Day 4: Lijiang

Saturday morning we woke up around 8am and had breakfast at the hostel. I tried explaining “scrambled eggs” to them, but they really only know fried eggs. We had some trouble deciding what to do, but finally decided we’d rent bikes and bike to Baisha. Laura had found a great place to rent bikes, where they provided a hand made map of the entire area which included how to get to Baisha, Snow Jade Dragon Mountain, etc. Originally Laura and I both wanted to go to Snow Jade Dragon Mountain, but the cab ride alone would have cost about 100RMB each way, and the entrance fee to enter the mountain was even more expensive. Since Laura was more on a strict budget, we opted to walk to the bike place and pay the 15RMB for a bike for the entire day.

I really love biking in China. I am thrilled that I’ve had the opportunity to explore such interesting (not necessarily attractive) places by bike. It’s empowering when you transport yourself and don’t need a car, train, bus, or whatever to see something. I know I took a plane to get to Kunming, and a bus to go from Kunming to Lijiang, but biking around Lijiang was awesome. Surrounded by mountains and breathable air, the atmosphere was quite refreshing, especially when compared to the snowy, rainy, cold, poorly heated Shanghai that I had left earlier that week.

We had trouble finding the actual entrance to Baisha. Maybe people wore “traditional” clothing which consisted of a blue type dress and a white apron (I believe), but I’m skeptical as to whether it is genuine or if they just wear it for show to help the tourist industry there. Laura’s book spoke about Dr. Ho (pronounced heeh) who is supposed to be a miracle worker. We find his home to be covered in magnified newspaper articles, clippings, letters, and business cards from travelers all over the world, including Michael Palin (from Monty Python’s Flying Circus). In Baisha we wanted to go to an area that was known for its mosaics or paintings, or something, but we were unable to find it. A lady in Baisha immediately greeted us when we entered, and kept trying to have us follow her to her home to drink tea. While a bit flattered, Laura and I assumed it was just a way for them to make money. We weren’t sure if you were supposed to give them money afterwards for the tea or not, so we just kept telling here we weren’t thirsty (in Chinese), and she eventually found some other tourists to invite to her house. Before leaving though, she did show us a guestbook with people from all of the world—written in a variety of languages. Because we had a big breakfast, we skipped lunch and accidently got lost after leaving Baisha. To ride to Baisha was about 8k and it would have been another 8k back. We had originally wanted to go to a temple which was another 10k or so, and as much as I wanted to go, Laura wasn’t comfortable going that far on the bike since she hadn’t been biking in awhile. While I was disappointed, we reached a semi-compromise by just biking on a random path that went through orchards, farmland, cows, etc. When we reached the main road we saw honey vendors. The bees were behind the small shack of a building where the shop (and I’m assuming their home) was set up. There was a fancy building next to the honey place and the back part of the building had a beautiful garden. We tried going down the dirt road to see more of the garden, but it was protected and sectioned off by barbed wire. This was not the first time we had seen barbed wire during the trip. At the park we went to on Friday, there was barbed wire on the bushes/greenery that prevented you from going into the woods off some of the paths. I can understand barbed wire to prevent people from going onto your property, but barbed wire at a park? Ridiculous!

When we biked past the bike place, there was a huge stage set up in front of the Mao Zedong statute in the main area. Some girl was singing. We slowed down but kept going because we had originally wanted to go to the Lion pagoda. Unfortunately either our book was wrong, the map was wrong or the pagoda just did not exist. People didn’t give us clear directions of how to get there, nor did they really seem to know where it was. So we gave up and returned the bikes to the shop.

Following that we ate dinner at a restaurant recommended by my book. While the food was good, the service was SLOW. We had an amazing tofu dish that used a specialty tofu from the area. It was a light dish served with red and green peppers. I think this was the most enjoyable tofu dish I’ve ever had, unfortunately I just don’t remember the name.

After dinner we decided to go to find a bar and have a few drinks, but most places had ridiculously loud BOOM BOOM music, and I’m sure it also had expensive drinks to boot. We found a decent looking place with live music, but the only table that was open was right next to the speakers, so I couldn’t hear myself think let alone hear Laura. I was being a bit of a wet blanket, so we didn’t drink anything. Instead we walked back towards the main square in the old city, arm in arm since it was cold. Next thing we know, about 20-25 Chinese people come running towards us. They surround us in a circle, hand-in-hand, and start running around us in a big circle while chanting, “sing a song! Sing a song! Sing a song!” Laura and I looked at each other like, “oh my goodness what the heck is going on?!” but we complied and sang Happy Birthday to them in Chinese. They laughed and clapped, and just like that they broke the circle and dispersed. Befuddled, Laura and I looked at each other and I just said, “Let’s go get a drink”, and we did. We found this hole in the wall bar near our hotel. It was lovely because it had pillows and sofa type seating, but was fairly small. We explained what a vodka red bull drink was, and we negotiated a price with them. Everyone else there was (for the most part local) Chinese, so they were delighted and surprised when we sat down. The owner of the bar had two dogs—a little puppy no older than 6 weeks, and another dog who couldn’t have been more than a year old. The owner of the bar started it so he could play his music… and that’s what he did. Laura and I had a drink or two and just listened to this guy play the guitar for an hour or two. Despite the ambush after dinner, listening to this man play the guitar in a small room with two dogs and many random Chinese people really was the best way to spend our last night on vacation.