Chengdu, Kunming, Dali, Lijang and Shangri-La

Chengdu is actually a beautiful city now that I look back on it. It was great walking in the parks and watching people dancing, singing opera and doing their daily exercises. This sort of a thing is such a big thing in China and the parks are beautiful and make it so easy for the locals to escape the city noise and get into a calm, peaceful and beautiful environment again. The chinese really love their flowers and their plants and the daily exercise whether it's in the form of dancing or Tai Chi is done in the parks which are nestled all over the cities. Chengdu also has streets with very old architecture and beautiful pagodas but like everywhere and everything in China, everything old gets a facelift and even though it looks gorgeous the old charm is lost. But it was nice to spend a day walking through these parks and old streets.
And then I was ready for Kunming. The capital of the southern state of Yunnan. I have been hearing loads about this southern state and it's beauty and it being so close to Tibet I was excited to mo move on. I think a night under the stars seemed like a great idea at the time but the train ride to Kunming was not a pleasant one. I was on hard sleeper all the way and trying to get rid of the cold i'd caught. Anyway, arriving in Kunming was like arriving in just another big chinese city. But it was nice because here I met some old friends that I had made in Beijing and Namtso. But there isnot much to see in Kunming itself and it would be a bad idea to get stuck here for a whole week so I decided to join the guys and go to Dali and Lijang. Every traveller I have met along the way has told me how beautiful these places are. On thebus ride to Dali I found Alex, Anthony, Matt and Oliver, who were to look after me for the rest of the week. It's great travelling with them because they all speak a bit of chinese. French students living and working in China. They have helped me to see the nicer side of China and I think I am finally starting to like it here. There are a lot of foreigners coming to China to work and study. Great opportunities here I'm told. But I still can't see myself living here for a long time. Anyway, the guys are great, funny and easy going and we had a great bus ride. Arriving in Dali I also met Irish Angela and so now we have a new team. Another great one.
Angela and I walked to the fields where we saw the harvest in full progress. The women here work really hard. A lot of the ethnic minorities we saw along the way to Shangri-la have the same lifestyle. The women work really hard on the fields, looking after the children and the men teach the children 'culture':) After the walk through the hills we went to the lake and had a boat ride in a little green canoe. It was great to be on the lake in the evening. The lake is surrounded by mountains and the scenery all around is just stunning. Dali is a beautiful little town. It's nice to be away from the big cities and in the countryside and there small little, beautiful places. The 1st was National day so we spent the monday walking around Dali and got to see lots of traditional dances which was great. Such colourful costumes. This week all the chinese are travelling and onMonday Dali was absolutely packed with chinese tourists and also people in traditional dress who had come from the nearby villages. It was just great to walk around and take it all in.
That evening we all took the bus to Lijang and when we arrived there it felt like we were in a fairytale city. It was just so pretty. And we all felt that we wanted to stay there forever. Red chinese lanterns lighting our paths, traditional chinese roofs everywhere and little canals with fishes and bridges all through the town. It was just idyllic in a setting in the hills among the trees and as we came into Lijang, the sight was just breathtaking. It gave us all such a high. Arriving in a beautiful city in China, we walked around, found beds, dumped our stuff and went to explore the town further. Dinner, a few beers and we had a great night. Next day, though the reality kicked in. This old part of Lijang, renovated and rebuilt after the earthquake is just a one image. When we walked out of the old walls and out of this fairytale part to go get bus tickets we saw that outside of the walls, it waslike any other chinese city, poor, dirty, and everyday life carrying on as normal.
We got our tickets...moving on to Tiger Leaping Gorge, walked around the market, had noodles at the local stall and got ready to leave on the evening bus. It's so much nicer travelling with the guys,not just coz they are funny and warm but also because they speak chinese. We see a different side of China,a nicer side.
Taking the bus that evening we got to a little ghost town that night, managed to get ourselves a really nice hotel for only 20 yuan, and get ready for the trek the next day. It was going to a very early start. We were up and ready to walking at 4 in the morning. We didn't wanna pay the entrance fee to the gorge and this early in the morning the ticket office would be closed and the people sleeping.
We were ready for a long 2 days of trekking in the gorge but instead Angela and I are in Shangri-la this evening. I love travelling this way. I never ever know what's coming next. The trek along the gorge was breathtaking and since we were up so early, we managed todo it all in a day.
Shangri-La however, was a bit of a dissapointment after being in Tibet. It's supposed to be a Tibetan city but really it's just a big specially built city to bring in more tourism and it's built by the chinese as their versionof Tibet.
But as night felt, there was a great atmosphere and everyone gathered in the main square. Suddenly there was Naxi (the localethnic minority in the region) music playing and all the locals started to form circles and dance. It was amazing to watch, each dance had a special choreography and it was the old dancing alongside the young, women in traditional dress alongside those in the latest western fashion. Everywhere in the world it seems somehow people manage to come together and create a sense of community. We joined in and the locals tried their best to teach us but I guess they had been dancing those dances all their lives and most of us foreigners had two left feet. But it was just warming to be there and share a few moves with the locals. It's so rare for us to find such an atmosphere back home.