Exploring Southwest China

  Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-la, China
Saturday, February 24, 2007

Traveling from Hanoi to Kunming

bus ride to kunming

traveled for close to 24 hrs from Hanoi to KM. took a 9.5 hr train ride from Hanoi to Lao Cai. then crossed the Viet-China border by foot. followed by 11 hr bus ride from He Kou to KM. my bums were really sore from sitting down so long. luckily, i had some nice company in the form of a Jap student who sat beside me on the bus. he's called song tian (chinese translation) and is doing his uni internship in the consulate office in Shen Yang, China. i seriously tot that he's a local cos he can speak Chinese very fluently and with an accent. in fact, he was sharing that in terms of conversation ability, he's best in japanese, followed by mandarin and english. it was interesting to hear about his 2 aims in life, which were to travel the world and to set up a family. think he's quite wise for his age, which i think should be in the early - mid twenties. on the bus, there was only 1 other foreigner, a French lady called nadia.

Kunming Day 1 ~ hanging out with nadia in old streets of Kun Ming

cny bazaar

old streets of kunming

condom vending machine

smelly beancurd

noodles in special bowl

nadia improving on her chopstick skills

restaurant in old streets of KM

nadia and me

as we reached KM the previous night at 11.30pm and nadia was quite lost as she couldn't speak Mandarin at all and the locals can't really speak English. so we ended up sharing a twin rm (for S$12 per pax) at the camelia hotel (cha2 hua1 bin1 guan3).
nadia is a civil servant with the ministry of finance in france, in her early 40's, and has been traveling around asia for the past 3.5months. she has 5.5 more months to travel around asia, wow! it was nice hanging out with her. we spent half a day walking around the old streets of KM and the bird and flower market, which is closed to all traffic (including pedal bikes). we basically snacked as much as our stomachs can take - pancakes, water chestnut, guiling gao, preserved fruits, a bai zu specialty called 'grilled milk fan' which is a pastry that is made of milk and yogurt. also did some admin stuff such as buying air tix as well as other necc stuff such as sun block and batteries. it was so difficult to find good sunblock in KM. found this french brand vichy, but it costs S$50! the most common brand of sunblock is nivea, but the sun protection is not strong enough. i finally chanced upon sunplay sunblock for S$10. i was surprised that sun-block is not more commonly and cheaply available as the sun is q strong in KM. i also had a hair-cut for S$4, thou i told the hairdresser just to trim, as i still trust my regular hairdresser back in sg.

me after my haircut

also bot a light fleece jacket and tights as it was quite cold in KM (6 - 21deg, KM stands at 2000m) and i  had only brought along a thermal top as i wasn't sure whether i'll really go to China from Viet.
thanks to the recommendation of the taxi driver, we had dinner in this 100-year old restaurant, and had the local Yun Nan dish, guo qiao mi xian, which is translated to mean 'crossing bridge noodles'.

crossing bridge noodles 1

crossing bridge noodles 2

all in all, it was a pleasant day. except that the public toilets in China are atrocious! they're basically indoor pit-holes, the stench is so overpowering that i always feel nauseous when i'm using them. and always swear not to use them again and to wait to use toilet when i reach the hotel or the toilets in departmental stores.
apart from the old streets, Kun Ming is a big city with lots of buildings and departmental stores, so it wasn't really that interesting for me. 1 day is enough to explore KM unless u want to do day trips to the surroundings. 

Dali Day 1 ~ sightseeing in Dali

dali old town 1

dali old town 2

dali old town 3

view fm cafe in dali

decided to fly to Dali (S$50 incl taxes) instead of enduring another 12hr bus ride. the flight only took 1/2 hr! from the Dali airport, i had to to take a taxi and then local bus to the old town. enroute, the taxi driver was v kind and treated me to a bowl of local noodles and gave me some tips on the local foods to try. he also asked me qns about sg and my occupation. anyhow, on hindsight, i realised he had overcharged my taxi fare, but small matter lah...

youth hostel in dali

hostel room in dali

checked into the old dali inn which is under the hosteling international chain, so far this is the first hostel that i've stayed and i must say i really like such youth hostels as there's many facilities - diy washing machine, free internet access, movie screenings, in-house restaurant, bike rental and etc. there are dorm rms, single or double rms avail. i stayed in a single rm with shared bathrm for S$6.

