Another school break and another trip. One of the advantages of living in China is there is always a school break and always an adventure to explore. This break was a trip to the Yunnan region of China. Yunnan Province is in the southwest corner of China, bordering Tibet and Vietnam. It is a mountainous region, but is known for eternal spring weather.
DAY ONE, Saturday – Shanghai to Lijiang:
A day of travel. We began by racing to the airport in the rain and the traffic. Needless to say, we were not at the airport on time due to the rain. Good thing China has a “need help†line. Need help includes children so I don’t know what we will do when our children are too old to pass for “need helpâ€. We ran to the “need help†line to bypass the long queue into security. We got to the other side just in time to board. Of course, after all the rushing, we had 4 hours to spend at the Kunming airport. It was a typical small China airport…nothing to do or eat. We “enjoyed†our KFC meal prior to sitting around for hours.
We arrived in Lijiang (elevation 7900 ft) around 4:00pm to walk around the old town. Lijiang has a great old town with bridges, canals, shops and food. One of the larger canals has small fish swimming against the current to stay in one place. The girls enjoyed watching the fish.
Our guide, Shirley, directed us to a good local restaurant. We ate like a king, a queen & princesses. Everything sounded so good that we had enough to feed another family. Jim and I had a favorite of the spicy Naxi beef. The girls are noodle lovers.
DAY TWO, Sunday – Lijiang:
The weather forecast for the entire week is rain. We had light sprinkles off and on all day. It didn’t slow us down, but it was a bit wet and damp. Our first stop of the day was to Dr. Rock’s home in the Yu Hu Village. The Yu Hu Village is located on the lower foothills of the Jade Snow Mountains. Dr. Rocks was a National Geographic botanist. He documented the Naxi people from 1922-1949. The Naxi people are a minority group in China. The largest majority group is the Han people. We were extremely lucky with our guide as she was Naxi.
Some background on the Naxi people we learned from Shirley. Traditionally, the women worked and the men stayed home with the children. However, as Shirley stated, Naxi men are lazy. They played mahjong all day. The women would come home from the fields to cook, clean and do everything. There are three religions among the Naxi people. They chose the different religions to “survive and fit in†with the other minority groups. The Naxi people do not speak Mandarin, but their own language. They also have their own written language, which is a form of pictographic. Shirley was 26 and dressed as we did. I asked Shirley at what age the change is noticed. It is the generation under the age of 35. This represents the time when the schools were reopened in China. The older generation continues to wear the traditional dress. Shirley said her Mom is 50 and prefers to wear the traditional dress. She has 3 costumes (that is all). One to wear while the other is washed/dried. I asked Shirley what her Mom thought of her dress. Her Mom thinks she dresses “Hanâ€. Shirley and her generation only wear the traditional dress for festivals. I find this interesting as seeing the traditional dress in the streets will one day be gone.
In the traditional dress, the sheepskin cape is worn to keep the women warm and for carrying the baskets for working. If the ribbon across the front of the women is crossed, she is married. The circles across the shoulder represent stars.
Next we visit the Jade Peak Temple. The Temple was 300 hundred years old. It was a Buddhist temple. At the temple, is a Camellia tree, which is 500 years old. The interesting fact of the tree is the man that cares for it. He is 91 years old. He was sent by the government at the age of 19 to care for the tree. This man has spent his entire life at this temple caring for a tree.
Our next stop was to walk though a Naxi village. At one house, Shirley asked if we could come into their courtyard. The homes are built in a square with a center courtyard. The elders will live in one home and the younger generation in another. In traditional style, the animals were kept on the second floor. This family had their animals on the ground floor. This family had a HUGE pig.
The women gave the girls peanuts and oranges. She invited us into her kitchen. Her kitchen has a big wood-burning stove with two large iron bowls for cooking. She had no refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker or anything that plug into a wall.
The girls had fun playing in the village, collecting sticks and seeing the difference in lifestyle.
After this stop, we went back to the old town for lunch as it was late and we were hungry. We walked around old town before enjoying a traditional dance show nearby. The girls enjoyed all the dancing and costumes. After the show, the girls took pictures with the performers…once everyone got done taking pictures of them!!
