Shangrila

Yes, there is a Shangri La, but it is not exactly the same place that James Hilton wrote of in his book Lost Horizon.  The book is a short, enjoyable read; or at least I enjoyed it when I read it in High School.  Hilton had never been to Tibet.  He based his descriptions on articles from the National Geographic magazine.  Don’t miss the classic movie with Sam Jaffee as the High Lama.  One of the places apparently described in the National Geographic was the town of Zhongdian.  There is a very large Buddhist monestary just outside of town.  For obvious marketing reasons, Zhongdian was re-named Shangrila.  It is in Yunnan province but close to the border of Tibet.  Historically the town had been part of Tibet.  There are many Tibetan people, as well as other minority groups.  See http://wikitravel.org/en/Zhongdian#b for more detailed information.

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At the moment, it is not possible for foreigners to travel overland into Tibet unless you are with an organized tour.  So, this region provides a way to see Tibet without the expense of such a tour.  Shangrila is at an altitude of 3000 meters.  Yesterday, I was feeling the altitude (or maybe MSG in my lunch); today is better.  Key symptoms are fatigue and mental confusion.  Yesterday, I went with a group of Chinese students to Pudacuo National Park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pudacuo_National_Park where a bus takes you to Bita Hai (Lake) at 3500 meters.  Cans of oxygen are sold but only a few people actually need this.  The views were good but perhaps not worth the steep 190 kuai admission price ($32).

Today, I think I will visit the Songzanlin Monastery, a short public bus ride from town.  Trying also to find time to continue to study my Chinese.  Some days I speak well; some days not.

In a couple of days I plan to go on to Deqin where the trekking is supposed to be very good.  It is quite near the border with Tibet.  It is hard to escape some discussion of the Tibet issue.  Hawaii provides a very close parallel to Tibet.  Native Tibetans are a minority in Tibet just as native Hawiians are a minority in Hawaii.  There is a movement in Hawaii to restore the monarchy.  The story of the US occupation of Hawaii is deeply tragic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii).  Yet, how many Americans would support Hawaiin autonomy?  Very difficult issues.

From Dequin I plan to work my way towards Chengdu.

The bus trip from Dali to Shangrila was absolutely beautiful.  Mountains, farmland, yak, Tibetan style houses, lots of climbing on narrow roads.  My stay in Dali was wonderful.  Very laid-back environment.  The Lily Pad hostel provided a nice family away from home.  I managed to discover two vegetarian restaurants.  You can have a look at my reviews:  http://www.happycow.net/reviews.php?id=32441 and http://www.happycow.net/reviews.php?id=32442.  You need to page down below the restaurant descriptions to see the reviews.

Israeli followers of my blog; may be interested in knowing that Shangrila is crowded with Israeli tourists.  I think there is more Hebrew spoken on the streets here than English.  I don’t know why.  I haven’t particularly noticed this in other places in Southern China.

Erhai

Yesterday I rented a bike and rode along Erhai, literally, “Ear Lake”, named for its shape.  The road is new asphault and very smooth.  I rode north so the lake was on my right.  Where there is land between road and lake, it is used for rice, corn, and other crops.  The lake is marshy at the edge.  Across the lake you can see mountains.  On the left are fields; again, mostly rice and corn.  In the distance is Cangshan, the mountains I visited the other day.

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Each time you pass through a village, the asphault road ends, and you are winding through narrow streets with high white walls on either side.  The walls are freshly painted and in good condition.  They often have caligraphy or pictures drawn on them.  You don’t see a lot of people.  Much of life goes on inside the walls.  This area is the home of the Bai minority.  People often do wear their native dress.  When school let out in one village, there was a flood of kids… all wearing uniforms.  Kids in Yunnan, and probably most of China, wear uniforms that are specific to the school.  Most kids, on seeing a foreigner, will say “hello”.  They all study English in school, starting very early.  There is a lot of building activity along the lake.  Much of the construction is done by elderly women, well covered, wearing wide straw hats against the sun.  Many more women doing construction than you would find in the US.

On my left, I see rows of women bent over, working side by side in the rice paddies.  Now this looks like hard work.  They smile and wave when they see me.

I went for the more expensive bike rental, but bike quality is still pretty poor.  From talking with others, this seems to be a general problem.  By the time I got back, there was a loud banging noise coming from somewhere.  Happy I didn’t find out what the cheaper bike was like.

