Mu S Mansion Hotel Lijiang

... do in Lijiang is to rent a bike and explore the surrounding villages. I went through a lovely village near the reservoir and then visited Shuhe Old Town, a smaller version of Lijiang. Nestled at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, 6 km northwest of Lijiang Old Town, Shuhe was once a staging post at ancient Tea & Horse Road. With an altitude of 2440 meters above sea level, it is a tranquil town with a population of about 3000 people ...

... Professor Mo Qian couldn't come, so David Golumbia is presenting alone. The Naxi bring up questions about the Internet's ability to affect minority culture. The optimistic perspective says it could help disseminate Naxi culture, while the pessimist says globalization and cosmopolitanism could destroy it. Globalization advocates to say Naxi culture can only be viewed as "traditional" or "static", which they argue presumes Naxi culture cannot be "modern". Is there a way ...

Set off at 9 am for a 60 km ride. First 11 kms were back the way we came so the downhill ride into town that we enjoyed became an 11 km uphill climb instead. We gathered for a quick rest at the junction before starting a 5 km climb which Kim said was the steepest of our trip. It turned out not as bad as we expected, I think because we are now at a lower altitude than the first two days plus we ...

... might come and fix the roof, things sounded promising. Well, they haven't turned up yet. Instead, the landlord arranged for three men to come to turn the roof tiles. This involves gettingup on the rooves, and turning each and every tile. Any broken ones are uncerimoniously thrown down into the courtyard below. While these guys arrived reasonably early the first day, they sat around drinking tea and smoking before actually starting work. Then ...

... either bananna and honey pankake (more fried bread then pancake) or egg and tomato pancake!! The owner of the guest house - mama - is a real maitre de which makes everything utterly manic but really quite funny!! She seems to be obsessed with eating and believes that the english language complies of a series of words ending in ty/ey which must be repeted ie. eaty eaty breakfasty breakfasty eaty!! On our first day in Lijiang we wondered round the maze of the town and ...

So, we had a taste of the outdoors from Dali and so it was that we headed for Lijiang which is a base for lots of fun in the mountains. High on Jen Ab's and my list of "must do" was Tiger Leaping Gorge. (The other 2 didn't fancy it beacuse the LP says it can be a touch sketchy at this time of year - pah!) It's a well known trek along, you guessed it.. a gorge, which takes 2 days or so. It was absolutely fantastic, although the weather was really hot so we ...

... but were lucky to make it at all with the mini bus driver confusing the winding narrow roads of Yunnan for the streets of Monaco during the grand prix, a simple mistake I'm sure anyone could have made. We checked in with Margo, an Australian who owns a little guest house at the start of the gorge, and she gave us some info and maps for the trail as well as the sound advice of applying plenty of sun screen since it was already hot plus we were at altitude ...

... called Qiaotou Village where the trek begins. The 2 day hike had some spectacular scenery due to the shear size and scale of the surrounding mountains. As we ascended from Qiaotou and approached the famous 24 bends (although it's more like 34, and they were steep) the snow capped peaks opposite Jade Mountain came into view and appeared to follow us along the whole trek. We ...

... photos of the Jade Mountain, we spent most of our time getting lost in the old town. Imagine the cobbled streets of Wetherfield, multiplied by 100 (no exaggeration), reduced to accommodate the size of an average Chinese person filled with 3000 Chinese tourists. There are no real landmarks and the cracks between the roof tops bearly show the daylight. All we needed now was David Bowie. Just when you think you've seen it all the evenings spark into ...

... But what really upsets Katie is that Todd has vomited generously inside the room. On our blankets and floor. It's highly amusing for us blokes anyway and a fantastic grande finale. Some people hike further still taking small boats across the now much wider Yangtze river. We are content with having seen the best of it and rather than walk back the same way, opt for the minibus that follows the lower trail. Thereby seeing Tiger Leaping Gorge from both perspectives. Next ; Hells Bells