guilin - fairytale
My dad and I continued our trip in Guilin, China. The city is surrounded by Karst topography, which gives the city a fairytale kind of look and allows for pleasant bike trips around the Li river. A lot of people take a swim in this river, but we didn’t dare considering the bad weather (which we somehow brought along everywhere we went during this trip).
Flower & Bird Market - Guilin, China
lijiang - efteling souvenir overkill
Via Nanning we arrived in Lijiang, this place would be the starting point for a couple of trips to other cities in the province of Yunnan. It’s famous for its Naxi culture and the ancient city (UNESCO heritage site). Unfortunately it is difficult to see the ’ancientness’ because of all the Efteling-kind-of tourist souvenir shops that the city houses nowadays. It’s all the same Yak meat (really smelly!), scarfs, food, jade and djembes. In every street there’s a shop with a girl or a boy trying to play along with this song, most of the time without a sense for rhythm.
During our second stay we found our hostel to be a pleasant place to stay and have conversations with the employees. We joined them for a tea ceremony and dinner whilst comparing our cultures. We talked about beauty ideals (white vs. tanned), that the Netherlands is not all wooden shoes and windmills and why girls in China don't want to marry.
Dinner!
tiger leaping gorge - breathtakingly beautiful and tough
If you like exhausting hikes upon steep mountains then Tiger Leaping Gorge is something for you. Not really for me. The two day hike in the burning sun was a once in a lifetime and never again experience. Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the deepest canyons in the world and has been said that a tiger once jumped across the gorge.
After a couple of hours walking and lunch on the first day we arrived at the 28 bends. A dusty path that steeply goes up the mountain in 28 bends whilst man on horseback keep asking you if you don’t want to join them for 200 yuan. Still not being totally recovered from the flu combined with thin air, this was a hard part to accomplish. But I managed and must say, the views are breathtakingly beautiful! Moreover, what comes up, must come down, from now on the path would slowly go down.
Evening started to kick in so we decided to stay at a hostel, Teahorse, that has a wonderful view on the mountains and gorge. We discovered to have run out of money when we paid for the room…in the midst of panicking (cause where would you find an ATM in the midst of the gorge) someone behind us said ”Als je geld nodig hebt, wij hebben nog genoeg hoor!” A Dutch couple saved us, they are the heroes of our trip!
The second day was a pleasant walk down. Difficult though to keep walking and gazing around at the same time.
shangri-la - sad story
Arriving at Shangri-La in flip-flops at 10oC meant searching for warm clothes and stealing my dad’s woolen sweater, I wasn’t prepared. Neither were we prepared for the disaster that had happened over here last winter. A blaze destroyed two-third of the old Tibetan village. About 250 wooden houses (some almost 600 years old) were consumed by the fire.
It was horrible to see the desolate state of this place. Because of the Chinese active builder’s I would expect the rebuilding process to quickly commence. However nothing really happens right now. I wonder if this area will be rebuild at all, or if it will be gone in a few years time.
A sad ambience has settled in what once was the ancient town of Shangri-La.
dali - banana pancake hangout
As the Lonely Planet states the ancient city of Dali is the banana pancake backpackers hangout. They’re right, it’s a relaxed town with nice terraces, western bars and good Chinese food (they even got English menus!) and a pleasant climate!
These three are one of the oldest buildings in the South-West of China and one of the landmarks of China.
chengdu - back home
Waiting for our flight home, we stayed one more night in Chengdu. A visit to the city center turned out to be a nerve-wrecking event. Crowded shopping streets with shops that are like loud clubs: each shop plays loud club music and there’s a girl at the door shouting their special offers through a megaphone. Can you imagine what that’s like? I couldn’t bare it, so we thought to hide through the metro tunnel. Which appeared to be yet another very big shopping mall. However, after a couple of shops it changes into a big desolate underground shopping hall that eventually leads to the metro. All these empty shop booths made me wonder if this is an example of what happens all around China: the continuous construction work spirit that delivers so many buildings that people don’t know what to do with it. Is this an example of what will happen? Where does it lead to?
Altogether I had a wonderful trip. We've been to many places and seen a lot of different things. I especially liked the little simple things like have conversations with the Chinese and Vietnamese, loved the food! And of course the bicycle trips. Where to go next..
The bravest girls of Sichuan, they were the only ones who dared to ask for a photo, others try to secretly take a picture. Apparantly I'm like an alien or something to them.