chairlift to cangshan mountains

view fm chairlift 1

view fm chairlift 2

cangshan mountains

er hai and dali town

took a chairlift to the cangshan mtns, which is the 50km mtn range surrounding Dali. the views were really lovely fm the chairlift - with bird's eye view of the mtns, er hai lake and dali town. enroute to the old town, i also visited the black bear rearing place, which is govt owned. entrance fees is free and the guide was really good in her explanation. she then brought me to the shop inside and explained some of the products made of bear's bile (xiong dan). i bot some bear's bile teabags cos wanted to show william, who's a doc. and cynthia, who's studying TCM now.
then walked around the old town which is v beautiful with cobbled streets and old houses. Dali is also very backpackers-oriented (or commercialised) with lots of cafes, souvenir shops. there's even a street called the foreigner street (or yang2 ren2 jie1). Dali is also the home of the Bai people. did quite abit of shopping. bot a cross-stitch set, some ginger candy (local specialty) and a fake mammut soft shell jacket (S$36) as its colder here in Dali, some hand-painted t-shirts, and a chinese novel which i plan to read during the rest of my travels.

Dali Day 2 ~ attended another cooking class
i'm wearing 3 layers today and i'm still cold. went to walk around the old streets again in the morning and saw parents bringing their children to school. had breakfast of pau and soya bean milk for just S$0.30! at william's suggestion, i bot a shehe (local brand) down jacket for S$145. the down jacket comprise 80% goose feathers and is the brand used by the china everest team. the shop owner, paul, was really professional and informed me about care & maintenance of the jacket. he also passed me a couple of china outdoor newsletters and mags.

cooking class in dali 1

for lunch, i decided to try one of the local specialties, which is sour-hot er hai fish (from the er hai lake). and got the cafe owner to teach me how to cook the dish for an additional S$10. it was interesting to enter the small kitchen. the dish is q easy to cook, it basically comprise boiling the fish in water in a deep wok, then add various spices (chilli powder, salt, etc) then lower the fire so that the flavours can be absorbed by the fish (??) and then add tofu and shallots.

camelia

cooking class in dali 2

cooking class in dali 3

Lijiang Day 1 ~ walked around Lijiang old town and went for a 2-hr massage
took the 3pm bus for Lijiang and reached at 6.30pm. found accomodation at this place called A Liang guesthouse, which is a Naxi old house (with the Naxi family still living there - Lijiang is the hometown of the Naxi people who are Tibetan descendants). the room is basic but i was so thankful for the bathroom, which is spanking new!

guesthse in lijiang 1

guesthse in lijiang 2

its much colder in Lijiang, as it stands at 2,461m above sea level. i'm so glad that i bot the down jacket the previous day as it was really really cold in the morning. my nose experienced 'cold rush' a couple of times. but it got warmer as the sun came out. went for a massage at this chinese franchise called fu qiao. asked for chinese massage for 1 hr, but it became 2 hrs. anyhow, i'm v thankful for the really good massage! the massuaer also passed me some hot stones to put on my knees as she said it will help to reduce my blood clots. din do much today except to walk around the old town which is really postcard pretty! with streams, willows, narrow lanes, lanterns, stone bridges.  
took lots of pix and did lots of window shopping (only bot some handpainted tees with dongba pictograms and a chinese outdoor mag). i was glad that i din stay too long in Dali cos Lijiang is nicer! unfortunately, the old town is really congested, with lots of chinese tourists as its the chinese new year 1-week hols. but the good thing is that there are more festivities and more decorations on the streets.

lijiang old town 1

lijiang old town 2

lijiang old town 3

lijiang old town 4

lijiang old town 5

lijiang old town 6

windchimes

mahjong - fave pastime in china

also observed that china is quite enlightened in certain aspects of recycling and environmentalism. in all the cities that i've visited in china so far, the dustbins always come in pairs, 1 bin for recyclable rubbish, the other for non-recyclable rubbish. also, the shops and supermarkets in Lijiang give out thin cloth bags rather than plastic bags. but of cos, China is the 2nd largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind US.

