Yuquan Hotel Lijiang

... busy thoroughfare on the fringes of what is known as the “New town”. During that time we see many examples of traditional costumes and not just amongst the older women. These are people going about their daily business, young mothers with babies on their backs or women with shopping baskets, also on their backs.

Tourism can be a blessing in terms of the money it brings but it can also damage traditional ways of life. However, I find it ...

... time.com /time/specials/packages/completelist/0, 29569,1934455,00.html

For centuries, the rocky pathway that clings to the steep sides of the
narrow Tiger Leaping Gorge in China's Yunnan ...

... 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 ...

12/9 - Lijiang old city
Lijiang: I waked up at 10:00, healthy and well. Lijiang is a magic old city - I walked in the narrow alleys, ate lunch with a chinese from Shenhai, who told me that when a couple have 2 kids, they cann't work in a government job, not to mention that the baby will receive only paid education etc.
14:00 plane to Chengdu

The previous days riding musnt have been as smooth as I had though as certain parts of me felt pretty sore. There was little we could do on these two days as we were waiting for xi's friends to arrive so they could organise the shop, the weather was terrible and Xi was feeling a little ill. We decided to leave the day after Xi's friends left, we would visit tiger leaping gorge on our return to ligiang when we fly to Xishunbana.

... told us not to go in because the monks are fortune tellers (they are the new taxi drivers aka scammers). The spot was a great place to view the river and some fields. The rest of the drive back was uneventful... Back at the hotel I have been having the opposite problem from Bill and still do... We changed for dinner and went to buy a new hair pin in order to have another demo. We taped this demo, but I am still not doing it correctly. Bill bought a ...

... find them at their best. Awfully dressed, taking every picture possible in the short scheduled time, they follow guide armed with flag and megaphone. Of course, everybody wears red or yellow hats or at least a name tag. After breakfast, we cycled to the Three Pagodas. Dating from the 9th century, they are the oldest standing structures in southwest China. The pagodas themselves were soso, but the huge temple complex behind them made up for the whopping entrance fee (we ...

... feel to it, with pretty canals flowing through and traditional stone buildings decorated with red laterns a-glowing. It really is picture postcard at night.... There is a real buzz and although a lot of tourists (and the dreaded loud-hailer toting tour groups) you can still get away from it all easily enough. For our evening meal we manage to get an outside table at a popular canalside restaraunt and order our ...

... area along with all the locals who had decided that the no-smoking signs obviously didn't apply to them. The bus journey was 8 hours into the heart of Yunnan Province and amazingly we gradually left behind the smog which had seemed omni-present throught China. On arriving in Lijiang we were met by about 15girls surrounding the bus shouting 'hotel' and 'cheap room' but a quick blast of "buenas tardes, habla espanol???" confused them for long enough for us to get our dusty bags off the top ...

... continue on in a knee wrenching climb up a narrow path of S-bends with loose material underfoot. Mark is clearly shattered now carrying a double pack. We climb again, our backs almost breaking with the effort. And collapse at the top to see a carpet of pine trees unrolling ahead of us. We are too tired to throw a celebration at conquering the 28 bends. We all sit panting for breath. Then break out the yak jerky. The Yangtze river has become a fury of white water rapids now, some 2,000 ...