Music: Bon Iver - For Emma, forever ago
I woke early this morning. Most likely due to going to bed fairly early. I read my book for a few hours after dinner (where I chalked up 'yak' to the list of eaten animals this trip) but then just flaked out. I dozed until about 6:30am and then got up and walked around the Lijang old town with my camera. Alvin said that this was a good time to get photos of the place as the light would be good and there are no people around. He was a little wrong on both counts but I still got some nice pics in before I returned for breakfast.
After this I met Alvin for today's tours of the area. This started with the Black Dragon Park. From here is taken the picture postcard photo of the area, over the pond with the bridge and pagodas, the Jade Dragon Snow mountain in the back drop. The park is called black dragon as there are many springs in the area leading the locals to believe that there is a black dragon under the area sending the water up from it's mouth.
We walked around this area and then into a museum of the Naxi people, those native to this area. The museum had a living piece too, the head of the Dongba (local shaman). The local shaman are responsible for maintaining the history and customs of the Naxi people as well as keeping alive their hyroglyphic language, on top of their ritual obligations.
After this we walked back through some of the new part of town, back to the old city. I was then shown around to serveal areas I'd missed on my morning's expidition. This included several beautiful little bridges over the small canals that run aroud this 800 year old city. The wooden buildings and tight alleyways give it a huge amount of character and the bars and shops that line the streets make it a lovely place to wonder about any time of day. After this we went to grab some lunch at a local restaurant that Alvin often frequents.
This afternoon we hired bikes and rode out of town to the other two ancient little villages a couple of kilometers away. On the way we stopped at the local reserviour (very picturesque) for a litle stroll around. It was here that Alvin pointed out a few of the surrounding mountains and their names. He made a slight mistake and called one of them "Crouching Elephant" (rather than something akin to lying down elephant). The thought of an elephant crouching in the long grass waiting to pounce on something passing by has me in fits of giggles for most of the afternoon! The first of these was slightly less touristy that the old town of Lijang but set up in a similar manner. The second was mostly an tiny working village but contained the home and surgery of Dr Ho (pronounced who...) who is a world famous Chinese medicine practitioner. He shows people who visit cards and notes of thanks from other people who have visited him, including the former British Ambassador to China, Micheal Palin and John Cleese and many others.
After this we headed back to the city and I left Alvin after handing the bikes back in. From here I walked to and then around the old city with my camera in hand. After a while I heard a cry of "Hello! Hello!" from a bar I was passing. I'd become desensitised to this on my visit to Shanghai, where everyone who said hello either wanted to sell you something or extract money from you in some other manner. In this end of China it seems a lot more friendly however, as I've previsouly mentioned. Lots of people passing say hello at the western tourists and lots of people want their photo taken with you! I even had a 4 or 5 year old child say "How are you?" in the restaurant over lunch. Apparently they learn English from a very early age here. Anyway, I was waved over and sat down next to a group of Chinese men and women who were in Lijang on holiday as a group. I was then plied with wine as we tried to communicate in very broken English for the next hour or so (I must have had at least a bottle or so in this time) after this I came back to the cafe I wrote last night's blog from to have a couple of milkshakes and some dinner.
Time for a quite beer and then early to bed again. Tomorrow I'm off to Tiger Leaping Gorge!
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