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<\/a>April 3rd: The air was very bad so we stayed inside until we flew to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, where we met up with our travel companions from France, Danielle, Patrick, and Claudine. \u00a0 We arrived late and just checked into our hotel, Expo Garden Hotel, said hello to our companions and headed off to bed.<\/p>\nApril 4th we had an extensive breakfast at the hotel’s wonderful breakfast buffet, before meeting our driver who drove us to the Stone Forest for a day of wandering around these spectacular karst formations of limestone pinnacles.\u00a0 As usual it was extremely crowded. We hired a guide who was from the Yi ethnic minority.\u00a0 She was dressed in the traditional Yi clothing and only spoke Mandarin.\u00a0 The things she was saying were nonsense anyway about what kinds of things the formations looked like and silly legends.\u00a0 After leaving Stone Forest our driver was very recalcitrant and tried to tell us he couldn’t drive us anywhere else.\u00a0 We demanded, however, that he drive us back to Kunming to the Ethnic Minority Museum.\u00a0 We got stuck in some horrific traffic though due to a man in cardiac arrest on the side of the road, and only arrived with 30 minutes to explore this wonderful museum.\u00a0 While wandering the open hallways I found a beautiful Common Hoopoe perched in a tree just feet away.\u00a0 There was much to see but soon the museum closed and we had to leave.\u00a0 Next we walked around Dian Chi, a large lake in Kunming. \u00a0 We had an uninspired dinner at some Muslim restaurant near the Garden Expo Hotel before heading off to bed.<\/p>\n
April 5th we again had a huge breakfast at the Garden Expo Hotel of dumplings, noodles, hot buns, you name it, before meeting\u00a0 a new driver for the duration of the trip, Mr. Ma, who picked us up at the Expo and drove us for eight hours to Li Jiang.\u00a0 Li Jiang is at 7500 feet and home to the Naxi ethnic minority.\u00a0 Mr. Ma was an excellent driver and provided ongoing commentary about the surroundings.\u00a0 We were hungry and so we had to stop at a rest stop for dinner.\u00a0 It was very unsanitary and I was afraid to eat.\u00a0 They only had Dali beer which was so bad and was only 3% alcohol, hardly worth the calories.<\/p>\n
In Li Jiang we stayed first at the Yonsamity Hotel in Old Town.\u00a0 After walking from the road to the hotel which was tucked inside the maze of narrow cobblestone roads that make up the quaint old town, we walked up a hill for a view of the city with its lovely tiled roofs framed by the mountains. Then we walked the cobblestone roads of old town admiring the tiled roofs, excellent woodwork of the buildings, and the old waterwheel, a World Heritage Site.\u00a0 Soon the sun set and the ugly side of old town took over with crowded noisy bars overflowing with noisy tourists blaring competing music across narrow passageways. We had a great dinner of local fish in a hot pot while the others had yak meat and also had excellent Tibetan beer before we decided to retire for the night to our great hotel.\u00a0 The hotel was a refurbished old house well equipped with modern bathroom fixtures and amenities.\u00a0 The whole town of Li Jiang is surrounded by snowy mountains.\u00a0 It’s a beautiful old town that no one knew about until an earthquake in the 1980s brought relief workers to help out.\u00a0 After seeing how beautiful it was the quaint undiscovered little town of ethnic minorities had been discovered and became almost overnight a major tourist destination.<\/p>\n
April 6th we checked out of Yonsamity and drove three kms to La Shi Lake which the guide book said was beautiful.\u00a0 I thought we would be hiking above the lake for great views but when we arrived we were told our only choices were to ride a horse or kayak the lake. We did not want to ride horses so we chose the kayaks.\u00a0 Walking was not allowed. We got our kayaks but there was nowhere to go and not much to see.\u00a0 It was also windy and unpleasant.\u00a0 There were a few Red-billed Gulls on the lake and that was it.\u00a0 We had hot pot lunch near the lake and left.\u00a0 Next we went to the ridiculous Romance Park, which used to be a real Na Xi village but had been torn down to build a fake one instead.\u00a0 The whole park was made to look like Disney Land.\u00a0 I hated it.\u00a0 We walked around for a while and then we went inside this giant auditorium to watch a show which was ridiculous and kind if like Shen Yun in that it told the story of China with dancers and flashy outfits.\u00a0 Everyone was filming it with their phones but when I pulled out my Video camera I got yelled at in Chinese.\u00a0 We left the park after the show ended and I was glad.\u00a0 I don’t recommend it.\u00a0 The park was hideous except that it is surrounded by the beautiful Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.<\/p>\n
