of this persnickety, rock star like attitude we didn’t get too many good photos before they decided they’d had enough and their union contract allowed them to call it an early day.

We even got to gawk, like proud parents in the maternity ward, at 8 day old twins. Stretched out in oversized incubators, the rat sized tykes didn’t display much vigor and looked fairly inert, even though all of us tourists - paparazzi like - tried to get them to look just at us.

The most active pandas at the research base were the smaller, lesser cousin: the red panda. Looking more like large raccoons they frolicked and fought each other with much more enthusiasm than their larger brethren vainly hoping for the same respect and admiration. But a raccoon isn’t a bear and no matter how active and cute they were, they were generally marginalized while we happily snapped shot after shot of the big guys down the way every time they lazily twitched a muscle.

Shannon: As one of the most recognizable symbols of China, the giant pandas are extremely well-cared for at the Breeding Research Center. As Sean mentioned, there are very few of them left in the wild owing to a variety of factors: encroachment of humans into their habitat, ecosystem deterioration, natural enemies, low birth rate, dependence on the bamboo supply, etc. For many, many years China has recognized these problems and tried to counteract them. In 1949, with the founding of the People’s Republic, they prevented all further exportation of these animals to foreign lands, ending the trend of some nations to stock their zoos with these interesting but endangered creatures. All pandas residing abroad - amazingly there are only 24 outside the country - remain “citizens” of China (except for the 7 who are offspring of pandas living abroad before 1982, when the regulations went into effect). For the privilege of having a panda in your country, China is compensated 1 million dollars a year (the US has 9, by the way). This money is funneled back into research and conservation.

From 1980-2005 the Breeding Research Center
AwwwwwAwwwwwAwwwww

8 days old and already a star. Within the next week or so they will start to develop their distinctive black markings.
expanded their population from 6 to 48 - the most successful breeding of captive pandas in the world. They have also entered into several research cooperatives with zoos around the world to try to increase the numbers. Female pandas only come into heat once a year, sometime between February and May, and are only receptive to males for 1-2 days (it’s rather amazing that the species lasted this long with those sorts of odds). And to make their survival chances even slimmer, they are fairly picky eaters: about 60 species of bamboo are edible for the giant pandas but only 27 of these are “preferred”. In the mid-1970’s more than 130 pandas starved to death when one of these preferred bamboo types withered and died near Min Shan in Sichuan province.

For all the challenges, though, the Chinese government does seem to be trying hard to reverse the decline in the panda populations. Approximately 53% of the panda’s habitat is now protected within 55 reserves throughout China, encompassing 70% of the wild panda population. Villagers are prohibited from logging, hunting or making charcoal in panda habitats, and poachers face possible life sentences or public execution. And in spite of
Red PandaRed PandaRed Panda

Poor under-appreciated guys. They were trying hard, but really, who can get excited about a large raccoon?
budget deficits, the Chinese government maintains funding to the Breeding Research Center in the hopes of preserving these fun loving creatures.


Leshan, China


August 17, 2006

Sean: Just like my issues with the crowds of Prague, traveling to the major attractions in the most populated country in the world during the summer months means that you’re bound to run into one or two extra people when you’re jockeying for that perfect picture. It’s hard to feel that any experience is yours to take in and reflect on its global importance when there are thousands of other people there all trying to get a glimpse as well.

We’ve learned the lesson quite well since we’ve been here that if you want to see anything, you’ve got to get there early. Seeing the World’s Largest Buddha is no exception and we opted to spend a couple of days in Leshan rather than travel here on a day trip from Chengdu.

Since the highway between the two cities got built, more people have been swooping in just for a few hours to visit the “Mount Rushmore” of China and gawk at the colossal homage to the man who achieved perfection. So we thought we’d be cool and stay the night in order to be the first on the scene the next morning.

Carved into a cliff over looking the confluence of two rivers, Da Fo (Giant Buddha) was created to keep the demons of the rivers at bay as they were constantly exacting their toll in fishing boats and poor fisher folk. With the increasing amount of ship borne commerce lost to the deep at this riverine juncture, a monk named Hai Tong started the project in AD 713 and it was finally completed 90 years after his death. Presumably the large stone talisman worked very well (largely because the excess rock was pitched into the deep spot of the river right below his feet, taming the dangerous intersection - or so the legend goes).

