All posts by Sharon

China

Farewell China Tour – (Usually) Yummy Sichuan Cuisine

1 Comment

China recognizes around eight distinct regional cuisines. The food in Shanghai is a bit oily and bland, but the food in Sichuan Province (home of two stops on our trip – Lijiang and Chengdu) is notoriously spicy and delicious.

Crossing Bridge Rice Noodles
In Lijiang, Cath and I asked Li Qiong to take us to one of her favorite restaurants. She took us out for Crossing Bridge Rice Noodles, a meal and a unique cultural experience! First, the waitress brought each of us a massive bowl of boiling chicken broth, a big pile of rice noodles and many small bowls with portions of pig liver, intestines, stinky tofu, spring onions, a raw egg, chicken, bamboo shoots, white fish and bean sprouts. We dumped those small portions and the noodles into the broth and left it alone to simmer for a few minutes. Another plate had tiny servings of pickled vegetables, spicy mushrooms, cashews, deep-fried pork and spicy vegetable salad, so we picked at those tasty morsels in the meantime. Oddly, another side dish was a bowl of “black chicken” soup full of chicken skin and bones. Not my favorite.

Confusing sign that explained what we were eating:

From Crossing Bridge Rice Noodles

Vegetarian Yummy-ness
Another culinary highlight of our time in Lijiang was the Tibetan Vegetarian Restaurant, where we ate twice. Among our favorite dishes – puffy steamed buns filled with sweet cheese, salty green beans, and tofu “meat” with mashed potatoes. Bonus: the owner and the waiter taught us some Tibetan phrases that came in handy when we got to Lhasa.

Chilling with Li Qiong and the restaurant owner and waiter:

From Tibetan Vegetarian Restaurant

Sichuan Spicey-fest
One of the most memorable experiences of our whole trip involved eating in Chengdu. We had just visited the adult panda dorm at the Ya’an Panda Conservation Center when our guide, Deng Li, told us it was lunchtime. Originally, his plan was to drive all the way down the mountain to a restaurant that catered to western tourists. However that would have wasted a couple hours of our day, and I think he realized that Cath and I weren’t too fussy about our food.

“Our driver wants to cook for you,” Deng Li said. We exited the panda center, crossed the street, and walked up the steps to a Chinese guesthouse. We followed Deng Li to the kitchen, where our driver, Luo Shifu, stood in the light of an exposed bulb with flies all over his shoulders. He grinned at us and proudly gestured at his meal in progress. The counters were littered with greasy dishes and chopped vegetables. The wok bubbled with an oily concoction of pork and lots of spicy chili peppers. Cath and I exchanged looks of horror. We couldn’t decide which was scarier: the utter lack of sanitation in the kitchen or the fiery food’s potential toll on our unsuspecting intestines.

Luo Shifu in the kitchen:

From Luo Shifu

We shuffled mutely out to the concrete patio, where plastic tables and chairs were set with grimy bowls and chopsticks. The guesthouse owner brought us beer, which we happily drank from the bottle. Unfortunately, Deng Li noticed and graciously tracked down some dirty glasses for us. Cath and I waited nervously for our lunch.

Luo Shifu emerged from the kitchen and placed the bowl of spicy pork in the middle of the table. When the oily steam made my eyes water, I couldn’t imagine what would happen when I took a bite. Tentatively, I raised the chopsticks to my mouth and took a nibble of the pork. The juice nearly melted my lips, but the meat was delicious. Gradually, our driver filled the table with some of the most scrumptious food I’ve ever eaten. In addition to the blazing hot pork dish, he whipped up another pork-and-veggie delicacy, battered eggplant in a spicy sauce, and asparagus stalks. The guesthouse owner also brought out tofu and rice. Although he didn’t speak any English, Luo Shifu clearly appreciated our gushing praise of his culinary creations.