Finally found a real vegetarian restaurant. A little pricier than I like… but food was excellent… atmosphere was Zen… waitress was sort-of California-Chinese… I never heard a Chinese person speak so flowy-groovy. Had sizzling tofu with wood ear… and a fresh orange juice… really fresh… was great.

Cloud Pass

Cloud Pass is a 13km ridge cut into the side of Cangshan Mountain (see previous post) at an altitude of about 2400M.  I accessed the ridge via the Gantong Cableway on the left side of the map (cost about $8 US one way).

You climb long steps up from the cableway station to the path, but once there, the path is quite level; very easy walking.  The walkway is about two meters wide and is constructed from neatly laid granite blocks.  There is pine forest above and below; pine cones are quite large.  Much of the walk provided great views of a canyon below.  Unfortunately, the Seven Dragon pool was a bit low on water due to the drought; and there was construction, so not as attractive as it might have been in other times. 

The park is beautifully maintained; paid from the $5 admission charge to enter the area.  The walkway itself, carved into the mountain, is a marvel, but more so is the stairway leading down to the ‘movie set’ (‘movie set’ described in Cangshan Mountain post).  The stairway is 2.5km long, winding down in flights of seven or eight steps between landings.  It is built from the same stone blocks of the path but is inlaid with smooth gray rock near the edges.  Amazing to walk such a well constructed stairway all the way down the mountain.  The walk itself is not quite as scenic as the cableway to the top of Cangshan but the ease of the path makes it a very nice hike.  When I got up to the pass, I discovered that I had forgotten to put the SD-card back in the camera.  Fortunately my friend Tobias had been there several weeks ago so I’m using one of his pictures.

I badly needed a restroom when I got to the top of the top station of the Gantong cableway.  Fortunately there was one… unfortunately, it was the first time I had to use a public trench toilet (with ‘public’ being the operative word).  Just a tiled trench that you straddle while you squat with a bunch of other people.  Did not squat quite a low as others as I was a bit fearful of falling over backward.  Of course, you must bring your own paper.  Sorry, no picture.  Didn’t think about it until too late.

Yesterday I spent most of the day reviewing my Chinese.  Being out and around for a couple of days highlighted some linguistic weaknesses… so I thought it would be a good idea to work on them.  Had a nice dinner in a local restaurant.  Mushroom, tofu, squash, and potato roasted on skewers with a big bottle of Dali beer ($1.75 US for all).  Sorry, didn’t remember to take photo until food was half eaten.

Passing by the local movie theater I saw that they were showing a free movie outside.  There was a pretty good crowd on benches, and I joined them.  Chinese film noir detective story.  Was able to pick out a few words here and there… but words not too important in following the plotline.  Definitely a ‘whodunit’.  Many twists, and good surprise ending.  Not bad for free.

Comparing Dali with Lijiang seems to be a popular activity, and I think I can weigh-in now.  Dali wins.  It is a bit less crowded with tourists and is much more like a real town with original buildings.  It is laid out in a neat grid so it’s a bit harder to get lost.

Cangshan

I have now finished my three months studying Chinese at the Keats School. I will be traveling around Yunnan and Sichuan provinces until I return to the states at the end of June. My blog posts should now be more frequent.

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On Saturday morning I took the day train to Dali; about a seven hour ride. It wasn’t very comfortable since the train itself is a sleeping train. People must sit on the bunks, four people on each of the lower bunks. They don’t let you use the upper and middle bunks. Not great back support. Woman sitting next to me had a small child and was pointing out cows, goats, horses, along the way and having him repeat the names. I told her that this was very helpful for me. I took the number 8 bus from the Dali train station to the Dali old city, about thirty minutes away. I spoke the whole way with two high-school girls. They told me that Dali is in the middle of a severe drought, and that I should help by conserving water. It is true, places where there should be rushing streams are dry beds. People are very concerned about fire.

The Lily Pad hostel was just a short walk from the termination point of the bus. Staying at a hostel is an entirely different experience than staying at a hotel. There is much more contact among the guests. Last night we had about 25 people for a hot-pot dinner. ‘Dinner’ lasted until about 2AM, so I’m a bit tired this morning.