Our foresight at arriving early was prescient in its quality as we had the entire viewing platform and lengthy stairs descending to the bottom to ourselves. And when, after four hours spent traversing the far-reaching park area, we passed back by his enormous visage, the once vacant area was now filled with Disneyworld-esque lines of people. A colossal hyper-buzz of activity
Giant Buddha Viewing Platform: 8amGiant Buddha Viewing Platform: 8amGiant Buddha Viewing Platform: 8am

This is where you line up to walk down the narrow steps to gaze up at the Big Guy from his feet. Obviously I took this just when we arrived.
was in progress with tour groups nudging each other out of the way to get the perfect glimpse of the Enlightened One without anyone else in the way.

Every now and then we exhibit some spark of mild brilliance and it truly is scary.

Shannon: I tell you, by the time we’re done with this trip we’ll be really good at this whole traveling thing.

In another stroke of brilliance, the evening before we managed to scope out a terrific view of the Tall One. He is carved out of a cliff at the meeting point of two rivers, so numerous boats ply the water in front to give tourists ample snapshot time. The problem is that he is really too large to view from anywhere close by - at close distances you’re pretty much the equivalent of an ant looking up at a giant sequoia. So instead of taking the overpriced ferry or speedboat options, we opted instead to take a local ferry ($0.13) to an island in the middle of one of the rivers. From the tip of the island you have a great unobstructed view.

But getting to the park early is truly
Giant Buddha Viewing Platform: NoonGiant Buddha Viewing Platform: NoonGiant Buddha Viewing Platform: Noon

Just a few hours later and this is the scene we happened upon.
worth it. Aside from not having to queue in line to see him, you can also visit the temples within the park in relative peace. Dafo Temple is very close to the head of the Buddha, so we visited there first thing in the morning, when everything was calm and there were no people about. Inside the entrance were my favorite reoccurring Buddhist characters, the Heavenly Kings. One thing that I have to say about Buddhist temples, they are all about color and vibrancy.

After visiting the Big Guy, we then trekked up and down a billion stairs to go see Wuyou Temple. This one is famous for having 1,000 arhat, or celestial beings (similar to angels) inside, all of which are unique. These 3-4 foot tall clay figures were brightly painted (but in desperate need of a little dusting) with varied positions, physical appearances, etc. Many were a bit comical looking, with exaggerated features and expressions. My favorite was one who seemed to be touching the head of a mini-Buddha inside his stomach while wearing the sort of expression that says “Gee, it feels funny when I do that”, all the while being sandwiched between a grinning “Thumbs-Up” Arhat and one who seems to be a dead-ringer for an ugly transvestite.


Yangshuo, China


August 18, 2006

Shannon The town of Guilin, along with the smaller town of Yangshuo further south, is famous as having some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. Leaving Chengdu behind, we splurged on a flight to this legendary scenic byway in the southeast of China.

Arriving in Guilin just as the sun was setting, we set off first thing this morning, cruising along the Li River to Yangshuo by boat. What makes this area so famous are the karst rock formations (huge pinnacles of rock sticking up from the surrounding plains) and a boat trip gives you fabulous views of many of these dramatic hills. We opted to go with a Chinese tour, instead of the foreigner-oriented tours, as they were about half the cost and only lacking English translations (“The one on the right looks like a serene Buddha, while the one on the left resembles a reclining tiger…”).

Yangshuo is much, much smaller than Guilin, and from first appearances at least, all about the tourist dollar. There seem to be tons of cafes with English
River SceneRiver SceneRiver Scene

We took a boat from Guilin to Yangshuo and this is the sort of view at every bend in the river. Despite the mad rush of tourist boats that left Guilin, they ended up pretty spaced out and it was incredibly peaceful.
menus, plenty of shopping stalls set up along the main street in town, and a myriad of ways that you can spend your money on tours to the local sights. It’s really the first town that we’ve encountered so far in China that is geared to westerners (i.e. English signs are everywhere), though there are more than a few Chinese tourists in town as well. We plan on chilling out for a few days, renting some bicycles and pedaling our way around the countryside, hopefully getting some good exercise while snapping some photos of the amazing rice fields and rock pinnacles.