After the feast, I pulled tissues out of my bag to mop my sweaty brow while our driver cleared the table. When he returned, he brought two flowers plucked from the guesthouse garden. To his amusement, Cath and I stuck the flowers in our hair.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Local (very local) Fare
After playing with the baby pandas, Luo Shifu drove us back to our hotel at the base of the mountain. Our “four-star hotel” featured lots of marble and gilding, but also mildew, faded carpeting and bugs. I had to talk Cath off a ledge when she spotted a roach in our room, but we flushed the little guy and then headed downstairs to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant. In the lobby, Deng Li intercepted us to say the driver wanted to take us to a local restaurant. We found it odd that the driver seemed to be calling the shots a lot during our visit, but we had to admit he seemed to know a thing or two about food.

We drove to the restaurant, where the driver dramatically ordered for us. Soon waitresses delivered the dishes: a whole smoked duck, an enormous fish in a sweet-and-sour sauce, a platter of fried spicy green peppers, twice-cooked pork, and tofu soup with mushrooms, meatballs and bamboo shoots. The meal really was an example of brilliant ordering. Each bite complemented the bite before with a tantalizing mix of flavors and textures.

While we enjoyed the meal, we noticed a group of men at a nearby table who were having even more fun. They pulled their shirts up to their nipples to cool off, chain smoked, spit out their duck bones on the floor, passed around a bottle of rice wine, and howled with laughter at stories we couldn’t understand.

China, On the Road

Farewell China Tour (Day 5)

Leave a comment

Playing with Pandas
Reluctantly we left our new friend, Li Qiong, and the wonderful town of Lijiang to fly to Chengdu. Although the city of Chengdu is massive and sits in a pollution trap of a valley, we had just one destination in mind: The Ya’an Panda Reserve. We arrived around midnight, met our guide and driver, checked in to our hotel and crashed. After a quick breakfast, we checked out and drove two hours to the misty green mountainside reserve. As the car twisted up the mountain roads, I was looking out the side window and spotted some deer.
“A camel?” said Cath.
“They’re deer!” I said, shooting Cath a look of incredulity.
“No, in front of the car, there’s a camel,” she said. And, indeed, there was. Apparently there’s a depressing little zoo on the way to the panda reserve.

From camel

Our driver, Luo Shifu, parked the car, and our guide, Deng Li, took us into the park. We wandered off the beaten path and wondered where we were going, but then Deng Li told us he knew some people who worked here so he was trying to get us access to the adult panda “dormitory” while the staff was at lunch. A worker eyed us suspiciously but then told us to be quiet and gestured for us to enter. We climbed a ladder to view the enclosures from above, and then we climbed down to look through the bars of each area’s gate. Most of the adult pandas sat next to their gates, reaching through the bars to pull in armloads of bamboo. Then they’d roll onto their backs and use their teeth to peel off the outer bark before munching on the tender stalks. Adult pandas can eat 20 kilos (44 pounds) of bamboo each day. So much for taking one home as a pet …

From chengdu

Soon it was our lunchtime. Deng Li had said that we would drive back down the mountain for lunch, which Cath and I thought was ludicrous, so we were relieved when he said, “The plan has changed.” We walked right across the street to a dingy guesthouse, where tables were set up outside. “Our driver wants to cook for you.” Stay tuned for details…

After lunch, we walked back across the street and took a tram to see the juvenile pandas. There were seven pandas in two enclosures. They’re not the most exciting animals in the world, but their mannerisms are so human that it’s easy to anthropomorphize. Cath and I laughed at how much they reminded us of one particular lazy student we had at SAS (who shall remain unnamed here!). The pandas gobbled up vitamin cakes brought by a caretaker and then rambled about, lay down, got up, sat for awhile, lay down again, rolled over, and more of the same.

From chengdu

We kept hearing a woman yelling, “Qing Qing!” (pronounced like Ching Ching), and we assumed it was a silly tourist trying to get the panda’s attention. Annoyed, we walked toward that enclosure, where we realized the woman was a caretaker trying to rouse lazy Qing Qing, who was napping under a tree up the hill and refused to come down to eat his vitamin cake. We dashed up the hill to get a better view of him, and we cracked up at his obvious attempts to ignore the shouting. He would roll over and put his paws over his ears. Then he would kick his foot out and stretch a bit. Finally, the caretaker hauled a bucket of bamboo shoots up the hill and tossed them at Qing Qing. Without standing up, he reached out, felt around for a bamboo shoot, and then popped it in his mouth. The caretaker threw them a little further away, so reluctantly Qing Qing roused himself from his beloved slumber, rolled up to all fours, sought out the bamboo shoots and then lumbered down the hill to get his vitamin cake. Cath totally related to Qing Qing’s love of sleep, so that became my new nickname for her on this vacation, especially each morning when I woke her up.