Yesterday I started out to hike to the Cloud Pass, but somehow missed a turn and ended-up at the cableway that takes you to the summit of Cangshan mountain (actually ‘shan’ means mountain, so it’s really just called ‘Cangshan’). There are two separate modern cableways and you switch from one to the other at the mid-station. The trip takes something like twenty minutes. It’s a significant distance. The views are stunning as you rise from 2000M to about 4200M. It was hot at the base, quite cold at the top.

At the top, there are a series of wooden stairways that take you across the Alpine terrain to a nearby peak. Climbing stairs at this altitude leaves you breathing pretty hard. I met a family at the summit and rode the cableway down with them. Practiced my speaking.

Walking down from the base station of the cableway, I came upon an old citadel. I think the sign said ‘Imperial Fortress’ but don’t quite remember. Took some pictures. Then heading further downhill I found an ancient town that seemed to be undergoing restoration. Turns out that this place is called the ‘movie set’. You pay an admission to get in. It’s an old town with beautiful old buildings that seem to be nicely maintained. It has been used often as sets for movies. There is a definite touristy, Disney vibe, with lots of stuff being sold, but the architecture is quite beautiful and authentic. I continued to walk down, back to the hostel. So, enjoy the slide show of my day. Today I will attempt to find the Cloud Pass… I think I know where I went wrong yesterday…

Tiger Leaping Gorge

This weekend I visited Lijiang and the nearby Tiger Leaping Gorge.  I took the sleeping train from Kunming to Lijiang on friday evening; leaving 10PM and arriving 7AM.  Although my berth was a ‘hard sleeper’, it was quite comfortable and I had a good night’s sleep.  There were four berths in the compartment instead of the usual six for hard sleepers.  I think this was because the train was a double-decker.  Cost of the ticket was about 150 kuai or about $25.  This is no more than the cost of a cheap hotel room, so the sleeping train is quite a bargain.  The trip seemed very short as I was sleeping most of the time.  My ticket purchase a few days earlier was a major linguistic triumph as I did it entirely in Chinese… time and date of departure/return, hard sleeper, lower berth, etc.

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The Lijiang railway station is large, modern, and located a bit outside of town.  From the train platform you have a good view of the distanct snow-capped mountains.  I took a taxi to the bus terminal. I had breakfast at a restaurant near the bus station.  Eggs and a type of fried bread.  Also much needed coffee.  I had only a short wait for the bus from Lijiang to Qiaotou.  I took a picture of a couple of Naxi women with children.  I think one is the mother, the other the grandmother.  The Naxi are the dominant minority people in this area.  Yunan borders Tibet, and the Naxi people also live in Tibet.  People have told me that this region of Yunan is similar to Tibet.  One of the key attractions of the trail along the Tiger Leaping Gorge is the views of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which forms the foothills of the Himilayas.  The Naxi are a matriarchal society.  I often see Naxi dancing in Kunming.   It is strikingly simple and graceful.  For more about the Naxi, you could start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakhi_people.

In Qiaotou I had a good lunch of boiled vegetables, mushrooms, and tofu.  Then began the walk along the Tiger Leaping Gorge.  I soon reached the ticket office where I bought a ticket for about 50 kuai ($8) and got a not-very-detailed map.  The path is marked by it is easy to take a wrong turn.  It is dusty and you gain altitude gradually.  The view on your right is of the gorge, at the bottom of which is the muddy brown Yangze River.  Looking across the gorge are mountains.  Looking further ahead, you can see the snow capped Jade Dragon Snow Mountains.  As you walk along the gorge, the view of these mountains becomes clearer until they are directly before you across the gorge.  The path I took along the gorge climbs to about 4000 meters.  For comparison, this is just a bit higher than the Klein Matterhorn, which is the highest point for skiing at Zermatt.  Interestingly, there is no snow or ice at this altitude where I was walking.   The highest peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains reach 5500 meters.  Again, for comparison, the highest peak in Switzerland is about 4600 meters.  Of course, all of this is dwarfed by Everest which is 8848 meters.  The scenery is definitely Alpine.  Except for the distinctive construction of the roofs of the houses, you could easily think you were in Switzerland.