August 19, 2006

Sean: Every traveler to a poor country has experienced, in some form or another, exactly what we did today. Our journey to the little tourist mecca of Yangshuo highlights many of the things that both draw and annoy visitors like us.

We rode our rented bicycles out to Moon Hill, one of the local peaks, to do a little hiking with the promise of some splendid photos from the top. As we pedaled our way out the 10 or so kilometers to the site we were met by two pleasant and cute
Karst SceneryKarst SceneryKarst Scenery

With all the humidity, the pictures can't convey how awesome the scenery was.
little girls also out innocently riding around the countryside. We didn’t think much of their presence but their attempts at keeping our pace was noticed because, while neither of us are Lance Armstrong, we do seem to have the mad bicycling skills that’ll take down a couple of 11 year old girls. They were huffing and puffing, attempting to make conversation, which we thought odd as the quality of our broken discussions didn’t seem thrilling enough to warrant overexertion. But they seemed like friendly little lasses, so we were polite.

But when we all entered the park, and while Shannon and I were paying the admission fee, we noticed that they had dismounted and traded bikes for little Styrofoam coolers. “Aha!”, we thought to ourselves. That’s the angle (very few people along this trip have been spontaneously polite for no other reason than to give a hearty “hello” to a fellow human being): they’re really bottled water vendors disguised as cute preteens. Unfortunately for them - with the promise of some decent riding and hiking we had come prepared for the Louisiana-like humidity and temperature - we had liquids to spare.

Not to be deterred, they started following
Artwork in RiverArtwork in RiverArtwork in River

We passed by this statue on the river between Guilin and Yangshuo. It is something of a mystery...a statue of a guy talking on a cell phone? Odd...
us up the hill. It was at this point, as we were passing other hikers, that we noticed that everyone had their own personal “Water Sherpas”. Mostly old ladies, we were in the minority with our very own adolescent beverage bearers. They trailed us the entire way to the top (around 30 minutes), stopping where we stopped. And because their English wasn’t very good, the dialogue stagnated at (to Shannon) “You are so pretty”. Not a bad sales technique, but it doesn’t bowl you over in its wily psychological complexity, either.

By the time we were almost back at the bottom (where even at the overpriced tourist shack bottles of water only cost 4 Yuan, instead of the 10 Yuan the girls were quoting) they were getting desperate for a sale and had resorted to their final technique: guilt. They were, after all, poor farm girls as they repeated no less than 5 times (I see their English skills were more varied than they let on). We are heartless souls, but nevertheless wound up buying 2 bottles for 5 yuan each (about $1.26 total).

This, while not a classic traveling anecdote, highlights what it means to venture to
Yangshuo ViewsYangshuo ViewsYangshuo Views

The countryside around Yangshuo is very rural, so you can bicycle around with hardly any cars on the roads. This was taken from a bridge over one of the rivers.
the regions of the globe where your personal dollar (or pound or euro) affords a level of luxury unobtainable at home. We bumped into three middle aged women from Alberta who were steadfast and stubborn that they weren’t going to give these intrusive ladies one measly, thin dime.

I’m not going to say I agree with them, but I can’t disagree, either. It’s a difficult situation, one that I don’t admit to have solved nor come to terms with myself.

On one hand, this is the reality of life in a tourist town in a poor country. If you don’t prefer this level of salesmanship, don’t come. It’s that simple. Let this be a warning: if travel to a similarly impoverished locale is in your future, you will be harassed to buy everything from bottles of water to hotel rooms to taxi rides to cheap figurines.

On the other hand, I too hate it every bit as much as the Canadian ladies. It sucks to be followed around and pestered non-stop by people wanting you to buy something from them. Our time in Egypt is still fresh in our minds and these touts detract from any personal
Our Personal Water SherpaOur Personal Water SherpaOur Personal Water Sherpa

Reviled Opportunist or Cute Entrepreneur?
connection you wish to have with the scenery or historic site. And you certainly don’t want your only link to the local people to consist solely of these types of interactions.

As I said, I don’t profess to be a better person.

