Dali and Cangshan - the Jade Green Mountains

Sat, Jul 25

Mike

Got up, and dressed and showered. Curtis had a small bout requiring Imodium. Then, down for breakfast and to take care of some business.

Originally, we planned to take the overnight bus from Dali to Lijiang. However, once we got to Lijiang, we realized that it only takes 3 hours from Dali to Lijiang: there is no such thing as an overnight bus. We arranged to stay in Dali another night (and keep the same room at the same rate) then take the 8:30 AM bus on Jul 26.

Curtis had arranged for the hotel to wash his two days of laundry. When we walked out of the hotel, we found a laundry across the street. So, I arranged for that laundry to clean my two days of laundry (30 Y) - supposed to be ready by 9 PM tonight (let's hope).

We found an internet cafe that didn't give a damn about Chinese identity cards (didn't even take our passport number), so we got on and booked two nights of hotel in Lijiang (Lijiang Mosuo Yiyuan House [Erma House] for 170 Y a night) for Jul 26 to 28. We also booked Shuda Mansion in Chengdu for 228 Y a night for Jul 28 to 30. We are now fully booked through Jul 30. We also bought our bus ride to Lijiang for 45 Y apiece.

All that done, we noticed that there were two cable cars up Cangshan Mountain to the west (cang means dark blue-green and shan is of course mountain). We started walking to one of them. The driver of a motorized rickshaw pulled up and convinced us to pay him 20 Y to take us to the cable car. 8 km later, we were at the other cable car. It cost 80 Y to take the cable car, and 32 Y to get off the cable car on the mountain (admission).

At the top, we got out and walked a few meters to the Qingbi Spring, a pretty waterfall. There are trails going everywhere. The standard trail between the two cable systems,named "Jade-Cloud Road" after cloud formations that appear over the Cangshan peaks, is 11.5 km, and apparently goes by some stunningly beautiful stuff. But even 2 km at 2500 m of elevation (or so), going up and down and up and down stairs, was as much as we could do. We spent a while climbing up the creek bed into what they call the Grand Canyon of Cangshan Mountains.

We descended Cangshan. On the way up, we had passed the most beautiful looking peaches, both flattish and regular shaped. I was going to buy some, but instead only bought 5 bananas. Since it was starting to rain, at 14:30 we took a taxi from higher up back to town, and didn't pass by the vendors. As it goes, we didn't see those flat peaches again.

There is absolutely no evidence of earthquake damage in Dali, so far as we can see.

In Dali: back to the hotel, and then out into town. Curtis was looking for a seamstress to mend his day pack. We found a couple, man and wife. Using a very old sewing machine, the man stitched the pack back together. He asked for 5 Y (75¢); Curtis was overly generous, and gave him 10 Y. We stopped by a tea shop and had a bottle of Feng Huang Xue Yue beer (rather ordinary) and also a cup of Yunnan coffee (15 Y). Tasty coffee, but we have learned that REAL coffee is (relatively) expensive all over the world.

We headed on to the East Gate of the city. There we climbed the walls, which were just a high berm, and walked to the SE corner. No tourists or much of anybody inside the wall in this corner. As we turned to the south portion, we were forced off the wall. So we got onto the street outside, and followed the wall, which now was a bunch of rubble, overgrown with trees. Then, we went on to a piece of fairly new wall, with a few marijuana plants nearby.

After a bit we were back at the South Gate, and it was tourist city again. There were lots of women dressed in what passes for Bai costume - it seems to be a universal costume for hotel front desk workers, tourist assistants, etc. Now, we climbed a new piece of old wall, and headed west to the Southwest corner, then north for a bit on the west wall. There, our path was blocked.

So we got down (it was 6 PM by now) and walked back to the center of town. We walked back along the mosque we had seen from Cangshan Mountain. I asked the Chinese woman there, "Masjid?" and got stares. These minarets were deceptive: the “mosque” turned out to be a hotel and maybe some other buildings. Next door was a new development that looked exactly like a huge Buddhist temple, but was clearly going to be a shopping mall. It’s funny how the cultural symbols are being expropriated by the commercial developers.

We got out of the internet at 7:30 PM. Back to the hotel for Curtis to get his laundry - mine was not going to be ready until 9 PM or so. Out for dinner. Curtis had two sticks of kebab as an appetizer. Then we went to a restaurant and had beef with peanuts (delicious), fried goat cheese (served with sugar rather than salt and pepper), hot and sour cabbage (best of the set), and some routine julienned potato dish. Way too much food. In the middle of dinner, I hopped over to get my clothes.

Back to the hotel and to bed. It’s so nice to have really clean clothes.

Curtis

This morning we made our travel arrangements for Lijiang. Then we spent a little time wandering inside the fascinating old town, watching the street vendors set up shop, and getting our bearings. Even the local produce of fresh mushrooms, eggplant and peppers was displayed in colorful arrangements worthy of its own art form. Much of the architecture in the old walled city of Dali is in the Bai style from the Ming era, with some of it surviving from the 14th century. Tourism propels the local economy, and very few vehicles are allowed onto the old cobble stone streets, giving the whole town an archaic feel. The town is also very clean. There are ancient canals that bring mountain water right into the city. Our wanderings led us up a road to the west side of town in the direction of the Cangshan mountain range, when we noticed a rickshaw heading in our direction. Clearly the savvy driver smelled tourists. After a little negotiation, he convinced us that the best way up the mountain was by a different route. He took us to the entrance for the Austrian built cableway up Cang Shan (Dark Blue-green Mountain). At the top, we climbed around on rock-hewn stairways up and down through the Cang Shan "Grand Canyon," following a natural cascading stream. Quite beautiful: lots of mosses and lichens as well as wild orchids, butterfly bushes and other flora.

This afternoon we walked around the East and South gates of Dali and followed part of the restored city walls. These survive from the Ming era and reflect the same style of architecture seen in the widely photographed sections of China’s Great Wall. At the Nán Mén (South Gate), where most of the motorized traffic comes to a halt, you can see locals dressed in traditional Bai costumes. There were some models, waiting for a photo shoot, probably for a tourism brochure and others in costume perhaps waiting to guide tours or just to go to work at some hotel. Also a man selling rides for children in a wagon drawn by some kind of big horn sheep, and tourists from all over China and Europe taking photos and enjoying the mild afternoon weather.

Tomorrow we will take a 3 hour bus ride to Lijiang and see the city in the afternoon. Then the plan is to take a tour of some kind up to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Mike has booked us ahead through the 30th for Chengdu. We decided to take an extra night in Dali (here) tonight and fly from Lijiang to Chengdu instead of taking the overnight bus trip. Saw no reason to waste a day and a half on a stinky bus.

Weather here has been nice: occasional drizzle, especially up on the mountain, generally pleasant. We’re hoping for good weather in the gorge. I imagine it will be really hot again when we reach Sichuan, but we'll deal with that when we get there.