After leaving the first old town of\u00a0 Li Jiang we moved to the second Ancient Town, Shu He, where we stayed at the River Hotel.\u00a0 This part of Li Jiang is much quieter.\u00a0 We hiked high above the town amidst the Tibetan prayer flags for more great views of the surrounding mountains and the old town of Shu He.\u00a0 Afterwards we walked over a 500 year old well polished marble bridge in town.<\/p>\n
The next day we drove a short distance to Black Dragon Pond Park.\u00a0 You see the picture of the pond framed by Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in all the guidebooks.\u00a0 This is a must see place.\u00a0 It was truly wonderful to walk around.\u00a0 Although there are few untamed places not trammeled by the multitudes this park at least was full of trees and birds.\u00a0 We stopped at the Longevity Park for tea and nearby some old people were dancing in the streets.\u00a0 The Naxi have lived in this area for 800 years.\u00a0 First they were conquered by Kubla Khan.\u00a0 He left and later they were dominated by the Han people who make up 90% of the Chinese people today.\u00a0 But the Naxi minority still thrives today in small numbers in Li Jiang still wearing their traditional dress and practicing their old ways.\u00a0 The Na Xi had a deep connection to nature and some of it showed in this terrific little park.<\/p>\n
The next day we left Li Jiang and drove a winding road that climbed into the mountain high above Jin Sha Jiang, Gold Sands River, the headwaters of the Yangtze River.\u00a0 The road had commanding views of these upper stretches of the Yangtze.\u00a0 Our destination was Lugu Lake at 9800 feet, a beautiful subalpine lake that closely resembled Lake Tahoe.\u00a0 The lake is the second deepest in China at 45 meters deep.\u00a0 It is 2600 meters and is framed by Lion Mountain (Gemu) at 3784 meters.\u00a0 The lake separates Yunnan Province from Sechan.\u00a0 Below the overlook you could see the tiny village of Da Lo where we would stay the next two nights while exploring the lake. \u00a0 The village is an old Mosuo village, another of Yunnan’s 50 ethnic minorities.\u00a0 We had a fantastic dinner of local fish in a hot pot made right at the table with local vegetables picked from the mountainside.<\/p>\n
In the morning everyone gets up early hoping to get postcard pictures of the sun rising over the lake. \u00a0 It wasn’t that great when we were there.\u00a0 We then started our tour around the lake.\u00a0 We went to Acacia Village Temple, a Buddhist temple.\u00a0 The Mosuo were not Buddhists; Buddhism was introduced to them by the Tibetans who are very nearby.\u00a0 We also went to the Magpie Bridge before taking a ski lift up Gemu to the summit at 11,000 feet.\u00a0 Mosuo are the only matriarchal society left in the world.\u00a0 They don’t believe in marriage.\u00a0 But at the top of Gemu is a cave\u00a0 where they would go to have romantic encounters.\u00a0 There were monkeys at the summit who had obviously been accepting illegal treats from the tourists.\u00a0 One of them attacked Danielle.<\/p>\n
On Sunday we had breakfast in town and the owner had made Chinese buckwheat pancakes for us. I should not have eaten the whole thing.\u00a0 She made them way bigger than we were expecting big enough to share between four people.\u00a0 Later I felt sick and was not able to eat lunch and Jie got very sick that night with food poisoning. \u00a0 We left the lake and drove back to Li Jiang to the third old town, Ba Sha.\u00a0 Our first stop was the Bai Sha Museum which had 14th Century frescoes from the Ming Dynasty. The museum was framed by Snow Mountain and the courtyard had a 500 year old Fern Leaf Willow and a 460 year old Ginko Biloba.<\/p>\n
we went to Tiger Leaping Gorge which was a huge disappointment.\u00a0 It had a wooden staircase down to the gorge that was full of tourists and trash in the water.\u00a0 There were people there who would carry you down on a cart if you couldn’t make it.\u00a0 On the other side of the gorge was a great looking trail that was empty and looked fabulous.\u00a0 Why couldn’t we have gone there?\u00a0 We left the gorge and had lunch and some great buckwheat tea in town.<\/p>\n