It is not necessary to carry much food or water, as locals sell food and drink from stands located about a half-hour apart.  The walk is uphill, but not too bad until you reach the “28 bends”.  The day was hot, and this was some serious uphill.  To make this a bit more difficult, the path is crowded with locals leading horses.  They want to sell you a ride up the hill.  Since I am a hiker I explain that I don’t want to ride up the mountain even if it is very cheap.  This makes it a bit difficult to rest at the end of a switchback, since man and horse are waiting right there with you, as you are huffing, puffing, and sweating, reminding you that you could be riding a horse.  I finally reached point from which it was all downhill for the rest of the day.  I arrived exhausted at the Tea Horse Guesthouse.  Cold beer, friendly local proprietors, a good dinner, and from my porch, the best view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain that can be seen from anywhere along the trail.  The price is right at 120 kuai ($20) a night.  For those who take this trail, I would certainly recommend staying at the Tea Horse rather than the Halfway Gueshouse.  The Tea Horse is much closer to actually being the halfway point and I would be surprised if there is any hotel in the world that offers better views.

Breakfast included hash brown potatoes with Naxi cheese.  One does not generally find cheese in China.  Most Chinese do not like it.  The Naxi, however, do eat a soft chese which is excellent on potatoes; a bit like Rosti (keeping with the Alpine theme).  Potatoes are not viewed as a native food in Yunan.  Most places in China a potato is an ‘earth bean’, but in Yunan, it is ‘foreign taro’.

The second day was a bit cold and rainy.  The walking was not difficult, but it is necessary to watch my footing on the damp rocks.  There are some large goat herds walking along the path, and up and down the hills.  I don’t know how they manage not to fall.  A good idea not to stand downhill of the goats as they do occasionally dislodge rocks.  The locals farmers along the path are friendly.  Stopped for a snack at the Halfway Guesthouse.   Great views from the ‘Inspiration Terrace’ where you can rest in a swing chair.  Beautiful waterfall along the path… but water is very muddy.  There are small stone tombs along the path also.  Money (fake), cigarettes, bottles of beer, are left in front of these tombs.  White shredded paper flags hang on sticks above the tombs.

Finally arrived at Tina’s Guesthouse which is generally viewed as the end of the walk (although one can go further).  Now it was raining hard.  I decided that it would not be a good idea to decend the 500 steps to the bottom of the gorge to see the “Tiger Leaping Stone”.  Instead I take a waiting bus to Lijiang.  On arriving in Lijiang, a student on the bus shows me the way to the Panba Hostel, just on the edge of the old city.  I walk around the old town.  As I approach the center of the old city, things get very crowded and extremely touristic.  Many, many Chinese tourists.  Lijiang has become a major tourist attraction.  Another UNESCO world heritage site.  There is a row of discos.  One disco even has women in Naxi dress, doing something that appears to be a cross between Naxi dance and disco.

Returned to the old city in the morning.  Much nicer now with few people.  Many buildings in the old city were destroyed by an earthquake some years ago, but they have been rebuilt with authentic materials.  So many shops all selling the same stuff; maybe a bit better than the average tourist junk… hard to imagine how all the stores can survive next to each other… until you remember how many tourists will pack these streets later in the day.  Spent the afternoon relaxing at the hostel and making notes on the trip in English and pinyin.  My Tuesday and Wednesday lessons will include composing a detailed description of the trip in Mandarin.

Sleeping train back to Kunming Monday night.  Back to my room early Tuesday morning, breakfast, class from 8:30AM – 12:30 PM, lunch, and a nap.  Nice weekend.

Stone Forest

Yesterday, I visted the Stone Forest (Shilin) with two other students.  This is a collection of limestone formations located about an hour and a half by bus from Kunming.  It’s a UNESCO world heritage site and fully deserves the designation.  Trails wind in, around, over, and through the rock formations.  Huge chunks of the limstone appear to be suspended by nothing at all.  You can see fossilized coral on some of the rocks.  Some passages are narrow enough that I could barely squeeze through.

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The bus from Kunming is 27 Yuan each way (about $4).  Taxi from the school to the eastern bus station is about 30 Yuan.  Entrance to the Stone Forest is not cheap, even by western standards.  It’s 175 Yuan per person plus 25 yuan for the shuttle to the main entrance… else a 3km walk.  There is a senior discount, so bring ID if you qualify.  The entrance area is quite crowded.  I was concerned that the whole place would be like this, but few people actually walk into the stone forest.  Most tourists seem to go no further than the formations near the entrance and the main roads.  So, no worries, walking the paths among the formations is quite peaceful.  There is enough up and down hill to make this a workout.