dustbin

Lijiang Day 2 ~ cycled towards the yulong xueshan (jade dragon snow mtns)

me in my cycling gear

made-in-china bike

cycling around lijiang 1

cycling around lijiang 2

cycling roads 1

cycling roads 2

yulong xueshan 1

yulong xueshan 2

rented a mtn bike which is fake giant brand. but its not too bad as it has 3 x 8 gears. used my compass to make sure that i'm cycling in the correct general direction. its q nice to cycle on the highway as there's not too much traffic and the rds are gd. enroute, i passed by a few villages, went into one of them, bai sha village to explore. wanted to take pix but din feel comfy doing that as most of the villagers were hard at work - carrying water, firewood, construction and etc. the scenery is really nice! as i looked around, i'm surrounded by mtns, 360degrees!

naxi village 1

naxi village 2

naxi village house

plum blossoms

also visited this baisha frescos and dongba cultural centre along the way.

dongba pictogram 1

dongba pictogram 2

dongba totem

attempted to visit the village closest to the jade dragon snow mtns, called yuhu village. it was a hard climb up the slopes. i was using the lowest gear poss and at times, i had to use the technique of zigzagging instead of going straight up the slopes, as its slightly easier this way. had lunch at a restaurant near the highest elevation that i reached. a chinese guy who was also having lunch there kept looking at me and whispering something, i think he was trying to flirt with me, oh my goodness. cldn't find the village after all, anyhow i started descending and visited shuhe old town. its similar to lijiang old town but much quieter. i wandered along the streets and tried more local naxi food. got back to lijiang old town at about 5pm.

shuhe old town 1

shuhe old town 2

shuhe old town 3

shuhe old town 4

shuhe old town 5

chickpea liangfen 1

chickpea liangfen 2

grilled fish and tofu

hawker selling naxi food

view fm my usual eating place for naxi food

Lijiang Day 3 ~ r&r in Lijiang old town
dun have any plans today as i've done all that i wanted to do in Lijiang. wandered around the old town and did some last minute shopping - trinkets and scarves to bring back home to give away and a shawl for myself. spent most of the afternn chilling out in the 'nice hiking club' cafe, which is really cosy except for the 2nd hand smoke from the other cafe patrons and owner. i must have scanned through at least 15 issues of the local mag, 'outdoor exploration' and was surprised to see the extent of the outdoor adventure scene in China.
am definitely inspired!  
chatted a lil with the cafe owner who gave me some tips on brands on outdoor products in china. ferrino is v good in quality, pureland is cheap and of acceptable quality. shehe is of good quality but not gd value-for-money. he also shared that its cheapest to purchase outdoor stuff in guangzhou (vs other provinces in china) and online via taobao.com. these tips came at great timing as i had planned to purchase a gortex jacket for william and a down sleeping bag + trekking pole for myself when i get back to Kun Ming. now, i hope to order these online and ask rebecca (my MPH coursemate who lives in Shanghai) to help take delivery and then ship to me.

Northwest Yunnan Day 1 ~ trekked tiger leaping gorge and experienced my 1st motion sickness

tiger leaping gorge 1

tiger leaping gorge 2

tiger leaping gorge 4

tiger leaping gorge 3

house in tiger leaping gorge

me

me2

booked myself on a 4D3N tour to tiger leaping gorge and meili snow mountains (S$120, excl meals). was initially hesitant about going on a tour as i could have organised the treks on my own. but i wasn't prepared - din bring any of my trekking gear and also wasn't prepared to face the cold on my own. but the tour turned out to my great! the chinese tourists who went on the tour were a pleasant bunch! there were 8 of them - a couple from fujian. laowang and laocui from beijing. xiaowei and dabing from shanghai. fangfang from ha er bin. and xiaoma from beijing. i was pleasantly surprised that there were other solo travelers apart from me. fangfang and xiaoma were traveling on their own too. our tour guide, whom we call wangdao, is v knowledgable and helpful too.

rest break

rest break 2

steep climb

 

wooden bridge

emerging from the heaven ladder

sedan if you're too tired to walk

rest break 3

 

rest break 4

after a couple of hours of bus ride north, we reached tiger leaping gorge. tiger leaping gorge is the world's deepest gorge, with the deepest point at 3,000+m (or 3,900m as stated on the entrance ticket). we took a jeep to the start point of the middle part of the gorge and spent 3 hours trekking through the gorge. the scenery was just awesome! apart from the 4 fitter ones, the rest had some difficulty with the trek as half of the trek was on ascending slopes. there was even this 'heaven ladder' which is a near-vertical 30m steel ladder. some of the girls were really frightened when they climbed this ladder. the only not-so-pleasant incident today was that da bing left his camera at one of our rest stops and when he went back to retrieve the camera, he was suspicious that the horsemen took it. it turned out to be true and he paid the horseman about S$100 to get the camera back.

