Lijiang, leaping tigers, leeches and loos with a view
With Katie restored to good health we embarked on an 8 hour bus journey from Kunming to Lijiang. The bus was ultra-modern – I haven’t been on such a plush bus in the UK. It had aeroplane type seats and a hostess. Very comfy compared to some we have been on. We met a Canadian couple on the bus who were teaching English in Guangzhou. They were going to Shangri-La which was a bit further on than Lijiang. If you have read the book “Lost Horizon” or seen the old black and white film you will know all about Shangri-La. Anyway, after a very pleasant journey through the mountains we arrived in Lijiang in the early evening. There is a modern town and an old walled town. Well it was old until it was demolished by an earthquake about 10 years ago so they have reconstructed it. It is quite touristy, having lots of shops selling crafts and souvenirs but is very pleasant, especially at night when the streets are all lit up. There is no traffic in the old town and there are lots of little streams and bridges (a bit reminiscent of Venice). We had a pleasant meal in a restaurant by a stream (accompanied by a very bad saxophonist – but that is better than the usual Chinese music which reminds me of two tomcats fighting on a tin roof).
The next day we explored the town and visited a lovely house which although reconstructed was very authentic. It had beautiful gardens with lots of water running through and lovely trees. The Chinese really know how to do a garden. In the afternoon we visited another huge garden which has a lake and we climbed a couple of hills for a good view over the town and the mountains in the distance. The next day we caught another bus to Qiaotou which is at the start of Tiger Leaping Gorge, the real reason we had come to Lijiang. Getting off the bus in Qiaotou we were met by a woman called Margo who runs a cafe there. She gave us some maps of the gorge and Katie had cheese on toast (she gets withdrawal symptoms if she doesn’t have cheese every day!). Then we set off on our hike. The path was quite gradual to start with and wound along the gorge through fields of corn and sunflowers and trees. We passed through a little village after about 2 hours and then we started the serious climbing. This section of the path is called 26 bends (or 24 or 28 depending on who is counting) and is very steep indeed. It was also extremely hot and humid but we made it to the top where a woman was selling cold(ish) drinks. The rest of the way was lovely, through woods with lots of wild flowers and butterflies and great views of the Yangtze at the bottom of the gorge and the mountains on the other side. We reached our accommodation for the night, Half Way Guesthouse. If you have Michael Palin’s Himalaya book he describes the place much better than me. The house clings to the hillside and the bedrooms look out on the gorge with fantastic views. The toilet is supposed to have the best view of any toilet in the world! And the food was fantastic as well because it is all home grown – I swear I spoke to my dinner ( a chicken) earlier in the day! So we sat on the veranda eating and drinking cold beer as it got dark. The next day we hired a guide for a walk up to about 4000m. You have to have a guide because the maps are non-existent or very poor. They are mainly artistic impressions of the topography and owe nothing to scale or contours making navigation impossible (of which more later!) But we followed our guide and reached our peak by lunchtime. On the way up we saw him pulling things off his trousers and looking down we realised that ours were also covered in leeches. Horrible things. On arriving back at the guesthouse I went to have a shower and couldn’t at first see where all the blood was coming from. However when I was getting dressed I found a huge fat leech clinging to the waistband of my trousers. It had had a good feast from my back! The wound wouldn’t stop bleeding – it bled through a plaster and another dressing and in the end I had to spend the evening with a wodge of toilet paper stuck to my back! But eventually it stopped.
The following morning we set off to complete our walk through the gorge which went swimmingly until we had to find the ferry across the Yangtze (Gerry Marsden could get another hit out of that!) The map indicated it was just round the next bend (Been there, Iain??) but several km further on and we still hadn’t found it. I asked a woman and she showed us the track (cost me 5 yuan for the directions) but even then it was difficult to find the actual ferry crossing point. When we eventually got here the boat was on the other side and the ferry man waved to us and then just sat down and watched us from the other side. When he felt we had waited for long enough he brought the boat across for us. I’ve never seen so much rust on a boat! Anyway we got across and hauled ourselves up out of the gorge to be greeted by a man who said his friend had a taxi. By this stage we had both run out of water and it very hot so we decided to take him up on his offer as it was still a little way to the village where we wanted to catch the bus. However, the Chinese don’t seem to have grasped the basics of the client/service provider relationship. I had always assumed that if I was paying a taxi driver I would be taken where I wanted to go, in this case Daju. However, he wanted to take us to Lijiang (at a cost of around 300 yuan – the bus is 30 yuan) and he couldn’t be bothered to take us to Daju. So parched as we were we set off to walk to Daju. Fortunately after a little way we found an inn and bought lots of cold drinks. Here we encountered another typically Chinese scenario. They will tell you anything to get you to stay at their guesthouse or go in their taxi or eat at their restaurant and you can’t tell whether it is the truth or not. So it came as no surprise when the woman at the inn said that there wouldn’t be a bus until the morning and we should stay at her place. We had been told the buses ran until 6pm so we declined her offer – and they always get really miffed if you refuse!) and walked up to Daju. Where it was confirmed that the next bus was at 6.40am. So we stayed the night in the Snowflake Hotel. This was a very nice place where we had a late lunch, dinner, breakfast, two beers, a twin room and the bus tickets back to Lijiang all for 187 yuan. So if ever you are in Tiger Leaping Gorge I have three tips: stay at the Half Way Guesthouse where you can squat on the same toilet as Michael Palin, take the NEW ferry across the Yangtze NOT the old one and stay at the Snowflake Hotel in Daju.
After a breakfast of pancakes we got the bus back to Lijiang. Most of the way we were on cobbled roads so I kept being bounced off my seat and my teeth were well rattled by the time we reached the main road. But the views of the mountains were superb as we bounced round hairpin bends avoiding the remnants of landslides. As we were back in Lijiang by about 10am we decided to get the bus back to Kunming the same day. So we arrived here late yesterday evening. We have bought some train tickets to take us to Guilin overnight – we should be there by lunchtime tomorrow. This will be our last major port of call before we head for Hongkong and our flight to Darwin on 14 September. At Guilin you can take a 6 hour boat trip to Yangshuo which apparently has some fantastic limestone scenery and is a very nice place. Will keep you posted…
By the way the public transport in China is excellent. The trains are on time, although very slow – I think something was lost when they translated the word “express”. The hard sleepers are good value and not too hard and a lot of trains have airconditioning. Hot water is supplied so you can do yourself noodles and make tea etc. The toilets leave something to be desired but then you can’t have everything. The buses come in a variety of guises. Buses in towns are a flat rate fare of 1 yuan (15 to the pound) so you can cover quite large distances very cheaply. Local buses tend to be of the rattletrap variety and fill up with people with baskets of veggies, walnuts, cats etc. The “express” buses as described above are much more comfortable but more expensive but still good value compared to anything in the UK. And we have had no trouble getting tickets for buses and trains even at short notice, contrary to what it says in the guidebooks. More news later.
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