Shannon: When you first realize that there is absolutely no way that you’re ever going to shake these kids off in order to hike up this hill in peace, it can seem a little irritating. And so, when other travelers make comments about them being as annoying as little bees buzzing around you, I know where they’re coming from. Having someone trail you up a mountain, “helping” out by “showing” you the (clearly marked) way, pestering you to buy drinks and determinedly fanning you to cool you off whenever you stop for a breath - none of it a service that you either asked for or wanted. But at the same time, there’s another part of the story, and that’s the one that I try to keep in perspective. None of these people are trying to rook tourists; they’re just poor and trying to make some money. And since our chances of buying anything off them
Mud ManMud ManMud Man

We took a tour of the Water Cave outside Yangshuo, famous for it's mud baths. Sean was cleaning the fine, silty goop out of every crevice for days.
if they were just sitting passively off to the side would be pretty slim, they more or less have to be persistent to make a sale.

By official estimates, China has a 9%!u(MISSING)nemployment rate. Official is the key word in that sentence. Even Chinese bureaucrats will admit that the actual rate is much higher, since the unemployment in rural areas isn’t taken into consideration. Add to those numbers the amount of working poor in the country - it is said that almost half of China’s population lives on less than $2 a day - and you get the sense that the financial opportunity is very bleak for many people.

So if the only way for them to earn money is trudging up a hill they’ve seen a thousand times, hoping to pester you into buying their goods, well - I don’t have a problem with that. I didn’t ask for the service so I’m not making any promises of buying anything…but if it’s something I would buy anyway (you can’t go wrong selling water on a hot day. Big jade Buddhas, though - probably not), I’m willing to “buy local”. I’ll even be overcharged for it…to a
ShanzoShanzoShanzo

Looking beautiful as ever...
point (it helps if you’re a cute little girl). Starting out at 10 yuan per bottle (for something we can buy in the store for 2 yuan or even from a tourist vendor for 3 yuan) was a bit of a stretch. But remembering that 5 yuan is practically nothing to me ($0.63) and quite a bit to them, well, it helps keep it in perspective. Hopefully everyone went away from the transaction feeling good about it.

I should add one more note, too: these vendors may seem annoying, but I try to remember that choosing to get frustrated by the situation is exactly that - a choice. Being annoyed doesn’t stop them from following you, so you might as well resign yourself to their presence because they’re going to be with you every step of the way regardless. You can silently - or not so silently - fume about the situation, or you can choose the opposite. You can try to engage them in conversation, at least in some small way. By doing that, I learned a little bit about these girls, that they lived in the village that we eventually viewed from the top of the hill. It’s not the sort of exchange that changes your life, but at least I will walk away with a positive memory. It seemed pretty obvious that the Canadian ladies were not going to have anything positive to say about their experience. Like Sean said, we’re not saying that we’re better people for it - we certainly have our own share of frustrations sometimes. I just try to remember that they didn’t wake up that morning with a wicked gleam saying “I’m going to go up there and make some westerners miserable by following them today.” And by seeing it from their perspective and dealing with it positively, hopefully you don’t walk away frustrated and fuming.


August 20, 2006

Shannon: PETA members, beware. If you’re ever in Yangshuo, China, you might want to pass up the cormorant fishing tour if you feel strongly about the plight of these water dwelling birds.

A cormorant is a fairly decent sized, large brown bird whose natural inclination is to dive into rivers to catch fish for food. The fishermen of this area - in a brilliant leap of the ‘work smarter not harder’ wave of thinking - caught onto this
Fishing CormorantsFishing CormorantsFishing Cormorants

Not something an animal rights activists would approve of.
and have a long history of domesticating them for use in fishing. The basic idea is that they are reared from young birds and taught to cough-up (literally) the fish that they catch. How this works: first the fisherman ties a string around the neck of each bird, not too tight but enough to prevent them from swallowing the larger fish that the fisherman wants (tiny fish they can swallow). These docile birds are then free to do what comes naturally: catch some fish. The fisherman, with a flock of 5-10 of these birds in tow, throws several of them at a time into the water, and by slapping the water with a stick, motions for them to start fishing. Each time they catch something larger than the string allows them to swallow, he ungainly hauls them out of the water and makes them cough up their catch into a basket. They are then thrown back into the water to continue the process.