DAY THREE, Monday – Lijiang:
It was a beautiful day in Lijiang. We met with Shirley to walk to the Black Dragon Pool just outside of the Old town. The legend of the Black Dragon Pool is that the Black Dragon lives below the waters. The people pray to the Black Dragon so he will not flood the land. Well, this opened up an entire list of questions for a 4 year old!! Is he down there now? Will he come up? Can we see him? Is he really black? Etc.
The Black Dragon Pool is a large lake in a park setting. It was beautiful with the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rising above. It would be similar to the beauty of Central Park. The girls had so much fun playing, running, jumping and crossing every bridge possible. We walked around the lake, visited a Naxi museum and enjoyed the people.
After the park, we walked back to Old Town. Shirley took us to the local market where she shops. It was MUCH bigger than our local market. It had everything. The girls got a bag of homemade potato chips. On the way back we purchased cowgirl hats for the girls for 10 rmb ($1.50) each. Sounded like a bargin to me, as I know the girls would wear them on our next adventure.
Since it was a beautiful day, the Naxi and other minority groups were in the square dancing. These dancers were all older people. Shirley had said they enjoy dancing and no longer need to work. It is a social gathering for them.
After watching the dancing, we went to a traditional tea tasting shop. We all sat around the big table trying various teas. We purchased a few of the local teas. We finished the day with last minute shopping, good pizza and hanging a wish on the wishing house (that is what Elle called it).
DAY FOUR, Tuesday – Leaping Tiger Gorge:
Our adventure trip to Leaping Tiger Gorge (elevation 6500 ft). The Gorge is believed to be the deepest gorge in the world and is the headwaters of the Yangtze River. This trip to the Yunnan area was the hardest trip I have planned. We need drivers and guides at each different city. I talked to everyone I knew that had done this trip. NO ONE took their children across the Gorge. So, we thought we would be the first…if the 4 year old can do it, anyone can do it. Leaping Tiger Gorge is a 30-kilometer (18 mile) hike. We arranged for each girl to have a horse. A guide walks with the horse leading the horse along the trail.
We began hiking around 10:15am once we arrived at the Gorge. After the first 500 meters, we began our climb up. We arrived at the Naxi Guest House for lunch around noon. The girls loved the horse riding and Jim and I loved the hike. The Gorge is very beautiful with the Snow Jade Mountain. We meet another Family at lunch. They were German with an almost 6 and 8 year old girls. They had horses for their girls, also. After a quick meal of local stir-fry pork, we set off.
The next part of the trail was the hardest as we climbed up to the “28 bendsâ€. The 28 bends are documented as the toughest part of the trail. The 28 turns are 1.5 miles of switchbacks. The 28 bends are quite known, however, the 20 bends prior to the 28 bends are not mentioned. Jim was carrying his backpack with the families needs for the night. When we reached the 28 bends, he passed it off to Elle’s horse. At the top of the bends, you can step out on a rock and look down on the river and across the mountains. When you look down on the Yangtze River, you can see the big flat rock in the river that a tiger jumped across escaping from hunters…therefore, the name of Leaping Tiger Gorge.
The girls learned all about leaning forward as the horse went up and leaning back when going down hill. They had big smiles all day long. I was thinking the last time I took the girls horseback riding in Colorado, it cost me $110 for 1 hour. This is costing me 300 rmb ($45) for both horses for ALL day.
We arrived at the Tea Horse Guest House around 4:00 pm. The horse guides were telling us (well, Jim in Chinese) they could not go with us tomorrow unless we stayed at the Halfway Guest House. The Halfway Guest House was another hour away. That was not the problem, it was that we booked this trip through a travel agent and everything was prepaid. We called back to Shanghai and the usually Chinese answer of “not possibleâ€. By this time the German family arrived. The head horseman also arrived to collect funds from the us and the German family. The two families were all coordinating for the next day. From my knowledge of Chinese, I got the understanding this man would send two horses for us and two horses for the German family. Done.
We spent the later afternoon sitting on the end of the cliff visiting with other packers…mostly young kids backpacking though Asia. It was a beautiful view with the Jade Snow Mountain rising high above us.
