From Chengdu we flew south to Lijiang in the neighbouring province of Yunnan. Another mountainous Tibetan stronghold, Yunnan is also the home of the Naxi, yet another of China’s little known of minorities. Dark fermented Pu’er tea and coffee are grown here, as well as a lot of yak milk cheese and yogurt.
Lijiang has an extensive “Old City” which is a maze of narrow, car free, cobblestone streets, squares, and bridges that weave randomly between fish filled canals; like an oriental Venice. The town is actually twined with Takayama in Japan, which is very similar both in ambience and size, which was one of the highlights of my Japan trip, so I had a good feeling about this place. The town was almost decimated by an earthquake in 1996, but was lovingly restored, enough to guarantee it UNESCO world heritage status in 1997, and now is a rather quaint place to spend a relaxing few days to leisurely explore. Here we took some time to adjust to a slower pace after such a hectic start to our China trip.
We spent our first day vaguely trying to get out head around the somewhat confusing geography of the rabbit warren of street, before deciding it didn’t much matter as the street were so full of interesting shops and picturesque alleys that any unintended detour was usually welcomed anyway.
We had dinner outside in a small canal side restaurant where we tried Naxi fried pork, which is a little like a less sour gong bao, but without peanuts, sizzling beef with ginger sauce, and a plate of stir fried local mountain mushrooms.
Day two started off with a walk to the Black Dragon Pool on the northern extent of the old town. This a Qing (not to be confused with Qin) dynasty park that meanders around a lake with a central pavilion and bridge that has the stunning back drop of the Jade Snow mountain. This is one of the most compulsory photo opportunities in south China, and while the peak is rarely free of cloud, very satisfying none the less. After a slow beer in the park we made our way back toward the south side of town climbing upwards to visiting the “Looking at the Past Pavillion”, which sits up on a hill overlooking the town. Making our way back down we visited the Mu Palace, the residence of a wealthy Naxi family that was a very pleasant series of buildings, garden, ponds and courtyards in the classic Chinese style. It also contains a Daoist temple, which had figures of the ‘three pure ones’.
We also found a small street of food stalls where I had a mountain goat kebab and a squid kebab, and tried some of the Naxi bread Pali, which is a little like Malaysian Roti. I also bought some awesome new trainers that have divided toes.
In the evening we tried a Tibetan restaurant where we had some Yak and Pork dumplings, deep fried cheese balls made from very mild Yak’s milk and some Tibetan bread, which comes in small puffs as sort of cross between Pitta and Nan, and is eaten with honey.
The flowing day was spend mostly sitting in cafes, or wandering around the shops buying tea and local handmade shawls, or embroiders clothing, and for me catching up on journal writing!
Pictures
Lijiang