From Qing Qing

Deng Li said we could walk to see the baby pandas, but it turned out he didn’t really know the way. We found a trail with a sign pointing to the “Panda Kindergarten,” so we set off through the drizzly mist. The trail took us up and down rocky steps slick with wet leaves. The steep mountainous forest was thick with bamboo and ferns, and Deng Li pointed out that this was the real habitat of wild pandas. Considering that there are only about 1,600 giant pandas left in the wild, it was no surprise that we didn’t see any.

From Bamboo Forest

We arrived at the Panda Kindergarten at feeding time. About 10 babies scampered around the large enclosure while caretakers brought out bowls of food and a big tray of apples and carrots. The babies were all around six months old, and they looked like puppies eating out of their bowls. Several rolled on their backs to munch on the carrots. A few refused to come down from the elevated platform, so the caretakers had to climb up to deliver the food. After a couple minutes, most of them flopped down on their bellies for a nap.

Cath and I knew of several people who made donations to the reserve in exchange for a photo with a panda, and we decided it was a worthy cause and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We expected to sit in a chair and have a caretaker position a panda next to us, but the workers said we could enter the enclosure to play with the babies! We couldn’t believe it. After waiting an hour for naptime to finish, we suited up in a surgical gown, booties and gloves. Unfortunately, the rain really started to fall at that point, and Deng Li was not the most talented photographer. But we got a few good shots and some unbeatable memories.

From Suited Up

At first, the head caretaker/researcher told us we had to stay on the ground, which was disappointing because the pandas were all up on the platform. We reached up and scratched their tummies. Finally, he said, “OK, you can climb up there but you’re going to get very dirty.” As if we cared! We scrambled up and the pandas loped over to greet us. One grabbed my hand with his thick padded paw, nuzzled my ear and then plopped on my lap, clamping his mouth gently onto my arm. He unlatched only when Cath offered him an apple that had been tossed up by a caretaker. I was surprised at how heavy he was and how coarse his fur felt. Much too quickly, the caretaker told us it was time to go.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Later Cath and I reflected on our day with the pandas. We felt good about making a large donation to the panda reserve, but we worried that the encounters between tourists and pandas would diminish the efforts to rebuild the wild population. So far, China has been largely unsuccessful in releasing pandas into the bamboo forest. The pandas born in captivity are too coddled by the caretakers and cooing tourists and have no survival skills, researchers agree. That said, we selfishly admitted how fortunate we felt to see and interact with these rare and unique animals up close.

China, On the Road

Farewell China Tour (Day 4)

Leave a comment

Lashi Lake
Feeling a bit disheartened after yesterday’s non-hike, we struggled to muster enthusiasm for today’s trip to Lashi Lake. Li Qiong had mentioned that we’d be riding horses, so we pictured hordes of obnoxious tourists abusing the tired sway-backed trail horses. Sullenly, I asked, “Will this be another long car ride?” Just 30 minutes, she responded.

Soon we were out of the city and driving on bumpy unmarked country roads. After stopping to ask directions a couple times, we saw some men watching three stocky little horses chomp at the grass. The horses wore crude saddles and bridles and looked to be about 13 hands (a little more than 4 feet at the shoulder). Nylon straps held the stirrups to the saddle frame and a thick blanket was draped over the top. A simple bridle had been fashioned with a metal bit and more nylon straps. Cath made a few jokes about breaking the tiny horse, but it didn’t even flinch when she pulled herself up onto the makeshift saddle (although it did stop occasionally to grab a mouthful of grass). Li Qiong commented that these horses were bred to be strong and sure-footed to carry people and loads on treacherous mountain trails.