Next we drove a very long way to Shangri la (Xianggelila).\u00a0 It is very beautiful there.\u00a0 I enjoyed this part of the trip the most.\u00a0 On the way we traveled over a highway high above the Yangzi River with commanding views of it.\u00a0 We stopped and had lunch across from the river.\u00a0 They pulled a fish out of a tub and scaled and gutted it right there and also decapitated a chicken from the yard.\u00a0 Finally after eight hours of driving we came to the magnificent Lugu Lake where we stayed for three nights.\u00a0 The lake is a spectacular blue color and has an island in the middle of it.\u00a0 On one side is Yunnan and the other is Sichuang (where they eat incredibly hot food).\u00a0 One day we took a walk over the Walking Marriage Bridge and also had lunch in Sichuang.\u00a0 Mostly we took incredible pictures of the beautiful lake.\u00a0 We stayed at a lodge next to the lake and had a very tasty meal one night in town.\u00a0 We sat around a table with a steam pot in the middle.\u00a0 We picked out vegetables from the fridge and they steamed them in the bowl along with a fish fresh from the lake.\u00a0 It was delicious.\u00a0 The morning we left Lugu Hu we had a lady make us fresh shougum pancakes.\u00a0 She made them much larger than we were expecting.\u00a0 I should not have eaten the whole thing as I felt sick later after we left Lugu Hu.<\/p>\n
We drove a very long way to Dukezong in Xianggelila (Shangri-La)\u00a0 We climbed up 10,000 to get there and as we approached the wooden houses built by the Tibetans became larger and larger.\u00a0 As Shangri la borders Tibet there is a heavy Tibetan influence in this area set aside by the Chinese government to appease the Tibetans in China.\u00a0 After checking into the Blossom Hill Inn in the middle of Dukezong I headed for a walk around town where I saw some interesting birds on a lake.\u00a0 When the sun went down we took a stroll around town to a small monastery in the middle of town that has the largest prayer wheel in the world, Guishan Park.\u00a0 It is lit up at night and has great views around Shangri-La.\u00a0 If several people work together they can get the wheel moving.<\/p>\n
The next day we headed out of town to China’s first National Park, Potatso National Park.\u00a0 It was April so things had not started to bloom and it was still brown and not green like you see in the photos.\u00a0 However, it was a very beautiful park full of wild horses and yaks.\u00a0 Most of the park is only accessible by the park bus.\u00a0 They will let you get out at specific stops and walk on boardwalks only.\u00a0 The park reminded me of Denali except for the prohibition against walking around.<\/p>\n
The next day our driver, Mr. Ma, drove us to Songzhanlin Scenic Spot and Gamden Sumtseling Monastery.\u00a0 The monastery, a 500 year old Yellow Sect Buddhist Tibetan, is the second largest Tibetan monastery in the world and is known as Little Potola.\u00a0 It was huge and spectacular.\u00a0 The rooms were elaborately decorated with beautiful paintings and gold buddas everywhere.\u00a0 The rooms said to remain silent and respectful but as with every tourist spot in China there were tour guides with loudspeakers blaring out their commentary inside the prayer rooms, very annoying and disrespectful.\u00a0 After visiting the rooms and watching a monk bang on a drum while intermittently checking his cell phone, we headed to the Lamuzin Zhou Wetland Refuge.\u00a0 The gigantic monastery was reflecting in the wetland making for some spectacular photos.\u00a0 There were a lot of birds and ducks and unlike most of China it was very peaceful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We arrived in Beijing on April 1st and after eating some really bad food at the Shanghai Restaurant in the Food Court, we went for a walk up Chang An Da Jie just to try to stay awake and get on China time. April 2nd: We had lunch at a fancy old Beijing restaurant known for its Beijing Caw Ya (Roasted Duck).\u00a0 It is one of the few restaurants I encountered in China that served organic vegetables.\u00a0 Afterwards we went to the Summer Palace, where we spent the rest of the day exploring. The air quality had become very bad and was at 254 (over 60 is bad for your health) and as everywhere in China, it was extremely crowded. We had an enjoyable time though walking around the lake which the emperor had made for his own enjoyment, and admiring the 17th century architecture. When it got late we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":856,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-858","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/858\/revisions\/865"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}