Lijiang, World Heritage Site or Tourist trap?

We left Dali on the 7.30am bus which was to take 3 hours to reach Lijiang, the next main town on the Yunnan tourist trail. On the way the bus stopped at a strange jewellery superstore, a large room nearly as big as an exhibition hall filled with nothing but jewellery shops, mostly selling expensive jade (that we could n't afford  - some were selling for upwards of 20000 pounds).

local outfit-naxi tribe

On the way it started raining and throughout the whole day it just did n't stop, it was a really miserable day. The town itself consists of new buildings that have been built in the old style (which is very charming) but is ultimately a fake. The old town consists of hundreds of shops selling souvenirs, such as furs, yak meat , and general nik naks.

morning sleepy head

We managed to find some medicine for altitude sickness in preparation for our trip into mountain. We hope to take the overland route to Sichuan which goes over 4000 metres in altitiude. We only stayed here for 1 night, as we planned to head northwards the following morning to Tiger Leaping Gorge. In order to stay warm enough, Jon has had to buy a new jacket, we managed to bargain the sellers down to a tenner, which is a very good price.

We happened to run into an Israeli girl that we met in Laos (many many moons ago!), so we arranged to meet in the eve and ning. Unfortuantely the meeting place, Mama Naxis guesthouse proved impossible to find so we gave up headed home for the night.

town

town 3

town2