We all climbed aboard our little steeds and loped across the grassy meadow, which was ringed by the Hengduan Mountains. Gauzy white clouds stretched across an enormous blue sky. The only other creatures in sight were water buffaloes, cows, donkeys, and more horses, as well as the local farmers. Not a single other tourist. Our spirits soared.

The horses took us to a large metal flat-bottomed boat that waited in the shallow marshes. We left the horses to enjoy the lush grass, walked across the water on wooden planks and climbed into the boat. Our Naxi host used a long wooden pole to push the boat out into the lake, and then he sat down to enjoy the tranquility with us. Complete silence was broken only by the squeaky scraping of the water plants under the boat, the swish of skimmer bugs dancing on the water’s surface and the hum of blue, black and yellow dragonflies. We held our breath and floated past mares and foals knee-deep in water, drinking and feasting on the foliage. Quietly we commented on the perfect reflection of the mountains in the lake.

Eventually, our captain stood up and plunged the pole back in the water to get us moving again. He sang a few traditional Naxi songs and taught us how to say “good-bye” in Naxi: lei duo duo. It translates to many, many tears. I love that.

Back on the horses, we tromped toward a nearby Taoist temple, but soon a messenger rode up to tell us that road construction had made the temple inaccessible. So we just trotted back to the car and said “lei duo duo” to our Naxi friends and horses.

Clearly, Cath and I need to stop trying to predict what our day has in store. The unhike in Tiger Leaping Gorge and the visit to Lashi Lake were both filled with surprises.

For more information on Lashi Lake, check out the Nature Conservancy’s website.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Residential Old Town
Although Lijiang’s Old Town district features the traditional architecture, cobblestone streets and peaceful waterways, it truly is a tourist mecca. You don’t see much “real life” taking place amidst the shops, cafes, guesthouses and bars. Li Qiong asked whether we’d like to see the residential section of Old Town, and of course we jumped at the chance.

The façade was very similar to the touristy part of town, but the mood was entirely different. This was “real life” for the local Naxi people. At one of the town’s natural springs, we saw a well divided into three parts – one for drinking water, one for rinsing fruits and vegetables, and one for washing clothes. Several villagers squatted by the water, swishing bundles of spring onions in the cold water.

We passed a woman pushing a cart full of small trays that held green gelatinous goop. (Li Qiong explained that it was black bean jelly.) We watched as a man stopped, paid the vendor and then held out his hand. Expecting the woman to give him a tray of the jelly, we were surprised to see her turn the tray over onto his hand. He then carefully balanced the jiggling slime on his hand as he walked back into his home.

As we strolled through the neighborhood, we passed a house with two big red doors, each taped with a diamond-shaped white paper bearing a Chinese character. Li Qiong stopped and said, “This means someone has died recently.” Sure enough, as we kept walking, we came to a community center, where many villagers were wearing traditional mourning clothes (including a rumpled white paper hat and white apron). Li Qiong told us that Naxi people mourn quietly for three years. The papers on the door are white the first year, green the second year and red or yellow the third year.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Ethnic Embroideries
There are 56 recognized ethnic groups in China, and many are known for their beautiful embroidery. Based on reports from others who have traveled to Lijiang, I expected the Old Town shops to be full of traditional handiwork. However, Li Qiong pointed out that Chinese entrepreneurs have filled the shops with cheap mass-produced copies and souvenirs in the last few years, so ethnic crafts can be difficult to find or authenticate. I stumbled upon a couple shops with lovely pieces, but the prices were shocking. I don’t mind paying a hefty sum for a genuine piece of artwork, but I want that money to go into the artist’s pocket. So, reluctantly, I walked away.

When I mentioned my failed quest, Li Qiong called up a Naxi friend who brings embroidery from her village to sell to the shops. We made an appointment to meet at our hotel. The diminutive young woman, Fen, showed up carrying two big bundles of stitched art. She laid them all out on a bench in our hotel’s open-air foyer. Every piece was far more stunning than anything I’d seen in the shops. Li Qiong translated as Fen explained some of the techniques. The amount of work and resulting detail in the colorful pieces left Cath and me speechless.

