Lijiang

Lijiang is very interesting being a well preserved and restored old town with a large Naxi minority. Like Kunming, Lijiang also has a large tourist crowd - mainly local Chinese, a sign of growing middle class in China.

PETER'S LETTER (1)

Peter, one member of our group, sends out to the outside world regular reports of our progress. We have been fortunate to be among the recipients of the amusing tales of his past travels. Here I include a slightly editted version of his latest, a view from someone who is relatively new to China, and one who is able to see the many funny sides of the land....

Hi Guys and Girls,

So, here we are in beautiful Lijiang and the place is hopping. From the open window of this boutique Internet place (only one machine and I am on it) there is a vista of lanterns and lit buildings and a raucous crowd doing some local version of a serenade across the rooftops. Except I think it is more of “anything you can do I can do better” than courtship. Makes for great colour though as the girls are dressed in costumes of the minority Naxi people and are perched on verandas or balconies across the willow tree embanked stream. Cobbled streets, tiled roofs in the ancient manner- every inch the beautiful picture card scene. Also ever inch a touristy town full of thousands and thousands of tourists- 99% Han Chinese. Next week it is national holiday week so I can only be glad that we aren’t here then.

The train trip into mainland China (from Hong Kong) on Saturday when smoothly, all the more so because we were transferred from the East Guangzhou station to the main one via the subway. We could have managed it by ourselves but it was more comfortable to have someone to lead the way. We had time to kill before the 26 hour train trip to Kunming so we did so at the soft class waiting room, something that everyone should experience once. It was like Chairman Mao’s reception room- huge leather chairs with anti-makassars marble floors and traditional wall decorations of misty mountains and flowers. And just as we were reaching dozing stage, a railway woman arrives with a bull-horn and announces something like the end of the world. It was really only that the train standing on platform three was ours but it took the evacuation of the room and some urging for us to twig. Hurry up and a wait!

Thereafter it was a pleasant day plus in our four berth sleeping compartment- more anti-makassars and lace curtains , a lovely young Chinese lady and a boorish young man who snored a lot, spoke on his mobile at other times and slurped his noodles. Still, the landscape of those misty mountains and rice fields in between tunnels and river gorges was well worth the time and minimal cost. We sampled the food in the dining room and the general pleasure of train travel, though I have to admit to enjoying a shower on arrival at our hotel in Kunming. There we met up with our friends Kay and and Kin-Mun and our other travelling companions, Jessie and Seong, also from Sydney. They are great to travel with, especially that both Kin-Mun and Seong have a facility wth Mandarin and it makes things so much richer and understandable. Besides, they can order very successfully so the food has been a big part of the enjoyment.

First night in Kunming, Sunday, we went to a concert of ethnic minorities and thankfully it wasn’t as bad as expected. Lots of colour and movement, some cat-lke wailing but also some maginative and creative singing and dancing. I trust that that will be our fill of cultural performances, though I guess it will be hard to get through Tibet without something. The big attraction in Kunming was the trip to the Stone Forest, about an hour’s drive out of the city on this big new expressway. Sucha pity that they fill such spaces with terrible drivers, but we did survive to see and enjoy the wonderful Karst ( limestone) landscape. The worst part was that it rained all the time so the pics will be less than impressive. Today, it is gloriously fine.

So, everything has been pretty good save for today when I managed to break my previously repaired front tooth on the flight up from Kunming. Thankfully our guide took me to a dentist,
who did a great job for the modest sum of $30. I won’t mention to my dentist when I return but at that rate one could probably afford a whole new mouth for the price of a clean back home Almost forgot to mention that the security people at the airport confiscated about 700ml of scotch which I had in my carry on baggage! Grrrrr!! Time enough to end, tme and energy are running out.

Hope that it won’t be a week before the next.
Take care all,
Very best
from us both,

P.