Advertisement
Published: December 14th 2008
Edit Blog Post
5 arch bridge
Reflecting all around We tend to make plans as we go along after talking to fellow travellers or locals looking for the unexpected and often finding it. It helps that we have a good sense of humour and we have giggled our way through our mistakes.
After experiencing Tibetan food and seeing Tibetans in traditional dress we decided to head for Kanding to the east of Chengdu and tour the Tibetan villages nearby but when we came to book the trip we were told the snow was too bad to travel in the area.
Instead we decided to fly south to Yunnan province and the city of Kunming. Another city and although we once again found great local street food we were beginning to feel “citied out”. We had read about Lijiang in the north of Yunnan before we flew to Kunming, so booked ourselves onto another night bus arriving in Lijiang bus station at 5.30 where were allowed to stay on the bus sleeping until 7.00! A short cab ride took us to the edge of the old town where a bleary eyed receptionist was waiting to walk us to her guest house as cars are prohibited in the old town.
The old
Lijiang street
Cobbled streets winding down to the square town houses are perfectly preserved with graceful curving grey tiled roofs sitting on top of orange coloured mud and straw brick walls some flat rendered and painted white, others exposed revealing ancient timbers. They line winding cobbled streets intersected with streams and canals crossed by pretty arched bridges. The town is almost completely surrounded by mountains, green and folded to the east and south, rugged and snow capped to the west.
The locals consist of 1 or 2 minority groups (maybe more) who maintain traditional dress the women in particular wearing brightly coloured hand woven fabrics and embroidered waistcoats and boots. Topped with anything from plain blue hats to colourful headbands with braided hair pinned across. Their clothing is not just for show as you see them with large wicker baskets strapped to their backs filled with anything from food to firewood wandering along the lanes deep in conversation ignoring you mostly but peppered with the occasional Hello!
Our guest house turned out to be another of Sue's great choices, an old building with rooms on 2 upper floors around a courtyard. It was small and cosy with a dining room downstairs and an adjoining room with an old stove
Music bar
hidden depths that kept you warm but tended to smoke a lot if you weren't continually attentive to feeding it. We met some nice people including a Canadian couple we first met in XiAn Steve and Laural also from Canada and a guy called Ron from Australia. For once we weren't the oldest but Ron turned out to be the coolest when he took us to a local music bar. We would never have ventured in on our own; we went through a small doorway that opened into a courtyard surrounded by small curtained rooms. The waiter pulled back a curtain to reveal a small group of locals sat in a U shape faced by long bench tables in between which was a basket filled with burning charcoal. One guy had a guitar and another a bongo drum, everyone shuffled up to let us in and when we were settled the curtain was drawn to keep in the heat. The guitarist did a couple of songs (in Chinese) and then looked at us to see if we wanted to sing, after a couple of embarrassed glances Ron who had been speaking a little Chinese suddenly burst into song with a rendition of
Reflections
Snow caps distant and reflcted an obviously popular Chinese song that got the whole crowd singing. He then repeated that feat a couple of times to much back slapping and admiring looks from the locals and awe struck admiration from our little group too. We had a great evening and spent some happy hours with Ron, Steve and Laural during the next few days.
There s a park where you will find Black Dragon Pool which was formed where several springs emerge and has been the primary water source for Lijiang since the mid 1700's. The waterways that meander through the old town were used to sanitise and also to prevent the spread of fire. It is particularly famous for the way that Snow mountain and Elephant Hill are reflected in the water.
There are beautiful temples and when we ventured into one we were introduced to the Dunga a kind of sage and keeper of the ancient rites of Dongba the local Naxi cultural belief.
We were given 3 incense sticks each that we had to light and place on an alter in front of a type of Buddha. We were then given a bead bracelet each male on the left wrist female on
Temple Garden
Tranquil peace and harmony... the right. We then had to sit at a table opposite the Dunga with our eyes closed and left and right hands clasped while he anointed us on forehead and clasped hands while predicting a long and happy life for us and our family.. I don't know if it was the atmosphere of the temple the décor or the smell of incense but we were moved by the ritual and left feeling we had had a spiritual experience. Sue said it was like having our marriage blessed and we kept the beads on for days afterwards.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0482s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
happysheep
non-member comment
Lijiang
There's more info about Lijiang at www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/happysheep/shangri-la-la/tpod.html