It’s an interesting spectacle and one that I’m not sure how I feel about. On one hand, tying a rope around a bird’s neck and making them fish for your food doesn’t exactly play well in
Steep StairsSteep StairsSteep Stairs

Climbing up and down these rock formations is pretty good exercise. This was one of the more developed paths.
Peoria. Our Discovery-channel, save-the-cute-animals, pre-programmed minds tend to like our animals footloose and fancy free, frolicking amongst nature and all that (even if it’s all just appearances that matter to us - we’re far enough removed from our food chain that most of us don’t actually spend the time to know how humanely our protein-laden food was treated before it became wrapped in cellophane at the grocery store). But back to the birds: in defense of the fishermen, though, the birds seemed healthy and certainly made no fast getaway moves while we watched (since they are not tethered to the boat in any way, presumably they are free to swim away at any time). And after all, they are the meal ticket for the fisherman they belong to, so it’s in his best interest to keep them well fed and maintained.

The cormorant fishing takes place at night, so after riding alongside the fisherman’s boat while he fished, we eventually stopped on a small island so he could show us the birds closer up. He demonstrated the process several more times for the cameras, showing us how he left a little slack when he tied the string around their
Nightly Feast in YangshuoNightly Feast in YangshuoNightly Feast in Yangshuo

Every night at the guesthouse, we were treated to this amazing and endless supply of great food. Note: this photo was taken on our last evening, when there were only a few people staying there. The other nights, there was at least double this amount of food!
necks, then allowing one of the birds to “swallow” a half-dozen fish before making it regurgitate them a few times. In the end, actually, I was less concerned with the treatment of the birds than I was about the food source, thinking “He’s not going to sell those fish, is he? They’ve been regurgitated now about 6 times.” Also, I never cease to be amazed at the size of the fish we’ve seen sold in Asia. In America, it’s called bait. Elsewhere, it’s food. As first-world consumers, we just don’t eat anything with that flesh-to-bone ratio.

Sean: Other than the cormorant fishing, our days in Yangshuo have been spent riding our rented bicycles around the town and the rural countryside. Each morning we’d hop on our one-geared, steel monsters and head out into the rice paddies, gazing up at the karst scenery of up-thrusted mountains that populate this portion of the world. The terrain is relatively flat (which makes for good riding) except for the thousands of large mountains that seemed to have sprouted up from the ground over the eons. Our pictures can’t do the place justice as the late August humidity assured hazy scenery, but it is
Sweet and Sour Eggplant and PorkSweet and Sour Eggplant and PorkSweet and Sour Eggplant and Pork

This was incredible. Bits of pork sandwiched between two pieces of eggplant, fried and then basted with barbecue sauce.
beautiful and very unique. I’ll bet in the fall and winter the place is gorgeous.

Definitely one of the highlights of Yangshuo was the place we stayed. It was a little further out of town than others (with our bikes, though, that wasn’t even an issue), but the family that ran the place was extremely friendly and helpful. It didn’t hurt that they provided a very tasty smorgasbord of options at dinner every evening for their hungry charges. Each night the dishes changed a little, too. Lots of vegetables with pork, duck, and beef all done in a myriad of different ways, all extremely delicious and each plate seemingly bottomless. I was in heaven.

Shannon: And because all three meals were included in the price of the room (we were always out-and-about during the day, so never took advantage of the mid-day repast) we met some great travelers over these delicious communal feasts. We’ve stayed at many different types of hostels over this past year, from the mammoth multi-bed behemoths that seem to churn out backpackers from every nook (“backpacker factories” is our term), to quiet 10-room places that are more intimate. This was one of the best
Another Rockin' Eggplant DishAnother Rockin' Eggplant DishAnother Rockin' Eggplant Dish

This one was a bit more Thai-tasting. Lots of eggplant, onions and tomatoes in a sweet and savory cilantro sauce. Scrumptious.
of the latter. Swapping tips around the dinner table about where to go, where you’ve been and generally learning more about other cultures is part of what staying at a hostel is supposed to be. Plus, I felt like the owner genuinely cared about his business - Sean and I don’t often book tours through the hostel, preferring to go it alone most of the time. But even though we didn’t book a tour through him, the owner still volunteered to get us a good price for one of the local attractions (saving us well over half off the ticket price). It’s those kinds of things that build loyalty and good word of mouth. So if you’re ever in Yangshuo, check out the Yangshuo Culture Hostel. It can’t be beat.


