Gudao Stage Hostel Lijiang

Lijiang

No-one is quite sure where Hilton's Shangri-La is but it is generally accepted to be in the Tibetan region. Zhongdian, in north-west Yunnan province, part of Greater Tibet was offically renamed Shangri-La after a competition in 2003. We decide not to visit Zhondian because of potential snow but head to Lijiang instead where we buy a copy of Lost Horizon by James Hilton.

Lijiang is a delightful old town. There are the charming water wheels at ...

... Spirit in Xinjiang

... 3pm and stopped at Sean's Guesthouse where I met up with Chris who had taken a minibus directly to Sean's.
http://www.tigerleapinggorge .com/
I didn't like Tina's, as it is a huge modern building directly on the street. There was nothing local or romantic about this guesthouse. Sean's is a comfy place, each dorm bed has a teddy bear on its pillows. And, you cant' beat 20RMB and a happy hour from 4-8pm. ;-)

I left the next day ...

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... would move from our current hotel as she asked us lots of questions about where we were from and how long we were staying. I was then thinking there must be catch in all this and she did lead us back down her jewellery store where I ended up buying a silver necklace for Kristen (my daughter) as the prices were very good and she had been so nice to us I couldn't resist, so her strategy works very well ...

... tra montagna e fiume, qualche volta lasciandoti sospeso in mezzo al vuoto. Questo posto e' maestoso, tanto quanto lo e' il suo nome: la Gola del Salto della Tigre. Dopo l'odissea in autobus, Lijiang e' un posto perfetto dove trascorrere qualche giorno di completo relax: un piccolo villaggio talmente bello da sembrare quasi finto. Non posso far altro che vagare per le sue stradine acciottolate, i suoi ponticelli, i suoi canali, osservare la gente del posto di etnia Naxi ...

... get off my lap, and small puppy, which kept on biting my toes! I packed up my things and about an hour later I flagged down a minivan to give me a lift back to Jane's. The hour long journey was the most scared I have ever been. The entire road was covered with landslides from the mountains which most of the time just left us enough room to squeeze through with a few inches to spare. Quite often the minivan would slide out on the landslides leaving us ...

... of a Chinese website - China Style - and its interpretation of the Sanduo festival. Sanduo is the spirit of the jade dragon snow mountain the west clans of everyplace all want the solemn and impressive fiesta they go to jade dragon ancestral temple in addition to fiesta in addition to doing obeisance the people have an outing they swim, they enjoy flower, they convene relevant academic colloquium At night, the city full of people like the tide they sing uncommonly noisily

... were really quite old - apparently over 1000 years, however the many shops and restaurants were new but at least built in the old 'Naxi' style. This little girl spun herself round while holding on with just her teeth practically all day long: One of the town's main features ...

... of something that wouldn't be legal back home. Old Dali is actually fairly new as far as the buildings are concerned. They have all been rebuilt in the style of their older counterparts that were destroyed by an earthquake in the 1920's. Between the newer buildings with painted on brick, the endless supply of souvenir shops, and the nonstop stream of Chinese tour groups, we felt Dali had a extremely fake feeling to it. It seems like a tourist ...