Still in Lijiang (China trip part III)

Still in Lijiang and it's now three days later (or is it four?). I am sort of losing track of time on this trip and just found out today that it's actually tuesday. The last three days been really cool. The first day after arrival (so since my last post), we basically didn't do much. We just strolled around the city to see what it's all about. It's a very nice looking city and lookes especially great at night. However it is very touristy although you won't find that much westeners. Most of the tourists are Chinese Han people, ofcourse joined together in various groups with their tourguides holding up the flags up front. It quite a funny site and the Chinese really don't understand they look like sheep.

As I said the first day we didn't do much but walk around. The city is full of (actually there are nothing but) souvenir shops and bars. We basically explored them and made reservations to have dinner at 'monkey bar' which has a refference in the Lonely Planet. The idea is to eat with a family and pay 15 RMB (1.50 in euros). What you get for dinner is whatever there is on the market that day. That evening we got there at 6.30 pm to start the dinner. We met a American couple, wel a guy from Atlanta who is married to a woman from Kashmir. It was quite an interesting conversation that ofcourse ended up being quite policital. It's kinda hard not to mention Bush at some point... The host itself was very silent so we didn't get much out of him. The food however was really delicious, and cheap, so it was certainly something to do while being here. That evening we checked out some bars to find drunken Chinese. From previous experience we know that this type of Chinese are of the funiest kind, and on itself a guarantee for a good evening. We found them in some bars but not all, so the evening was so-so.
The next day we went cycling again. First we went to the Black Dragon Pool park which has some beautiful Chinese architecture. It's famous for both that and it's pool (hence the name). However the pool was almost dried up, so it left a muddy residue. It wasn't even half as nice as the pictures ofcourse but there was plenty other stuff to make up for it. One of those things was the Dongba Research Institute that tries to keep the local ancient Dongba culture alive, through means of giving classes and teaching people the rituals of the culture such as the writing language which is unique from any other. We got a small lecture from one of the students, which revealed to us that there are nowadays only 20 Dongba people left, eight of which are connected to the institute. After the whole park thing we went on our way to a local village which is called Baisha. It was recommended by Lonely Planet as well. We are now starting to find out, however, that most things that are recommended in LP are either full of tourists, or have seen large amounts of tourists in the past so that it is now not full of them anymore, but filled with shops selling all the same stuff. As I mentioned before, Chinese are quite blinded by money and if one concept (or shop for that matter) proves that it appeals to tourists, they don't think much but copy it right away. This can spoil cities, Lijiang still has its old town appeal, but Baisha is just a simple village that basically ruined itself with it shops that by the looks of it don't make much money. By the time we reached the city heavy rain poored down so we were stuck there for 2.5 hours. After that my bike broke down so I had to go back to get it fixed. We reached Lijiang at around 7.30 pm. We took it easy that day and I finish my book, to finally start with Harry Potter. I wanna see where all the fuzz is about. I've seen the first movie, which didn't impress me, but I must say that the book's off to a good start. We'll see...

The third day, so today, we had breakfast at the 'Prague Cafe' where we were approached by a woman offering a one day tour around the neighbourhood, promising no other tourists and secluded placed where no other tour would bring us. In that same cafe there are books to be found where other peoples experiences are bundled and we read before that these tours from the woman that approached us, are in fact quite famous and bring the experience they promise. So we decided to do that. Around 10 we set off and by minibus we first travelled to... well I don't know... somewhere. The area showed us small Naxi villages (the type of people in this region of the Yunnan province or from the Naxi kind and there architecture bear a lot of similarities, hence, all villages basically look more or less the same) and lot of farmland that is mostly used for growing potatoes, we learned. Eventually we reached a certain village and went out of the minivan to have a small walk around the area. Soon we reached a small lake where a few men where fishing and the guide suggested to buy some fish and go to a Naxi families house to either bbq, fry or boil it. Ofcourse I voted for bbq, since I haven't had a good one for ages. we had 3.5 kilos of freshly cought fish (it was still alive, even after the removal of its insights and thrown on the bbq) that costed us 30 RMB, 3 euros! The house we went to was like a prehistorical house with no electricity and everything in one room. Although primitive, all things were cleverly placed and the way they make food is maybe the best way. Basically everything is barbeque, or cooked over a fire which was in the middle of the room. It is quite hard to explain this, so I made some pictures to illustrate this. Same story, uploading them hasn't worked yet, but I'll make an attempt after finishing this story. Besides the bbq we also had some rice and baked vegatables mixed with pieces of ham. The lunch(!) was really good and filling. After an hour or two we left again. It was now already 4 pm. We headed for some more villages, where we were around 5.30 pm till 7 pm, and noticed that that was the time most farmers quite there work to play either mayong (men) or some card game (woman). We stood watching a card game by old woman for about 10 minutes. The old woman where really hilarious (to see a movie of this visit Jamies website jamieroundtheworld.com). We were told that the woman where at least 80 years of age. Although they looked very old by appearance, the were behaving very 'young'. Appearantly people in these villages reach a very high age, I really wonder what their secret is. I assume this is mainly because a healthy lifestyle (not being in contact with alcohol or other 'unhealthy' stuff) and a lot of physical excersize, in the form of labour on the lands. They all still work hard everyday. By this time I really had to think at what 80+ people do in western countries, such as the Netherlands... hmm.
We came back to Lijiang this evening around 7 pm and ate at KFC (for shame, I know) The plans are to go hiking for three days starting tomorrow at the infamous Tiger Leaping Gorge, which according to many (reliable) sources should be amazing. We also found out that we will be accompanied by to men at our trip to tibet, which will be shortly after we come back to Lijiang. This basically ends my story here. I will probably go online one time before going to Tibet to update on the hike and perhaps update some pictures.

For now, thank you, bye bye!