Dali, China


August 26, 2006

Shannon: Sean and I reached a pretty amazing milestone today: exactly one year ago, on August 26, 2005, was our last day of gainful employment in the real world. Hard to believe, at this point, that it has been a full year since we’ve done an honest day’s work, or that Past Sean and Shannon spent this day in history having a
NoodlesNoodlesNoodles

Forget rice. Noodles seem to be the national dish. We had them served a variety of ways, always with tasty toppings.
last celebratory meal at Commanders Palace and then waking up the next morning to finish packing our stuff in anticipation of this trip. And we won’t even mention the unanticipated adventure of Hurricane Katrina - all of that seems like such a distant memory. Guatemala to China: a lot has happened in between.

And so - not unexpectedly - this anniversary is a good time for reflection. It’s been a good year. No, it’s been a great year. Not many people have been in our position, with enough time and money to take a break from life in general to spend one year traveling the globe to see what it’s like out there. I’m happy to report that it’s been a wild success for us. Not every place has been picture-postcard beautiful; not every interaction has been amazing and life-changing. But we didn’t expect it to. One of the things that I told Sean about this trip before we started: I don’t care if some of the places are ugly; I just want to go there and experience them and know that they’re ugly. I want to see what they’re like. And having seen enough beautiful scenery and had
Keeping Up AppearancesKeeping Up AppearancesKeeping Up Appearances

Repainting work being done.
enough amazing interactions to fill in the gaps, I’m satisfied that this trip is what I wanted it to be.

And to have done it all with Sean is the best part. Having spent every day of the last year together is like condensing all of the previous 8 years of marriage into one. You can never put a value on it. After one year we still haven’t run out of things to talk about, still haven’t grown tired of each other’s company, and are still having a great time. And the best part is that I’ll always have these memories and someone to share them with, no matter what. I’ll never have to say “I wish we would have done that”.

But we are slowing down, definitely. One year is a long time to be on the road constantly, never sleeping in your own bed, hardly ever having the simple luxury of an “easy” interaction with someone who speaks your language fluently. We’ll be back home for Christmas - we just bought our tickets - and that is something we’re looking forward to. That gives us just under 4 more months of traveling. And though we’re not
Stomping the DemonsStomping the DemonsStomping the Demons

More colorful temple imagry. The foot belongs to one of Buddha's Guardians. We got to see him in all his Demon pounding glory.
yet ready to pack it in and return now, I think we will be ready when the time comes. More and more our thoughts are turning to life beyond this trip and the phrase “when we get back…” is popping up ever more frequently in conversations. Until then, though, we’ve still got a lot of neat places ahead of us.

We just arrived in Dali, which has been something of the proverbial “carrot” at the end of the stick for us. China isn’t empirically a hard country to travel through - the language is a bit of a barrier, but not a roadblock, and in other ways it can be relatively easy. But as we wrap up our time here, we are looking forward to spending a bit of time somewhere easy. Somewhere that doesn’t take hardly any effort at all. And so this next week should be a fulfillment of that desire, as we split our time between Dali and Lijiang, another city to the north. Both are extremely backpacker friendly, foreign-tourist oriented places. They’re banana-pancake easy. (For some reason, the comfort food of choice for backpackers across the globe seems to be banana pancakes. And it’s something the guidebooks have picked up on, so that you often read that this town or that is a “good place to get your banana pancakes.” Somehow this tasty breakfast food has become synonymous with backpacker enclaves.) These are good towns to slow down for a few days, recharge your batteries while doing laundry, hit the internet cafe and take advantage of all the traveler services on offer. We’re looking forward to an easy week.