The four girls were all playing together as they were staying here also. The girls found the two puppies that lived at the Guesthouse. They were cute, but the dirtiest little puppies as I am not sure what color they were suppose to be. The four girls decided to wash them…so they could go roll in the dirt wet. Elle’s shirt was black as she carried the puppies and rolled on the ground with them. Since this was a backpacking trip, she had a clean shirt for tomorrow, but would be wearing the dirty jeans again!!
We had hot showers in our room prior to dinner. I was concerned the hot water would run out as more packers were coming in for the night. We had nice, basic rooms with a bathroom. We paid for the high-end rooms (with a toilet & a shower) at 160 rmb ($25). We had a delicious cooked meal of stir-fried pork, Naxi bread, fried rice and some noodles. We were all in bed by 8:30.
DAY FIVE, Wednesday – Leaping Tiger Gorge to Zhongdian:
The next morning, we had banana and apple pancakes before we began our journey. Jim informed me the German family left, as they had no horses. They were going to walk the hour to the Halfway Guest House to try to pick up a couple of horses. I asked Jim what happened. He said, the horseman said he would not provided horses, but arrange with the owner of the Tea Horse Guest House. Well, my lack of Chinese did not get that at all. Luckily, Jim’s Chinese is much better and he arranged with the owner. The German girls are much tougher than mine. Our girls would have walked the hour, but there would have been a bit of complaining to go with the walk.
On today’s hike, the girls did need to get off the horse a couple times as it was not safe for them to ride. We were hiking along the cliff canyon. We even hiked through a waterfall. The Gorge was the highlight of the trip for the whole family.
Once we hiked out, we had lunch at Tina’s Guesthouse. We meet up with three young backpackers (26 in age) from Ireland. We needed to arrange a van out of the Gorge back to the bridge. We shared the cost with them. Once we arrived back to the bridge, our driver met us with the rest of our luggage. Our next stop was Zhongdian (Shangri-la). The Irish packers were going to catch a bus to Shangri-la. We offered them a ride with us. There were three of them, so we just fit in our van. The girls really enjoyed have young fun kids in the car. They were all friends, two women and a man. They were all on different travel schedules, but met up with each other in different countries. They had been packing for 10 months. They did comment that their money went a long way in China. They stayed at the Tea Horse Guesthouse, also. They were saying their room was 60 rmb for the night. If they wanted a toilet/bathroom, it would cost 160 rmb…that was an expensive toilet to them…they went with the public squatty potty.
When we arrived at our hotel in Zhongdian – also known as Shangri La (elevation 10, 800 ft) around 5:00pm, our new guide, Tsering, met us. He took the Irish packers to old town to find a hotel. Emmy wanted to know why they were not staying at our hotel. We told her they were on a different budget than ours!!
After a hot shower, we had dinner at the hotel. We need to repack our dirty stuff from our hike and enjoy a little down time. We turned on our portable dvd player for the girls. It was the first time they watched tv since we departed Shanghai.
DAY SIX, Thursday – Zhongdian:
We are still in China, but it feels more like Tibet. Many of the people don’t speak Mandarin. Last night when we drove over the horizon, the homes changed. Everything is Tibetan style. My favorite thing about the homes is the big cotton/yak blankets over the doors and windows. It really keeps the cold out. Maybe that is what I need in California, skip the curtains!!
We started the day with a Buddhist Monastery, Song Zan Lin Temple. Several hundred monks live in the 300-year-old monastery. At one area of the Monastery, we watch children in their morning prayer. The children ranged in age from about 8 to 18 years old. Tsering told us the children would sit and pray for 2 hours each morning. I know our children would have a hard time sitting that long praying!!
It had been snowing prior to our arrival. I made the girls put on about 5 layers as we only had light wind jackets. I also made them put long johns on so their legs would be warm. As we were walking around the Monastery, the clothes started to come off, as it was a beautiful day. They all went in my backpack. I guess it was my fault for dressing them for snow. We got this fun pictures of the girls in front of the Monastery. Of course, it was for a fee, but Jim negotiated it for cheaper.
We headed to Old Town to walk through the town to a temple. The Old Town was nice, but not as fun or exciting as Lijiang. The temple had a big prayer wheel. The girls had fun pushing the prayer wheel. The locals jumped in to push with the girls.
