Day 6 (June 25, 2014): Shaxi and the temples of Shibao Mountain

The Quick Facts

* Arrived in Shaxi, a town about halfway between Dali and Lijiang

* Spent a full day hiking in the Shibao Mountain, which contains many Taoist
and Buddhist temples the Bai people still use today, including the impressive
Bao Xiang Temple

* Stayed at the Laomadian Inn, a really cute place right on the courtyard with
great rooms – highly recommend!

The Good

* Shaxi is just a beautiful town, set in a valley of the surrounding mountains, every inch of which is used by the villagers to farm various crops, including corn, tobacco, and rice

* The courtyard in the village where we stayed was really charming, almost a European feel to it

* The food at Laomadian Inn was outstanding, most notably a marinated pork chop
dish which was one of the most delicious things we ate the entire trip

The Bad:

* I got peed on by a monkey (not a typo)

After making our way from Dali to Shaxi, we arrived at our hotel which is set in a wonderful courtyard that has been restored to its former glory and lined with various cafes and restaurants

 

Our hotel was equally lovingly restored, here are some pictures of our room. As I mentioned up top, the food was also really awesome!

 

The courtyard contains a stag that is used from time to time for various performances, mostly by local traditional music groups.  We also got to go inside into a museum which offers some great views of the surrounding area.

 

After touring the stage and the temple across the street, we headed out for a day of hiking in the Shibao Mountain.  We started off with a ~300 meter ascent to a temple being used by the Bai minority group.  They practice a mix of Buddhism and traditional animist beliefs, and we were able to witness a ceremony of devotion to their god of compassion.  We didn’t take any pictures of that out of respect, but here are a few good ones of our hike up there:

 

 

 

After we made our way to the Bao Xiang Temple, although we traversed ourselves across the mountain to the back entrance of the temple (Frank knows all of the shortcuts).  Along the way we found two more altars to various Gods, the second one being the God of water.

 

As mentioned, we eventually got to the back entrance of the Bao Xiang temple, where we were greeted by a couple of monkeys.  One of these monkeys eventually peed on me while I sat down.
He appeared to know what we was doing and had no remorse.  Carrie and Frank enjoyed this incident a little too much for my liking.

Moving on, the temple is set into the mountain and dominated by these huge statues of Buddha and a woman.

 

On our way out of the temple, we saw a man restoring another section.  Notice the cigarette in his mouth -- this is something we saw a lot but didn't take too many pictures because, believe it or not, we try to be respectful.  However, nothing seems to happen in this country without a cigarette hanging out of someone's mouth.  Hopefully, over time, this will change.

Once we got down to the bottom, we encountered the *rest* of the monkeys, which unfortunately have gotten quite used to the tourists feeding them…which is usually junk food like soda and
chips.  We even saw one monkey steal an entire bag of food from one tourist and run away with it.  Frank didn’t feed them, but did keep them occupied with some skillful juggling.

 

After stopping for lunch, we continued our hike in another part of the Shibao Mountain to visit some more temples, take in some vistas of the gorgeous farmland below, and walk back into
the town of Shaxi.

 

On our walk back into town, we encountered a family of goats, including these two baby goats.  Frank couldn’t resist, showing off his softer side.  Even Carrie got into the action!

 

 

We ended the day being treated to a musical performance of traditional Bai music by a group of Bai men all in their 70s.  Their instruments were all unique and it was a fun introduction to the local music.

 

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Days 4-5 (June 23 – June 24, 2014): Dali

The Quick Facts

* Took a rowboat across the Erhai Lake
* Visited the muslim town of Dong Lian Hua, which is inhabited by the muslim Hui people
* ~45km (~28 mile) bike ride along the Erhai Lake and around Dali
* Saw the famous Three Pagodas, but got the great tip from Frank not to pay the exorbitant entrance fee to actually go into the park
* Stayed at the Inanna Guesthouse – owned by an architect/engineer who built this to showcase his capabilities, this hotel is close to the action of Dali but still far enough away so it’s quiet.  It is beautiful on the inside and out, a wonderful place to stay.