From the little that we’ve seen so far, Dali is a bit like Pingyao, although not as intact of a traditional Chinese city. It does have undamaged city walls circling the old town, although not as much traditional architecture. But it certainly exudes a bit of charm and you can see that - already a popular tourist destination - this place is going to explode into full-blown Disney-fication soon. Already there are tons of little shops and restaurants lining the main drags through town and everything - I do mean everything - seems to be geared to the tourist. English menu’s abound, quaint little streams run along pedestrian paths and everywhere things seem to be in the process of being spruced up and renovated for
Dali's Man Made StreamDali's Man Made StreamDali's Man Made Stream

They are going great guns renovating the town. Give it a few years and it'll be quite picturesque. Not that it isn't now, mind you.
the current (and future) oncoming tourist hordes. We like it. But I should say that with one caveat: every time you read our opinions about a place, remember that they are influenced pretty heavily by both our state of mind and the places we’ve just been. We’re looking for an easy place to chill out, and this seems to fit the bill.

Sean: Comparing notes, it is interesting talking with other tourists that have had completely opposite feelings about a lot of the same places we’d been (we met one Spanish couple that didn’t care for the Beijing circus. I can’t judge them either; we’ve had negative opinions about many traveler lauded experiences). Heck, there are even places we’ve been that if we returned we probably wouldn’t enjoy them nearly as much, but at the time, it was what we were looking for.


August 30, 2006

Sean: As Shannon mentioned earlier, we’ve started planning and researching what life will be like after Christmas. It’s just as exciting as the planning that went into this trip. As great of an experience as this is (I can’t use enough superlative language to describe it), there is definitely a
PetsPetsPets

Every night, the owner's of our guesthouse in Dali would let their geese wade into the stream and frolic around.
feeling that our lives have been on hold since last August and this anticipation for the next stage in our lives is very real. Neither of us embarked on this epic journey with the desire to “check out” of the world (actually, quite the opposite) so being so far removed from the lives we happily lived previously, we’re eagerly curious about what the future holds.

But back to the trip…

Dali is geared toward the tourist. It’s a small, walled city sandwiched between a large mountain range to the west and a huge lake to the east. Coupled with the Denver-like elevation (meaning moderate temperatures), it makes for a very, very pleasant place to spend a few days in the late summer. The town is undergoing a facelift and the powers that be are renovating just about every older property (unfortunately, like the rest of China, every building is hidden by a lattice of scaffolding). We found a nice, quiet guest house off the main drag and have been wandering the historic city buying gifts for Christmas.

One peculiar aspect of Dali worth mentioning, though, is the coven of wrinkled old ladies who constantly approach me whispering
Shopping in the MountainsShopping in the MountainsShopping in the Mountains

I can't stress how out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere this shopping warehouse was. On the bus ride to Lijiang from Dali we stopped for what we thought was going to be a bathroom break. Little did we know this shopping megolith awaited. The Chinese never pass up a chance to sell you something.
“ganga” and “smoky smoky” in their inquisitive saleslady-like tones. They are usually dressed in the traditional Naxi (local indigenous group) garb and always advance with a conspiratorial air, like we share a personal secret. I swear it occurs no less than 5 times a day. It’s not the first time that I’ve been offered a bit of “herbal entertainment” in my life, but coming out of the mouths of middle-aged ethnic Chinese ladies is certainly a new angle. And what does this say about me? Even though westerners only make up a small fraction of the tourists here, it’s an interesting statement that I was the only one they were drawn to (Shannon must look too wholesome, because she was never asked). But they were pleasant ladies and my repeated “No, thank yous” didn’t seem to deter their spunky demeanor.


Lijiang, China


August 31, 2006

Shannon: By many people’s standard, Lijiang is the prettiest town in all of China. Full of traditional Naxi architecture, cobbled streets and criss-crossed by dozens of tiny streams and bridges, it’s the Chinese version of Prague, only on a much smaller scale. Located in the north of Yunnan province, it takes a
Black Dragon Pool Park in LijiangBlack Dragon Pool Park in LijiangBlack Dragon Pool Park in Lijiang

Another beautiful day in the mountains.
bit to get here, but it is well worth it if you’re tired of the dusty sprawl of most Chinese cities and looking for an escape.

Sean: Lijiang is a bustling tourist town…and bustling is an understatement. The whole historic area is one maze after another lined with shops, cafes and restaurants and lots and lots of people. Dali had tourists, but Lijiang was swarming with holiday makers poking into and out of all the shops searching for that perfect gift to bring back home.