For a fraction of the shop prices, I bought a gorgeous baby carrier, stitched with shades of blue. It features tiny squares, each with about eight layers of fabric folded into miniscule triangles and secured using the sticky water left after boiling rice. The embroidery details include rows of swirling stitches and tiny knots. Li Qiong noted that the mother who carried her baby in this gorgeous carrier clearly took great pride in her workmanship.

Cath bought a whimsical piece featuring purple dragons. The technique involved separating the thread into seven fine pieces and sewing many overlapping stitches, giving the impression of silk. When Fen told her the price, Cath put her brilliant bargaining skills to work. She asked for the pengyou (friend) price and batted her big blue eyes. Fen laughed and stood on tiptoe to give Cath a big kiss on the cheek. They came to a compromise, and then Fen loaded all her pieces back into a bundle and led us to a local market. When we tried to give her a little money to thank her for her trouble, she jumped back, “No! You’re my friends!” she said in Mandarin, hugging and kissing us again before she headed home.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Fay and Jiff
While we were perusing the embroideries, our friends Fay and Jeff called to say they were nearby. Cath ran to meet them and then brought them to our hotel. Jeff, a New Zealander who taught with us in Turkey and then followed us to Shanghai, hung back as his wife purchased a lovely piece from Fen. When Tony first met Jeff in Istanbul back in 2005, he had trouble understanding the Kiwi accent. He thought his new friend’s name was Jiff, and so it stuck. Although we were too tired and/or busy to socialize much with Fay and Jiff in Shanghai, I had a great time playing with the two of them in Lijiang and look forward to their promised visit to Laos.

Cath, Fay, Jiff and I went to a pub for a beer (after walking for a LONG time through Old Town, much to Jiff’s chagrin). The beer was warm, and there was no milk for Fay’s coffee, so after a short sit, Cath and I suggested another visit to our teahouse. Li Qiong had told us that she pre-payed for us to enjoy the tea one more time before leaving town. Although not entirely thrilled with the tea drinking, Jiff did enjoy the dramatics. He hammed it up and got lots of props from our Zhu Wei Li, our tea expert. Li Qiong stopped by for a few minutes before going to meet another tour group.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

China, On the Road

Farewell China Tour (Day 3)

Leave a comment

Tiger Leaping Gorge
Tony accompanied a student trip to Lijiang in 2005 and brought home photos of the rugged hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge. The 16-kilometer gorge is one of the deepest in the world – 3,900 meters from the water to the mountaintops. I had been excited to follow in Tony’s footsteps.

On the day of our hike, Cath and I rose early, ate a hearty breakfast, and laced up our hiking boots. The three-hour drive found us more often than not sucking diesel fumes behind a tour bus, but we tried not to get discouraged. We knew that soon we would be breathing fresh air along the banks of the Yangzte River.

Eventually, we parked, paid an admission fee and started walking on a paved path. Hmmm… where was the trail? With feigned enthusiasm, we asked Li Qiong if the whole route was paved. In fact, it was. At regular intervals, workers even played a shrieky pre-recorded warning to stay close to the mountain wall and away from the edge. We saw one such worker toss a big piece of plastic in the river to join the swirling mass of trash caught in a whirlpool.

The end of the path took us down a flight of stairs to a viewing point near the water, overlooking the sculpture of a leaping tiger. This leg of the Yangzte, called Jinsha Jiang, was impressive with its crashing roiling current smashing into the boulders and splashing up on unsuspecting tourists (such as me, who took a big drenching while composing a photo of Cath). It wasn’t the hike we had hoped for, but we had to laugh. It was so quintessentially China.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

China, On the Road

Farewell China Tour (Day 2)

Leave a comment

Breakfast each day in Lijiang was at a cute Tibetan café across the street – eggs, toast, yogurt, fruit and coffee. A nice start to our busy days!

