lijiang’s beauty

While I thought no other place in Yunnan could match up to Dali, I eventually grew to like Lijiang (even more than Dali) after spending 3 nights there.

Our guesthouse was in the Old Town of Lijiang, another famous UNESCO Heritage Site which is well known for the history and culture of its Naxi people. This old town seemed to be smack right in the middle of Lijiang city, which presented to us the distinctiveness between the old town and the modernized region of Lijiang. Most of the dwellings were just clustered along and near to water sources and hence the roads were mostly narrow and it can be rather confusing walking around the town.

OTL is indeed a townscape of high historic quality and authenticity, under the extensive preservation efforts by the local government. And of course with that comes preservation fees that tourists were required to pay for almost all of the town’s places of interest, which is why we didn’t do much sight-seeing over there. But nevertheless, just bumming around the old town makes Sharon a happy person!

On our first night, we attended this Naxi ancient music concert, famous for its ancient music instruments, music scores and old musicians (many of them were over 80 years old). Naxi music is supposedly the ‘living fossil’ of Chinese music and thus the Dayan Naxi Ancient Music Association was formed to help revive this traditional Naxi culture.

The concert went like this: A young Chinese lady introduced and provided some information to the upcoming music piece. With solemn and STRAIGHT faces, the musicians who were seemingly ASLEEP will uniformly retrieve their instruments. The conductor of the group echoed the title of the music piece and the music was played. This went on for about… an hour… and gradually… I found myself in lala-land. Don’t get me wrong, the music wasn’t horrible, it’s just that.. you know, it had been a long day, I was tired, and… maybe I just didn’t know how to appreciate it. ;p After about an hour, Xuan Ke, the president of the music association came onto stage and he took over the role of the MC. I then found myself awake again. He can really talk non-stop, like NON-STOP. He cracked occasional jokes in Chinese and English (with a straight face) and it seemed that only four of us were laughing them. Oh! And he praised us! For attending the concert, despite the young generation idolizing pop singers (he used Jay Chou as an example). I think he didn’t see me falling asleep. Nonetheless, I could sense his passion for ancient music and I really respect him for that.

Due to monetary constraints as sight-seeing was so expensive in Lijiang (!!!), we were torn apart between visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Eventually, we decided on the snow mountain as the weather was then pretty unpredictable with occasional showers which could make the gorge a wasted trip. Horse riding up the mountains was fun!

My back AND backSIDE was aching after that though. The mountains were so named as the chain of peaks resembled a dragon lying amid the clouds. Each of us sat on a horse with a personal guide. My guide is a handsome chap, who made me a crown from leaves and branches. But I was too shy to take pics of him. SHEESH. What a waste. This is the only photo I got hold of:

The horse ride was pretty interesting, great scenery, fresh air and mountain songs from our guides every now and then. And our horses would occasionally stop and poo or pee. Felt weird that they’re doing it when you’re on their back you know. yucks. Oh, I remember that somehow, Tinghui was always lagging behind the group. Seldom in sight. Hahaha.

Tinghui’s slow and steady guide:

Lijiang’s beauty captured me. I love those mornings where the girls and I would take a morning stroll to a random café, order a cup of coffee and read the national geographic magazines. Sitting by the hot stove for dinner during cold evenings and chatting with random travelers, listening to their stories and envying them. 100% relaxation. How nice. =)

3 nights ain’t enough. I’d wanna visit Lijiang again!