The Good:

* Rowing across Erhai Lake, especially interacting with the two local guys that came in the boat with us to row it back to the other side
* Bike ride along a portion of Erhai Lake
* The muslim town Dong Lian Hua – really fascinating to see the expression of religion here, and to hear the story of what happened when the Communist Party took over in the ‘50s

The Bad:

* Still nothing (a good sign!)

Our first major stop was the city of Dali, which is set between the towering Cangshan Mountains and Erhai Lake.  The combination of the mountains and lake make the city easily defensible, which is why Dali served as the capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom, a conglomeration of Bai tribes that operated with a fair bit of autonomy under the Tang Dynasty through 750 AD.  The Nanzhao Kingdom eventually rebelled against the Tang Dyansty, with some success, until it was ultimately defeated by the ruling Tang Dynasty in ~900.  Today, Dali is a vibrant city and dominated by the Bai minority culture – a people known for their agricultural skills (mostly rice but corn, tobacco, and other crops too) and unique architectural style.  Its history, along with its gorgeous setting by the mountain and lake, make Dali an increasingly popular tourist destination…which is forcing the city to confront the tides of modernity.

With this in mind, we set out to row across the Erhai Lake, which provided for some great views of both sides of the lake:

 

They gave us life vests, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, in Asia it’s safety first!

 

 

Frank started off rowing, but eventually Carrie and I each got our chance.

 

And these are the local guys that helped us row.  By the end, we were fast friends (I mean, with smiles like those you know they liked us)!

 

After rowing to the other side of Erhai Lake, we met up with our driver (Mr. Yung – a decidedly quiet man from Kunming) to travel to the muslim town of Dong Lian Hua.  First, we stopped in a restaurant set in the courtyard of one of the wealthier families that used to inhabit the town.  The Ma Ru Qi family consisted of three main brothers.  When the Communist Party took over in the 1950s, and with it an absolute intolerance for religion, the brothers split up and fled to foreign countries: Burma, Thailand, and Taiwan.  Only one brother would make it back to see their home again after religious tolerance became more accepted in the 1980s under Deng Xiao Ping.  The courtyard provided a beautiful setting for lunch:

 

We then walked around town, and got to go inside the mosque (notice the crescent star on the building):

 

 

 

After Dong Lian Hua, we traveled back to Dali to see some Pagodas.  First, Frank took us to the Snake Bone pagoda, which is a little outside of town and off the beaten path.  No tourists here!

 

We then rented our bikes and took a quick ride up to the Three Pagodas, which our guidebook tells us is one of the most photographed sites in all of China.  Frank advised us not to go in, as the park is small and the entrance fee is astronomical (close to US$40).

 

 

Our second day began with a ~45km bike ride along the Erhai Lake.  On our way to the lake, we stopped at a Catholic Church in the center of Dali.  It is still used today by the town’s few hundred Catholic residents.

 

A few pictorial highlights from our bike ride…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is Frank, communing with local school children.

 

After lunch, we drove up to the town of Shaxi, which is halfway between Dali and Lijiang.  We took a ~2 hour walk into town before settling in for the night.  More on Shaxi later.

To end, first a picture of the outside of our hotel.

 

And, as those of you who know me, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this little puppy owned by the folks at the bike shop.  She was cute and feisty!

 

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Day 3 (June 22, 2014): Travel to Yunnan Province

The Quick Facts

* Flew from Hong Kong to the city of Kunming, which is in the southwestern Yunnan province in China
* Met up with our tour guide for the week, Frank Hitman, of Zouba Tours (www.zoubatours.com)
* Made the ~5 hour drive from Kunming to Dali, stopping for lunch in Nanhua (the self-proclaimed mushroom kingdom of China) and in Yunnanyi along the way

The Good:

* With the beginning of rainy season comes the beginning of mushroom season, and our first meal in China was chock full of really delicious wild mushrooms
* The trading town of Yunnanyi – we toured an old horse and trader hotel used by traders on the tea-horse trading route that extended from Tibet in the north down into Southeast Asia 

The Bad:

* Nada – so far so good

After the ~2 hour flight from Hong Kong into Kunming, which is in the southwestern province of Yunnan, we met up with our tour guide, Frank:

 

Frank is from the Netherlands, and moved to China about six years ago without knowing the language.  Since then, he has learned to speak near-perfect mandarin (one of the highlights of the trip is to see the reaction of the local people when Frank starts speaking to them in Mandarin) and started his own tour company.  More on Frank later, but I highly recommend his tours if you ever want to get a non-touristy, active, outdoorsy look at the Yunnan province.