Impression Lijiang
Our first stop of the day was the show, “Impression Lijiang,” a spectacular extravaganza directed by Zhang Yi Mou, who also directed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. With about 500 people from 10 ethnic groups, the show highlights the region’s traditional clothing, music and customs. The different numbers included women singing as they picked tea, men dancing through a drinking competition, small but sturdy steppe horses galloping around the open-air stage’s perimeter, powerful drumming and chanting, and the grand finale – the entire cast dressed in ceremonial costumes and holding hands as they zig-zagged down the hillside and turned to send a prayer to the mountain towering in the background.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Snow Mountain and Yak Meadow
After the show, we took a public bus to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and then rode a gondola up to Yak Meadow at 3,800 meters. We had hoped to walk the full length of the trail around the meadow, but the altitude really slowed us down. We had to stop every few steps to catch our breath. So, instead of a long hike, we enjoyed lots of standing and soaking up the beauty. We looked out at jagged mountains and a meadow full of pink and yellow wildflowers, grazing yaks and cows, and a small Tibetan temple.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Baisha Village
Back down the mountain, we drove to Baisha Village, the original settlement of the Naxi people 1,200 years ago. Cath and I sat by a big open window at a local restaurant and enjoyed a delicious lunch. One highlight was fried yak cheese that you dip in sugar. It tasted like cream-cheese frosting. Yum! In most parts of China, people don’t like dairy products, so this was a special treat. Looking out the restaurant window, we felt like Baisha Village was putting on a show for us. People were simply going about their daily lives, but they were thoroughly entertaining. Enter stage left: man pulling a towering cart of straw. Enter stage right: women in Naxi clothing with babies strapped on their backs in beautifully embroidered fabric. Enter stage left: man leading a cow pulling a huge cart with two giggling young boys in back. Enter stage right: Hunched over village elders with deep wrinkles of wisdom and beautiful smiles.
After our impromptu lunchtime show, we walked through the village to a temple, where we saw frescoes from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

Tea Party
Feeling exhausted, we told Li Qiong that we’d like to take it easy for the afternoon. She recommended hanging out in a teahouse. I’ve seen the tourist version of a tea ceremony many times, but she assured us that it was just a nice place to chat and rest. Several hours later, after drinking gallons of tea, we had to agree. Our tea server, Zhu Wei Li, wore her hot-pink Naxi ceremonial costume and softly explained the fine points of drinking Puer Tea, the most famous tea produced in Yunnan Province.

Both of our Chinese hostesses talked about the tea with great reverence, lowering their voices and using metaphors from nature to describe its purity and benefits. They closed their eyes and breathed in the tea’s aroma with an almost spiritual calm. They instructed us to hold the tea on our tongues for a moment, then slowly swallow and inhale gently through our mouths. “It feels like a flower blooming,” Li Qiong said. “You can smell the freshness of spring.”

Zhu Wei Li served us two kinds of Puer Tea – one made from young raw tea called sheng and one made from cooked tea leaves called shu. The young leaves brewed a pale green tea with a floral scent, while the cooked leaves brewed up deep amber with a stronger flavor. The tea is compressed into round cakes the size of a dinner plate. You break off a little piece, drop it in the teapot, and add hot water. (The first pot of tea gets dumped out. In the teahouse, Zhu Wei Li dumped it on a symbolic clay frog that sat on her tea table. We also dumped the last sip from our teacups on a smaller version of the frog.) The same chunk of Puer Tea can be brewed 35-40 times, producing a slightly different flavor each time. When you’re done using it for tea, you can brew a refreshing face wash with the leftover tea, Li Qiong said.

Between cups of tea, we enjoyed hearing Li Qiong’s stories about her family and culture. Unlike many young Chinese, she was comfortable with philosophical discussions about China’s politics and culture clashes.

Here’s a fantastic website with details about Puer Tea.

If this slideshow doesn’t work, just refresh your page! And click on the little speech bubble after the slideshow starts to see the captions:

China, On the Road

Farewell China Tour (Day 1)

Leave a comment

And we’re off …
As soon as I knew this would be my last year working at Shanghai American School, I began planning my farewell tour through Southwest China and Tibet. My friend and colleague, Cath, was returning to Canada after two years, so she was eager to join me. For months, we talked and planned, but we were distracted by the stress of wrapping up the school year, organizing the ESOL Department for the incoming teachers, and coordinating the packing and shipping of our respective apartments, as well as all the social events that filled the calendar in the school year’s waning weeks. Consumed with all our obligations, we turned over the planning to a travel agent, paid by credit card, and put it out of our minds. Suddenly, the last day of school had come and gone, and we were on a plane to Lijiang, China, to kick off our 10-day trip.

