Ancient city of Lijiang and Yulong Jade Dragon Snow Peak

 12/9

We got up early and flew from Xi'an to Kunming (the "spring city"). We noted how clear and fresh the air was in the city of eternal spring. Because the the transfer to the train station went smoothly, we changed our train ticket to an earlier train and then had a yummy lunch in Kunming. We boarded our high-speed train for the journey to Lijiang. En route we passed by Dali and it's large lake

We saw no foreigners (white people) during our entire time in Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. But even on our whole journey thus far we've only see 4 or 5 westerners total. We figured that because Lijiang is more touristy we'd see some more westerners, but we didn't see any there either.

We arrived to Lijiang and took a bus to the outskirts of the ancient city. No vehicles are allowed in the ancient city with its maze of narrow, cobbled streets, so we had to find our way somehow to our guesthouse. We walked a bit over a kilometer and up a hill on steep stone steps to find our guesthouse. We checked in and then went out to explore the town. 

I visited Lijiang back in 2010, and it has changed a lot. Now it's a lot more of a chic place for young people who are all out taking glamour photos with fancy, traditional costumes and often personal photographers. There is a bar street where every building has a live band, and you can hear multiple bands at once. But there are also things I still remember, like the free samples of yak jerky and lanterns hangings along the narrow streets that often have little waterways. In the old time, they created canals and waterways to that each and every house received water from the glacial river. 

We went out for some noodles and local Naxi (the minority group here) bread with fillings.. When we made it back to our room and took a shower, the toilet was clogged as was the shower. It turns out the shower drain was connected to the toilet pipes, so when the toilet flushed sewage came up out of the shower, so you took a shower with poop in the basin! The room we were in had been fancy, but we had to change to a different, less nice room that had a mattress that Elisha really didn't like. The owner/manager is named Long (dragon) and is really nice. He showed us how to make tea in the special way here, made tea for us, and then gave us a free brick of tea.

12/10

Because Elisha really didn't like the room, we transferred to another one. This was back to the fancy side of the hotel. It's a fancy room with smart lights, curtains that close mechanically with the switch of a button, heated toilet seat, and all these other smart features that we didn't know how to use because the buttons are in Chinese. After switching rooms, we walked to the black dragon pools where there were great views of the Yulong Jade Dragon Snow mountain, including a reflection in the pools. In China, if they call a mountain a "snow mountain" it means that it's heavily glaciated. The black dragon pool area not only had great views of the giant mountain, but cool Chinese buildings and coy fish in the ponds.

After exploring here it was time for a delicious lunch and then it was off to explore the twisting, cobble streets of ancient Lijiang. The city is cool with its narrow lanes, often with little creeks running through. All of the houses (now many turned into guesthouses) open up into beautiful courtyards, all decorated and designed a bit differently. Along our journey, we visited the Mu mansion and a Buddhist monastery. And then just lots of interesting streets and alleyways. Along the way we sampled lots of free dried fruits, sweets, snacks, and jerky along the way. And also had some of the famous flower cakes.

The public restrooms in Lijiang are so crazy and fancy. They have a digital board letting you know what is occupied. It's all touchless, with a wave of the hand to open and close the door. And a plastic wrap is automatically deployed to cover the seat. At the end of the day, we climbed the hill near our hostel to a large pagoda for 360 degree views and to watch the sunset over town and on the snow mountain. At night the pagoda was lit up really cool, and the walk through the forest was also really cool as it went through a (plastic) mushroom forest that was lit up, including with moving/dancing mushrooms. We had dinner at a fancy place in Old Lijiang town amongst all the picture takers.

12/11

We had arranged a classic Chinese day: A group tour to the Yulong Jade Dragon snow peak, to be scaled, not by hiking, but via a cable car. The hostel employee who was supposed to take us to meet the tour slept in, We contacted the hotel owner (Dragon), and he was very apologetic and made the employee buy us breakfast (hot soy milk) and take us in a cab ride (surely expensive for him) to meet back up with the tour. The tour had 4 other people (Chinese of course) and the guide. The guide couldn't speak English, so in some ways, it was a guess as to what the program was. But Dragon had give us one of his spare phones that had WeChat (Chinese social media app used for nearly everything: paying, social media, messaging, etc) so that we could text with the guide because that way you can easily translate, especially such things as when to come back or when/where to meet. 

Our first stop with the group was moon valley which was an area with several of these amazingly clear and turquoise/emerald lakes. Incredibly beautiful color! As a backdrop was the snow mountain as well as waterfalls between the lakes. It was just a truly stunning area, and we spent several hours there. Then it was back on a bus to a lunch spot where our group shared a big hot pot bowl. Then it was a bus to the gondola where we waited in line to board the gondola.

The gondola took us from 11,000 feet above sea level up to 14,783 feet. There was a boardwalk/stairway that continued up to about 15,350 feet through the snowy landscape. There were a ton of Chinese struggling to walk up the stairs, all sucking down on oxygen bottles. The tour provided each person with 1 bottle, but most people bought extras and took multiple bottles. It was a funny sight! And quite comical to me as, of course, the oxygen cans are just gimmicks and won't really help with the altitude. Same as the ones they sell here in Colorado for tourists. There were really nice views from the top, including of a glacier we could look down on. Besides oxygen bottles, the tour companies also supplied everyone with parkas, so everyone had matching blue, green, or red parkas. It was all just a funny sight. 

Because you go up so high, so fast (especially if you flew in from Beijing, Hong Kong, or Shanghai), it's easy to get altitude sickness, and we saw a few people vomiting. After hiking up to the end viewpoint and hanging out in the snow for a bit, we headed back down the gondola. 

We ate a delicious meal for dinner (eggplant, lotus, and pork dishes), then had a tea ceremony at our guesthouse. We tried to book a tour to both Shangri-la and Tiger Leaping Gorge since we had only 1 day left, but that tour unfortunately wasn't running.