I don’t blame all the people that flock here though, because it really is picturesque and the climate is very pleasant - as opposed to the majority of the country (at least the parts where the majority of the population lives) where it’s quite hot and muggy this time of year.

So we passed a couple of days but weren’t all that thrilled because of the crowds and the fact that we couldn’t find a hotel room that matched both the quality and low price of our guesthouse in Dali (again, every new location is biased in some way by the place we just came from). These two reasons just meant that
Typical Lijiang RestaurantTypical Lijiang RestaurantTypical Lijiang Restaurant

The whole town is crisscrossed by tons of little creeks.
we didn’t love Lijiang, but it truly is one of China’s gems when it comes to tourism and I wouldn’t discourage anyone’s interest in this very pretty city.


September 1, 2006

Shannon: All the tea in China…is bitter, my friend.

I’m would characterize myself as a tea drinker, as opposed to my other half, who is definitely more likely to hop himself up on a bit of caffeine derived from the coffee bean. (Poor thing - after looking down his nose disdainfully at the Nescafe so prevalent around the world - only drip for him - he has finally succumbed to carrying around some packets of the stuff. When you can’t get your fix any other way…)

But back to tea: If nothing else, this trip has taught me that we don’t all drink tea the same way. When we were in Central and South America it was Lipton Yellow Label - when you ordered tea, that’s what you got. And I’m fine with that. It’s not exactly refined tea but it brews a decent cup. In the Middle East - originally famous for its coffee - tea is actually the drink of choice for most and you can hardly shake a dead cat without hitting a café serving a cuppa. But 80%!o(MISSING)f the time, it was served extremely over-steeped. And when you oversteep tea, it becomes very bitter (due to this we began calling it a “hot cup ‘o bitter”). And I wondered then, when that is what everyone drinks, why they couldn’t brew a decent cup? “It doesn’t have to be this way!” was the rallying cry I wanted to spread. “It doesn’t have to taste bad!”

In Eastern Europe, it was back to my old stalwart, the ubiquitous Yellow Label. Ahh, an old friend. But I was really looking forward to China, the original purveyors of this fine beverage. Surely I would be able to sit in a café somewhere and savor a delicious blend.

One billion Chinese can’t be wrong, right?

Well, maybe I won’t go so far as to say that they’re wrong. I’m just a casual drinker, after all. I don’t claim to have any expertise in this area. But count the Chinese into the “bitter, oversteeped tea drinkers” category.

Sean: I really don’t understand it either. Shannon has failed to mention that we’ve
A Hot Cup of BitterA Hot Cup of BitterA Hot Cup of Bitter

The only difference between this cup and the one in Turkey is that the Chinese are more partial to green tea as opposed to black.
gotten quite a few good pots of tea, but, she’s right, the majority of the time it has been served extremely bitter. At the tea shops it’s customary to pay as you sit down and then they bring you a cup or glass about an eighth full of leaves which they periodically top off with hot water to thin out. You can spend all day there and it seems that many do. We’ve certainly whiled away a few afternoons reading and chatting while at other tables, the patrons were noisily shuffling Mah Johng tiles, shouting and slamming their cards over some exciting card game, or just getting a nice ear wax cleaning.

But every time, we’ve been afraid of that first sip. When it’s good, it’s very good, but when it’s bad…yikes. It stings your tongue. It hits it with such force that not only does your face scrunch up, but your whole body involuntarily convulses. And it doesn’t get any better until you’ve been through many, many refills and it begins to lose its pungency. It’s not that the tea itself is bad, it’s more a combination of too many leaves and lacking a spoon to remove them (without risking third degree burns on your fingers) they quickly over steep.

But we must be doing pretty well if a steaming cup of bitter tea is the most dramatic issue we’re bravely facing in our lives.

Shannon: From our perch here in the mighty foothills of Tibet, we now plan to backtrack a few steps and make our way to the southern border of China and cross into Laos, the Land of a Million Elephants. And as we head into Labor Day weekend, we’d like to give all of our family and friends back home a little shout-out that we’re thinking of you all. Have a great weekend.


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26th February 2011

re: black dragon pool
Wonderful shot--by the way, one story goes that this view inspired Hilton's vision of Shangri-La, in his novel Lost Horizon. Surprised? I didn't think so.

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