Lijiang - home of the Naxi people

We headed to Lijiang for another weekend trip. Lijiang is a remote town that lies at bottom of the Himalayas and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at 2,400 meters altitude. It is truly one of the best preserved ancient town in China - we weren't disappointed.

A colorful group of Naxi women passed us. For about 1400 years, the Lijiang area has been home to the Naxi people, a distinct minority thought to be descended from the Tibetan Qiang tribes.

Our friend Haba and Bastian were always on the hunt for some local delicacies...

Evelyn was happy as well: The old town is full with little shops selling souvenirs such as carvings, clothes, leather and bags.

Evelyn took another amazing shot of a Naxi woman. This is one of our favorite pictures and it represents Lijiang's population very well: rich in tradition, hospitable and friendly people!

We walked through numerous cobbled streets, crisscrossing canals flowing with water, swaying willow trees and gaily-hued blossoms. Every so often, a bridge - stone, wooden, flat, arched, roofed - pops up and along it trundles local folk in traditional dress.

Naxi minority has the largest population in this region. The Naxi generally dress in blue clothing that reminds one of “Mao suits.”

The Old Town which occupies an area of three point eight square kilometers has a history of more than 800 years. The Lijiang old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges.

People in old Town of Lijiang depend on water for existence. Black Dragon Pool is the main water source of the town and subdivides into many streams which can reach every family and every street in the town.

The women were washing vegetables, dishes and clothes in the river next to the walkway.

When both of us were ready for a rest, Haba brought us to his 'secret' place that not a lot of tourists know about. Its the only house that has a roof top and offers a fantastic view of ancient Lijiang. We were sure that Haba had a few dates up here ;-)
The town has a history going back more than 800 years and was once a center for trade along the old tea horse road. We decided to explore one of the local markets...

We were amazed how fresh and colorful all the vegetables were. Despite the altitude, the land around Lijiang is fertile and the people grow all sorts of food including one of our favorites: potatoes.

Bastian was keen to see some of the more exotic foods so Haba brought us to a shady barn with many different animals. You can buy anything: chicken...

...rabbits...

... and to Evelyn's disgust: even cute dogs, cat, and many other not so yammi animals!

We decided to go for something different: Traditional Naxi food... We enjoyed the fried potatos (Bratkartoffeln) with dried meat and fresh vegetable. It was one of the best dishes we had in China.

It was already getting late so we walked up to our guesthouse which was located on the hillside of Lijiang.

On the way we saw a basketball court in the middle of traditional architecture. Basketball is sports No.1 and the kids' favorite is of course: the NBA star Yao Ming.

Haba and Bastian are enjoying a final view of Lijiang Old Town. We knew that the next days were getting exhausting as we planned to go all the way up to Shangri-La at over 3,000m altitude.

The setting of the hotel is nice as it overlooks Lijiang. The decor of the guest house is spectacular and the owner put so much emphasis on traditional designs.

Bastian did not care too much about the wonderful traditional decorations and furniture. He was so tired that he fell asleep in his clothing... ;-)

Longji Rice Terraces and 'Long-hair' women

We drove about 100 km from Guilin to the Longji Rice Terraces. On the way, we stopped at a Yao village. Yao people are distinctive by their colorful national dress and often the women will have extremely long hair which is coiled up on top of their head.

The village was remote and built in a valley. We walked along the river, but could not see any 'Long-hair' women...

Once we reached the center of the village, we finally spotted several Yao women and they invited us to take pictures.

During summer time, the Yao women wash their hair at the river. It was spring and if Bastian had known before that the lady did not wash her hair for at least 9 months, he wouldn't have done the below picture...

After our short excursion to the Yao people, we moved on to Longji rice terraces. Longji (Dragon's Backbone) received its name because the rice terraces resemble a dragon's scales, while the summit of the mountain range looks like the backbone of the dragon.

Hiking up the rice terraces was really fun. Unfortunately, spring time has lots of rain and heavy fog. Visibility was low and the higher we walked the less we could see...

Then suddenly, the sky cleared up and we had a beautiful view of the rice terraces. Wow, it was really magnificent...

Well, its actually a poster and we had to pay 1 RMB for this ;-)

Back to school at Yunnan University (Kunming)

During the week in Kunming our learning schedule was quite tough. Every day, we had four to five hours private lessons and needed to learn 30 vocabulary a day. By Friday, we were completely exhausted and traveling was a nice change...

We took our lessons at Yunnan University in Kunming. The classrooms were quite cosy, but always a bit smelly...

Later we found out that the house master was drying his fish and pork overnight in the classrooms (see evidence below)...

In the afternoons we were hanging out with friends, but oftentimes spend time in the local coffee shops studying (our teacher was a little strict!)...

This is not fake... Bastian sometimes could barely keep his eyes open!

Cormorant Fishing in Guilin and Yangshuo

We woke up at 7am and did some last minute packing. But before we could enjoy another nice weekend trip, we had to work through 4 hours of Chinese lessons... We hurried to the airport and took a 1-hour flight to Guilin.

Guilin is surrounded by thousands of unique-shaped limestone hills and peaks and bordered on on side by the Li River.

Guilin and Yangshuo are the perfect place to take a break from the city. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Yangshuo directly at the Yulong River.

Evelyn in action... unfortunately, the weather was not the best for photography.

One of the highlights was definitely a tour on the Yulong River. We were sitting on narrow bamboo rafts and enjoyed the beautiful Chinese mountain scenery as we were gliding through the river...

The ride takes about 2 hours and it was freezing so we covered ourselves in a warm blanket... and yes, this is Bastian (you can see the long nose!).

For the evening we booked tickets for the Impression Liu Sanjie Lightshow, set to the music from the movie of the same name and produced by the same person that did the Beijing Olympic games opening ceremony.

Getting ready for day two in Yangshuo...

When it was getting dark, we joined one of the local cormorant fishermen on his tour. The Cormorant fishing is a traditional fishing method in which fishermen use trained cormorants to fish in rivers.

There are only a few cormorant fishermen left and ours was one of the oldest and most experienced. It was fascinating to watch the man and the birds in action.

To control the birds, the fishermen tie a snare near the base of the bird's throat. This prevents the birds from swallowing larger fish, which are held in their throat, but the birds can swallow smaller fish.

When a cormorant has caught a fish in its throat, the fisherman brings the bird back to the boat and has the bird spit the fish up. This one was too small...

But here is a big one, although it was not caught by the birds, but provided by the fisherman as reward for entertaining the two of us.

Cormorant fishing once was a successful industry, its primary use today is to serve the tourism industry.