Yunnan

Sorry it's taken so long for me to get this post up!!


Yunnan Trip
At 4:30 a.m. on November 9, my group left for the Chongqing airport to catch our flight to Kunming, Yunnan, China. For those of you who don't know, Yunnan is a province in Southwest China (right below Sichuan). 

Our plan was to fly to Kunming (the capital of Yunnan), spend the day there and then take the train to Dali that night and sleep on the train. Then, we would spend about half a day in Dali and take a bus to Lijiang and spend the rest of our excursion there (until November 13). We were all really excited for this trip. Not only did we get out of classes for a few days, but Yunnan is known for having the most ethnic diversity in China, so it is a very interesting place.

We actually spent most of our day in Kunming at the Stone Forest, which is actually in the Kunming area- not the city. It was a really cool place. The stone formations are all natural and they used to be under water... however I am a little confused about how they were formed.

the Stone Forest

Luke, Kia, Cindy, Rachel & Bert wearing minority clothing
(& yes, Bert is wearing women's minority clothing haha)

After visiting the Stone Forest, we went back to the city to have dinner and see a performance called "Dynamic Yunnan". This performance was about the minorities in Yunnan. They sang and danced based on the customs of several different minorities.

Our group at the Three Pagodas in Dali

Our time in Dali was actually extremely short. I think it would’ve been cool to spend more time there. By early or mid afternoon, we were already on our bus ride to Lijiang.

We got to Lijiang around 7 pm. We met our guide, Paul, and he showed us to our hostel in the Ancient Town. We all got some time to shower before meeting for dinner. Kia, Chris and I were ready a little early so we asked Paul if there was anything fun to do in Lijiang for free. So he brought us to a little shop that plays music and you can play African drums to the music. It is a little bit hard to explain, but there are shops like this all over the Ancient Town in Lijiang. This was something that we went back to do a few times while we were in Lijiang.  After that we had dinner, wandered around a little, and then I went to bed early.

The next day (11/11/11) was my favorite day of the whole trip. We went to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain near Lijiang. It was absolutely gorgeous! We took chair lifts about halfway up the mountain because you can’t actually go all the way up- or at least no one who has tried has ever survived. It was cool just going that far up though because there was a beautiful meadow. There were yaks grazing in the meadow. There was a little bit of snow, so a few of us had a little snowball fight.

meadow/field at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

After we went back down the mountain, we went to this river that is the bluest river I have ever seen. This was especially cool because pretty much all the rivers I have seen in China are brownish. I think it is so blue because of some minerals. Anyway, there was also a little waterfall in this river and an area where you could just hang out by the river. From this place, there was an amazing view of the mountains.

the Blue River and the mountains

waterfall at the Blue River

That night, Paul brought Kia, Chris, Axel & me to see a great view of Lijiang from up on a hill. It was so beautiful! After that, some of us went to meet the other people from our group at one of the music bars. I was ready to dance, but it ended up being a little too crazy for me in that bar… within about 10 minutes of being there, an old man (I think he must have been in his 70s) kissed my hand and then licked it… so I was ready to leave again. Paul offered to walk me back. But on the way back, we saw these two guys playing guitar and singing on one of the bridges, so we stopped to listen to them until they finished (around midnight). There were a lot of amazing experiences during my Yunnan trip, but my favorite thing was listening to those guys playing guitar on the bridge.

Lijiang ancient town at night

The next day, we went to Tiger Leaping Gorge. This gorge is supposedly really famous, but I have to be honest that it did not stand a chance after my experience at Golden Knife Gorge earlier in the semester. However, it was cool to see the Yangtze River and to see how strong it was. And it was still a really good time to just hang out with everyone. On the way back to Lijiang (because the gorge is a few hours away), we stopped at a village and visited the home of an old minority couple. Both the husband and the wife were really kind. The woman even brought us some walnuts to eat. I thought it was pretty cool to just stop by a home and see what it looked like.

The next day was a free day. Kia and I were going to rent a couple of bikes and go around Lijiang. However, we changed our minds when we found out we needed to make a deposit of 200 kuai each. So instead, we just wandered around Lijiang Ancient Town buying souvenirs and enjoying the sunshine.

ancient town streets in Lijiang

After wandering around for a while, we sat down by the little river that runs through the Ancient Town. And while we were sitting we saw a drowning dragonfly… Kia adores dragonflies, so she really wanted to save it. And to make a long story short, I decided to save the day and retrieve this dragonfly from the water for her (although at this point, we thought it was dead). We used the branch of a weeping willow and tied a little cloth bag with a rock in it to the other end (so it would have some weight). Anyway… I eventually got the dragonfly to float towards us and I picked it out of the water. And to our surprise, it was still alive.  Hahaha so maybe we are a little crazy, but we had a fun day :-)

the dragonfly that Kia & I saved from the little river in the ancient town

That night, Paul brought Kia, Chris and I out for dinner so we could try Lijiang hotpot. It was definitely different than Chongqing hotpot, but I really enjoyed it! We also had some really good conversation at dinner. It was a perfect end to an amazing trip!!

Our tour guide, Paul, & me
He is holding a mini drum that Kia & I gave him as a gift.