Many of the formations have been given names based on someone’s idea of what they look like.  After a while we got into the spirit and assigned our own names.  Tour guides wear the native dress of the local minority… but I don’t think they all actually belong to that minority.  Still, considering the possibilities, the place is reasonably tasteful.  The paths are well maintained and constantly interesting.

We spent about four hours walking through the place and saw maybe 40%.  It’s very dry as there is little rainfall in the area.  Between rocks is a sparse pine forest… providing a nice pine scent as you walk.  There are very few signs in English.

On returning to the Kunming Eastern Bus Station after the bus ride back, we were beseiged by drivers offering rides.  This made it very difficult for us to find a metered taxi, but we finally did.  In China, always hold out for the metered taxi… it is never a good deal to take the unmetered ride.

Anyway, bottom line is that the Stone Forest is highly recommended, even at the steep price.

An Ning

So, have I made any progress speaking Chinese?  A number of you have been asking.  Until this week I wasn’t sure.  After taking a week off from my very intensive classes, the answer is a bit more clear.  Yesterday I took a bus to the hot spring near the city of An Ning.  The ride was about an hour.  I found that I was able to have a primitive, but decent conversation with the woman sitting next to me.  This is in spite of the fact that the older locals here are not native Mandarin speakers so they can be a bit hard to understand sometimes.  In An Ning, I also found that I was able to speak with people as long as I stuck to topics with which I’m familiar… where I come from, what I’m doing in China, my kids, places I have visited…  Yesterday, during my entire visit, I did not see another non-chinese person…  So, it seems clear that my classes are giving me the basic vocabulary and sentence structure, that I need to talk with people.  I suspect that the real learning will begin after I leave the school and travel… provided I travel to places where people don’t speak English.

I can usually spot the small clusters of people whispering about me.  Often it’s parents telling their children to say hello to me in English.  Even more often it’s groups of school children deciding among themselves who will be brave enought to speak to the foreigner.  Children learn to speak English in elementary school.  This group of kids showed me the English books they are using in their classes.  One of them took on a very teacherly tone and corrected my Mandarin as we spoke.

The hot spring is a few miles outside of An Ning but the bus takes you right there.  Unfortunately, the hot spring is not the nicest I’ve been to.  As far as I could see, the bathing takes place only in the hotels.  I visited one.  You pay for an hour in a room that has a large tub.  An attendent opens a gate in the floor that allows the springwater to flow into the tub.  I suspect this would be more fun if you had a group of people.  The place I bathed at was reasonable… I visited another place that was downright seedy.   One thing I can recommend is a beautiful indoor swimming pool just where the bus lets you off.  A wide, modern, 50m pool with a reasonable 20 yuan ($3.50) entrance fee.

After bathing, I walked along the river that runs through the town.  Some nice views, but spoiled a bit by the run-down condition of some of the buildings.  I followed a path out of the valley to an observation tower that provides a good view of the surrounding area.

On top of the observation tower I met a group of local high school students.  They shared some food with me.  One practiced his English with me, but I spoke Chinese with the rest.

I then continued walking out of the valley through a park that had a chicken and pig farm.  I ended-up on a road and walked along it until I came to a town… from there I was able to take a bus to An Ning.

I will take a moment to comment on the bus driver.  She was dressed to kill in a black lace outfit.  She wore plain black shoes to drive but behind the driver’s seat were her red-jeweled spike heels.  The bus had a particularly long gear-shift lever, so when in third gear, her right arm flew about two feet behind her; and I mean flew.  There was some  real attitude when she did this.

It It was approximately the same attitude that I saw in a woman hacking up a pig in the night market that evening.  The cleaver struck with enough force to go cleanly through the meat and bury itself repeatedly in the round stump that served as a chopping surface.  Her husband was a few feet away complaining that her enthusiasm was spattering him with blood.  If I were him, I’d be a bit careful.  Anyway, when I was taking a candid shot of the bus driver, she turned around and I was busted.  Moments after the shot, she broke into a big smile… but you don’t see that in the photo.

More to come on my trip to An Ning…