 

Yunnan province is in the southwestern part of China.  The province sits on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with the Himalayas to the northwest and Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam to the South.  Strategically, the province contained the central routes of the Ancient Tea and Horse Trading Route, which connected China with Southeast Asia for thousands of years.  It’s about the size of California, and has beautiful mountains and fertile valleys, as well as the headwaters for three of Asia’s most important rivers: the Yangtze, Mekong, and Salween . There are also many minority cultures represented here-- of the 57 recognized ethnic groups in China, 27 of them live in Yunnan province.

Our major stop along the way from Kunming to Dali was at an old hotel in the town of Yunnanyi used by horses and traders in the old days.  It’s now a museum.  The village itself is small, here is the main road.  It is still inhabited today.

 

 

We eventually got to the hotel/museum.

 

First off this is the courtyard where the horses would be kept; people slept upstairs.

 

A better view of the rooms…

 

 

This is very common at hotels and public buildings in China: a map.  This one, made out of horsehoes, depicts the various roads and trading routes leading into/out of China and its neighboring countries.  The center of the map is Dali, and it extends south to southeast asia, north to Tibet and India, and east to Kunming.

This old hotel also pays homage to the Flying Tigers, the name for an American volunteer air squadron led by Claire Chennault, operating in the country at the request of then-leader Chiang Kai-Shek.  The Flying Tigers, so-called because of the paintings on their planes, helped protect the western Chinese border from the advances of Japan during World War II.  Although, they look more like flying sharks to me.  Just sayin'...

 

 

 

 

Before heading out, we stopped to visit a friend of Frank’s who owns a restaurant.  There was a group of school girls there celebrating their recent graduation.  They were very excited to get pictures with Carrie.  Can you blame them?

 

 

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Days 1-2 (June 20 – June 21, 2014): Hong Kong

The Quick Facts

* Bigda and Donaldson are back on the road!  This time for a much much shorter trip.
* Trip will include a couple days in Hong Kong and a week in rural western China
* First stop: Hong Kong for the wedding of one of my good friends from college
* Stayed at KG Garden Guest House in Mirador Mansion in Kowloon -- very clean and good wifi, interesting setting (see below), BUT it was cheap and did the job

 

The Good:

* Our first Hong Kong wedding – so great to catch up with old friends and to see one of them get hitched to a wonderful lady.
* Hong Kong itself – we didn’t spend much time in the city, but it’s surprisingly walkable and the people are very nice for such a big city
* The skyline is beautiful

The Bad:

* Well, it’s typhoon season here so we had to deal with a decent amount of rain.  Didn’t stop us though.

Our first trip in about a year inspired by the wedding of a friend of mine from college.  After enduring a ~24 hour trip, we managed to find our way to the guesthouse we booked (hotels are really expensive and, well, we’re cheap) only to be greeted by a 20 minute long line of people waiting to use the elevator.  They were all Asian travelers…we were the only white people we saw in this building.  Which means we got an authentic Asian travel experience!  The room we had was very clean and the wifi worked great…but the outside of the building left a little to be desired:

 

 

We had one day to explore Hong Kong before the wedding.  Our hotel was in Kowloon, so we took the ferry across the Harbour to the Hong Kong side, which provided for some great views of the skyline:

 

 

We then found what apparently is a popular spot for dim sum: Tim Ho Wan.  We couldn’t make it to the original location in Kowloon so had to settle for a newer outpost near the train station, but it was still very good and, more importantly, very cheap.  Also, very popular with the Asian tourists – amongst this crowd we only saw one other western person!

 

Full from lunch, we spent $0.64 (total) for a ride on the tram that traverses Des Voeux Road.

 

Finally, we walked around Kowloon Park which was near our hotel.  It’s nice to see they preserved so much green space!  And they had an AWESOME public pool, we wished we had brought our bathing suits!

With the day’s activities done, we headed over to my buddy Travis’s wedding, where we got to witness a traditional tea ceremony before a more western-style wedding reception.  Congrats Travis and Bonnie!

 

Follow me on Twitter at @adonaldson1214