jin sha river

uphill trek

tibetan town

tibetan town 2

tibetan village

yue4 liang4 wan1

enroute, we also visited some other sights include the 1st bend of the yangtze river, the moon bend 'yue liang wan', which is a river the curves around a small mtn just like a crescent moon. some of the girls stopped by a rental shop to rent down jackets, the middle aged guys also purchased oxygen bottles, in preparation for the hike towards meili snow mtns the next day.   
some of us experienced slight headaches when we got off the bus at our destination for accomodation, peng2 zi3 lan2. i tot we were experiencing AMS (acute mountain sickness) but upon checking with the guide, i realised that the cause for our headache must be motion sickness as the altitude of peng zi lan was only 1,900m.

earth chickens

overload

Northwest Yunnan Day 2 ~ trekked to lookout point of meili snow mountains

meili snow mtn 2

meili snow mtn

meili snow mtn 5

meili snow mtn 3

footsteps

meili snow mtn 4

snowman

trek to meili mtn lookout

we took the bus further northwest towards meili snow mountains. started our trek at 2.30pm. some of my fellow travelers, fearing a repeat of yesterday's strenuous hike, decided to go up using 'luo zi' which is a cross-breed of horse and donkey. was told that these creatures can carry heavy loads but cannot give birth. the trek was lovely thou somewhat muddy as it was drizzling, i saw plum blossoms and bamboo and distant views of meili snow mtn along the way. we din see any other trekkers on the trail as it was the low traveling season for Yun Nan.

xiaoma

steep climb 2

tibetan memorial

wangdao and dabing

the view of meili snow mtn from the top (the lookout point) was amazing! but i wasn't extremely touched as i had seen other snow mtns. din stay long at the top as i was freezing as i din bring my down jacket to the top and was jus wearing 3 layers - thermal, thin fleece and the fake soft shell. those of us who trekked took about 4 hours for the return trek. spent the night at this place with altitude of 3,400m. it was so cold that all of us huddled around a stove of coal (which was ironically fanned using a hair dryer) to warm ourselves and to attempt to dry our wet clothes. i shared room with fangfang and xiaoma, we were so cold that we went to bed without washing face nor brushing teeth. for gg toilet in the middle of the night, we used a pail lined with plastic bag. i was a lil surprised to see that my fellow chinese travelers were as afraid/ concerned about being cold as me (if not more) as i tot they should be used to the cold since they experienced winter every year.

Northwest Yunnan Day 3 ~ visited a tibetan buddhist temple
woke up at 7.30am to see whether we can catch the sunrise over meili snow mountains. it is known to be really beautiful and there's even a term for it (ri4 zhao4 jin1 shan1). but unfortunately it was too cloudy.
we headed back towards zhongdian (aka shangri-la town). as it had been snowing the previous night, the roads were all covered in snow. yang shu, our driver had to drive at about 40km/hr. it was rather scary at times and we could feel the tires slipping.

group pix

roads covered with snow

our mini bus

stuck in snow

view fm bus

enroute we passed the white horse snow mountains lookout at 4,250m (if i remember correctly). also visited the song1 zang4 ling2 si4, a tibetan monastery and buddhist temple. saw a number of devotees prostrating themselves nearby, towards tibet. i was happy to see the 200+ steps leading to the temple and raced up it, enjoyed the heavy panting! our guide explained to us the various types of offerings to the buddhas as well as the meaning of some of the tibetan paintings on reincarnation and living life.

white horse snow mtn

white horse snow mtn 2

white horse snow mtn lookout

white horse snow mtn lookout 2

song zang lin si

some lake

was surprised to learn from my fellow chinese travelers that most chinese in china (except for tibetans) did not have any religion. the masters student from fujian was sharing with me that she thinks that only people who are not educated believe in religions. i shared my opinion that i think there must be some explanations for the amazing sights that we see everyday - mountains, rivers, the eco-system which is 100% balanced, and even human beings and animals that have such intricate designs. 
spent the night in night in shangri-la town which is not really pretty. its city-like thou not as posh as chengdu or kunming. but its definitely a tibetan town as you can see people dressed in tibetan clothings and restaurants with dried yak meat and heads hanging at the shopfront. after a group dinner (which is typically 8 dishes + rice), i spent the rest of the night watching chinese documentaries on the tibet-yunnan tea-horse trade route (such a coincidence!) and chinese singers that influenced the chinese music scene in the past 20 years. i must say that chinese documentaries are v well-made productions.   