Beautiful Lijiang
Our guide, Li Qiong, met us at the airport. We drove about 20 minutes through lush countryside and mountains to reach Lijiang’s Old Town.  First built in the Song Dynasty around 900 years ago, the town was nearly leveled by an earthquake in 1996. However, the architecture of the Naxi ethnic group largely survived, and the city opted to clear away all the concrete rubble and rebuild much of Lijiang using the traditional Naxi style. As news outlets reported on the earthquake and the historic rebuilding, the world got a glimpse of the region’s unique landscape and culture. UNESCO declared it a world cultural legacy in 1997.

The Jade River flows down the mountains and directly into the town. It branches off into four tributaries that flow through residential courtyards and alongside shops and restaurants. Bright orange and white koi fish add a splash of color to the narrow canals. Cobblestone streets, arched wooden bridges and preserved buildings with traditional tilted-up eaves hung with red lanterns contribute to the town’s quaintness. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain occasionally makes an appearance in the distance, its white peaks jutting out of the clouds.

Especially in the calm early morning, we could easily envision life in this ancient village before the throngs of Chinese tourists, before the pounding techno music emanating from Bar Street, before the influx of mass-produced cheap souvenirs. Lucky for us, Li Qiong shared our nostalgia and steered us away from the touristy destinations as much as possible.

From Old Town in Lijiang

Black Dragon Pool Park
We checked in to a traditional courtyard guesthouse and looked despairingly at the gray clouds. Unprepared for inclement weather, I bought a plastic raincoat for a little more than $1, borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and set off for Black Dragon Pool Park. Despite the sporadic showers, Li Qiong took us for a peaceful walk around the lake, which was ringed with willow trees and purple bougainvillea. In contrast to the shouting, pushing, photo-manic crowds of tourists, Li Qiong meandered along the path, rubbing her fingers over the unusual bark of the Mahjong Tree or bending down to collect a raindrop from a flower. She paused to enjoy the reflection of the clouds in the lake and exclaimed with joy whenever the sun peeked out and glinted off the pale green water. As we crossed a marble bridge, she fingered the whimsical characters decorating the railing as though she’d never noticed them before. At a shallow corner of the lake, she showed us how a sweet song could call up bubbles from the lake’s underground spring. Cath and I sang “Do, Re, Mi” from “The Sound of Music” – me, in English; Cath, in French. Sure enough, bubbles rose from the lakebed and popped on the surface.

Many of the lakeside buildings featured two architectural curiosities: a brick-colored wooden fish hanging down from the roof and a psychotic looking clay cat with wild eyes and a big open mouth sitting on top of the roof. Li Qiong explained. The fish symbolized water and served to protect the wooden buildings that were so prone to fire. The cat had a different purpose. During hard times, when many residents were poor and hungry, only wealthy families found rats in their homes because only they had crumbs or scraps of food to attract the rodents. The rooftop cat served to both ward off the rats and to brag a bit to the neighbors that the home had enough food to feed the family and attract the rats.

While most Chinese tour guides do their best to make foreigners comfortable, Li Qiong fell into another category altogether. Before becoming a tour guide, she had traveled to Thailand, where she taught Chinese and studied yoga for two years. Cath and I felt like we’d found a soul sister in this eco-conscious, peace-loving, adventure-embracing woman.

As we walked through Old Town, we noticed many women in traditional clothing of the two most common ethnic groups of the area – Naxi and Yi. We assumed the costumes were part of the tourist attraction, but Li Qiong said the clothes are very practical for the villagers, who still do a great deal of manual labor. The cushion on the back of the dress protects a woman’s back when she carries heavy loads, for example.

After dinner, we all enjoyed a massage in Old Town, where people were singing and dancing in the square below. The travel and altitude (2,200 meters) made Cath and me quite tired, so we crashed early.