Yunnan. No, YOU Nan!!

Loving Lijiang

Like I said, old town Lijiang was one of the most, if not THE most gorgeous cities we'd seen thus far. Sure, it's incredibly touristy. Enormous Chinese tour groups devotedly follow their flag bearer through the streets, and Westerners of all ages wander throughout town. The shops sell t-shirts, dubious antiques, and tacky art, and the restaurants, many of which offer Western food, charge notably higher prices. Naxi (a local Chinese minority group) culture has been commodified in a Disney-ish way, with young women in traditional costume luring passers-by into the bars. They also enthusiastically lead tourists in Naxi dances in the main square. Only the old women shuffling through the streets wear their Naxi clothes like they mean it, the shoulders of their sky blue tunics worn by years of rubbing basket straps.

None of this, however, distracts from old Lijiang's undeniable beauty. As we walked into town last Saturday night, I was overwhelmed by the polished cobblestone streets, maze of alleys, and goldfish swimming lazily in the canals throughout town. I loved the wooden houses with graceful sweeping eaves, the glowing red lanterns that are lit every evening, and the leafy trees hanging over stone bridges. A little over-restored, maybe, but still...

And it is possible to escape to the *old* old town. Away from the tourist center, the alleys grow quiet, women wash clothes in green pools, and the houses look more lived in, rough around the edges. The old town market clearly serves locals, selling fruits, vegetables, flashlights, rubber slippers, birds in cages, etc.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Leaping Gorge

We took three days to do a mini-trek in Tiger Leaping Gorge, just a couple of hours from Lijiang. One of the world’s deepest gorges, it towers 3900 meters from river to snow capped summit. Despite the gorge’s emerging popularity as a Chinese and Western tourist destination, the government plans to dam it and flood out thousands of people over upcoming years, a la Three Gorges. It’s insane, but speaks to the Chinese government’s continuing love affair with mega industrial projects.

On the hike, we lucked out with cool weather and great guest houses, including one run by the nicest Naxi family. We also had lunch at the guesthouse where Michael Palin (K-K-K-K-Ken from A Fish Called Wanda) stopped for a night and signed the guestbook. The guy has been haunting us since Nepal; just recently, he crossed Yunnan, Bhutan, Tibet, and Nepal filming his Himalaya travel show.

The views were pretty good, though I’ve become spoiled by the Himalayas and the Andes. It was still really nice to get active again. I suspect I’ve lost weight only because my already pathetic muscles have atrophied to nothing. We plan on playing in a Shanghai ultimate tourney in June. In our current state that promises to be an embarrassing experience. I’ll be the skinny guy retching on the sidelines.

Now in Dali

Dali, just four hours south of Lijiang, is something of a Yunnan Province Kho San Road. Amazingly, dope is widely available (a smiling middle-aged lady in traditional clothes just walked into the café and asked me if I wanted “smoke ganja”), and you can watch English movies while sipping a cappuccino on “Foreigner Street.” Competition among hotels is fierce, and we’ve been enjoying a huge suite (bedroom and living room – no bath) for $4/night. While we haven’t been particularly homesick, it’s nice to have some creature comforts, particularly since it’s been raining for 24 hours. We had just enough time yesterday morning to bike through the nearby towns and rice fields before the skies opened.

Yunnan Food

Hasn't been particularly notable, though we can get fresh veggies everywhere, a nice change from Xinjiang and Tibet. The appearance of Western food also lets us have yogurt, muesli, or oatmeal for breakfast, a healthy change from steamed pork buns, though twice as expensive. It’s about $1 for a bowl of oatmeal or $0.50 for eight buns.

In Lijiang, we ate in what the Lonely Planet calls one of the 10 Best Restaurants in China (admittedly a preposterous list). The Monkey Bar is this Taiwanese guy’s house, and every night he allows travelers to join his family for dinner. “You eat what we eat,” the little hand scrawled note in the window says. He used to do it for free, but started charging because he was getting mobs of up to 40 people.

For $1.50, you get up to six dishes of fresh home cooked food, and the blessed relief of not having to look at a menu when you sit down. He’s not in it to get rich, clearly. At that price and considering the breathless Lonely Planet write up, I don’t understand why there still aren’t dozens of guests every night. We had dinner there three times, and saw only one other couple. Sadly, only the man of the house speaks any English, and I think he’s grown a little tired of chatting with tourists over the years. His little girls have become similarly jaded, and manage to be both aloof and cute at the same time, turning their backs and frowning in the most surly yet adorable manner whenever someone wants to take a picture of them. By the third night, we’d become regulars of sorts, and they deigned to play with us. It’s a little funny having dinner with the family because they act like normal folks, not making any effort to pander to the guests. They don't really talk much amongst themselves, and unceremoniously get up from the table when done eating.

Kunming Tomorrow

We hop a hard sleeper south to Kunming tomorrow, headed towards Macau to get a new Chinese visa…