full moon in shangri-la

Northwest Yunnan Day 4 ~ r&r in shangri-la and resolved to improve my diet

joined some in the group for breakfast, before setting off for the tibetan cultural and heritage centre, a govt-funded place. it was q educational, with a tibetan physician-in-training explaining to us the origins and constructs of tibetan medicine - which diagnoses illness based on looking at the palms (with different parts of the palm representing different body parts) as well as looking at the tongue and face. all of us had a free consultation with the visiting tibetan physician. 4 of us had the same physician and the other 3 had rather accurate diagnosis - 1 was correctly diagnosed as diabetic, another was diagnosed as amnemic and with low BP. my diagnosis was v unexpected! the physician said that i had weak internal organs and that i should start taking either western or chinese medicine, otherwise, i'll become more 'dry and yellow'. also, if i do not get treated, there's the risk of miscarriage if i were to give birth.
thou surprising, the diagnosis was not unbelievable to me as i had observed that i seem to have shrunk a lil over the past few years - i've grown thinner and my face contours had become sharper. also, being public-health trained, i knew that i more or less practised all the health-promoting behaviors except for having a good diet. i have always ate my meals as and when i'm hungry, and often ate convenient foods such as buns, instant noodles and other processed foods. i dun often take fruits and veg too, as i mostly eat hawker food, which mostly comprise carbohydrates. well, i guess this shocking diagnosis is a good motivation for me to put in more efforts in improving my diet. 
parted with the chinese travelers after the visit to the tibetan cultural centre as the tour ends in Lijiang. but i had purchased my air tix for Shangri-la to Kun Ming. i'm really glad to have met this bunch of nice people! i've definitely learnt lots from them - improved my mandarin, knowledge of chinese food, and various other titbits of info. i certainly hope to keep in touch with some of them via QQ - the chinese version of messenger.
spent the rest of the day just watching misc tv programmes in the hotel room as it was v cold in Shangri-la. i saw fm the tv weather report that the temp for Shangri-la that day was between -8 to -5deg, my gosh!

Last day in Kunming ~ consulted a TCM physician and experienced a near-accident

shangri-la airport

CEA plane

took a flight from Shangri-la to Kun Ming in the morning (S$120 incl taxes). thought of visiting Shilin, the stone forest, an attraction near Kun Ming, as my flight back to Sg was at night. but was too lazy to look for bus and etc. and i think i've seen enuff beautiful scenery. so i rented a bike and just wandered around town. looking for more gifts to buy home - managed to buy some 2008 Beijing olympics souvenirs for william's and my families.
came across the Yunnan TCM school clinic so went in for a consultation. the TCM physician told me that i was healthy except that my digestive system was rather weak partly due to genetics and partly due to my poor diet. when i told him that the tibetan physican had said that i had weak internal organs and that he had accurately diagnosed 3 among the 4 of us, he din refute the diagnosis but just said that TCM was different in that the diagnosis is done based on existing symptoms.
on my way back to the hotel, my bike crashed into the bonnet of a car. it definitely wasn't my fault as i was riding on the main road and the car came out from the side lane. but i was a lil shocked and also grateful that i wasn't hurt. the driver got down from the car and inspected the scratches to his car, and demanded that i pay him RMB100 (or S$20) for the repairs. i tried to argue that he was in the wrong, but in the end i gave in as i din want to make a scene.

Overall tots...
China is a really beautiful place though you have to travel long distances to see various sights as its such a huge country. the cultures in different regions can be very different too. in fact one of my fellow travelers commented that China should really be a few countries and that was why there was so much domestic travel within China.  
i look forward to my next trip to China, hopefully to Yading, Daocheng in Sep 08 (xiaoma had suggested that i look for pan-pan on daocheng-yading.com).

spent about S$1500 (incl intl airfare but excl warm clothings) for 2-wk stay in Yunnan.