hour bus ride through beautiful countryside to Lijiang, where we
stayed at a little inn in the nicely preserved old part of town. For
dinner we had traditional Naxi food including tree fungus
(interesting...) and ba ba.
Finding the old center of town to be quite crowded with tourists
(mostly Chinese) we were happy to get out of town the next day on
rented bikes. We ran into two others from our group at the bike rental
place, and rode together to a small village (Baisha) with some 1000
year old Buddhist frescoes. But before we found the frescoes we were
approached by a tiny cheerful old lady speaking Chinese who showed us
a little journal in which someone had written for her in English
"welcome to my village. I don't speak English but would like to invite
you to my home to see how we live here. I have tea and fruit." So we
followed her and saw her lovely garden, cute mangy dog, and the little
rooms where she and a few family members live. She served us tea and
nuts and showed us her faucet. Even with our very limited language
overlap, she was able to make us feel like old friends.
The next morning we left for Tiger Leaping Gorge where we met our
local guide named Long, which means dragon. He's 25, and his father is
Naxi and his mother Tibetan. He charmed us all with his obvious pride
in the natural beauty of his home and the rich cultural heritage of
the local ethnic minorities. The two day trek through the gorge was
both exhausting and gorgeous.
We spent the first night in a guest house run by a Naxi family, and
the second (last night) at a Tibetan guest house. Among the dishes at
last night's dinner were warm buttery yak cheese and dried yak meat
with greens!
I'm writing this on the iPhone on the bus to Zhongdian, a tibetan town
high in the mountains which was recently renamed Shangri-la...
J
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