Next we had local Tibetan food. The meat is either yak or pork meat. Yak tastes like beef, but leaner. I didn’t know that Yak could only live at higher altitudes and in the cold. In the summer, the yaks are moved up the mountain. The girls enjoyed pizza with yak cheese and yak meat. We tried the local favorite of Yak butter tea. We all decided it was yuk! It tasted like drinking butter. We gave the tea to our driver and guide.
Next we drove to the Nixi Village that makes a special black pottery. The pottery is used for tea, cooking soup, etc. Tsering took us to a local makers home. It was fun to see a local Tibetan home. Each home has a temple within the house. We purchased a soup pot for 25rmb ($3.5), a small teapot for 30rmb ($4.5) and a couple of ashtrays for 25rmb ($3.5) each.
Next, we drove back to Old Town. We did a little shopping before dinner. Tsering had ordered local hot pot for us as it takes an hour to cook. The food comes in a tureen shaped volcano bowl with veggies, noodles, yak and pork. It was one of the best meals we had. It was a bit spicy. Emmy has learned to love good spicy food. And, Elle is still learning. The night of Jim drinking beers and our hot pot cost all of 160rmb ($24).
After dinner, we headed over to the square to see the dancing. The dancing was different here than Lijiang. In Lijiang, it was only the older people dancing in their traditional dress. Here the older and younger generations were dancing. Only the older generation had on the traditional dress. We gave Emmy the camera to take photos. We realized we should have done this earlier as everyone smiled for her.
We left Old Town to drive to our new hotel. We decided to enjoy the last two nights at the Banyan Tree Ringah (elevation 12, 000 ft). Most of our friends had stayed here, as it is more remote for the kids to enjoy the river. It was another 500 meters (1, 000 feet) higher than Shangri La. The Banyan Tree was old Tibetan homes moved together to create the Lodge. We had a very spacious room/house. I was going to have my own bed with Jim, again. When traveling in rural china, the rooms are set up for 3…2 adults and ONE child, usually in 3 twin beds. The rooms are small so an extra bed is not an option. I have had the pleasure of sleeping with Elle in a twin bed…she is still small enough to be tumbleweed!! The girls enjoyed a bath in the round tub prior to going to bed.
DAY SEVEN, Friday – Zhongdian:
Elle woke up vomiting. She was not sick and would be happy to continue to run around after vomiting. The last 1, 000 feet did her in for altitude sickness. We all had done well until this point. Both Jim and I had mild headache when we arrived to Shangri-la, but gone by the morning. As the day went on, she got worse and more run down. Jim, Emmy and I played a Chinese game all morning.
Jim decided to walk to the near village and temple. The woman in the photo was sitting in front of her house, braiding small pieces of cotton and yak hair to make a horse bridle.
When Jim got back, Emmy and Jim went down to the river. I sat on the porch talking to my friend, Mary, and watching them walk all around.
Elle slept for about 2 hours. She did not get to enjoy the Banyan Tree. We took Elle to dinner that night where she had soup and ginger tea. Ginger tea is good for altitude sickness.
DAY EIGHT, Saturday – Zhongdian to Shanghai:
We were up early as we had an 8:50 flight back to Shanghai with a stop in Kumning, again. We woke to snow covering the ground. It was very pretty to see the river and fields covered in snow.
Up early to hang for four hours at the Kumning airport, again. Elle was no longer vomiting but lacked energy from not eating for 24 hours. Upon arrival in Kunming, we decided the girls could have another Western meal of KFC. We had plenty of time to “enjoy†our KFC!! The girls are good travelers. Airport sitting is part of the adventures…and gameboy DS’s are small enough to fit in my backpack!!
Once on the plane, Emmy said her tummy hurt. It was down hill from there. She began vomiting. She got a touch of food poisoning from KFC. We eat local food all week in places you really don’t want to know what the kitchen looks like and she gets sick at KFC!! We used all our bags in our row for the flight to Shanghai. Elle was grumpy and needy from being sick. Needless to say, it was nice to get home.
In all, it was a great trip to Yunnan region in China. The girls loved the adventure. They became masters of the squatty potty. We enjoyed all the local food and flavors. The girls said they would love to do it again – so much for cushy beach holidays!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.