Heading for the hills

As the summer in Shanghai is long and muggy we decided to take a trip to Yunan province in south west China.  The province is on the Tibetian plateau and is therefore cooler and more bearable in the summer.

Just after we booked our flights the Chinese government announce a summer of flight disruption due to military manoeuvres, so it was with a resigned air that we boarded our flight to Lijiang.  However, we were pleasantly surprised to only be delayed the usual hour ( clearly we have been in China too long).

Although it was warm when we landed in Lijiang it was pleasant and the sky was blue and the air fresh.  The taxi drivers fell over themselves to help us find our hostel and we were soon sitting in the pretty courtyard of an old Chinese building enjoying lunch. 

      

The afternoon was spent exploring Lijiang which had quite a backpacker feel in some parts.  We discovered a typical backpacker place for supper which took Sam and I back by about 15 years!

                                          

                                          

      

Close to Lijiang is the Jade Dragon Snow mountain which is the most southerly mountain in the 

Northern Hemisphere to have snow on all year round.  We had already decided not to go up in the cable car as we thought it would be too high for the boys.  However, we didn't realise that because of that we were not able to really get near it!  It cost a fortune just to go to a view point which was shrouded in mist when we got there!  Sam and I had promised William and Oliver a bit of a climb and explore but in true Chinese style we were bussed in, instructed to take our photos and then bussed out!!

                                      

                                      

                                      

We returned to Lijiang for lunch and headed for an area of street stalls to try some of the local delicacies.  The food was excellent, although we decided to steer clear of the insect stall!!

Yunan is famous for its horses and Lijiang was one of the towns on the horse trail so we felt that we couldn't leave without a quick horse ride around the town which the boys enjoyed. 

       

The next day, we headed to a smaller and slightly less touristy (relatively for China!!) town called Shuhe.  We enjoyed spending the day meandering though the narrow streets and found an excellent restaurant for lunch

We then decided to head back to the main gate and get a taxi.  We took a different route back, which ended up taking rather longer than we had anticipated, as we seemed to keep ending up back at the square where we had stopped for lunch, despite the expert map reading by our guides!!

After asking for directions a couple of times and another couple of little detours, we eventually found our way back.  

We then enjoyed a well earned supper at our backpacker hangout!

We then headed towards Dali a town further south. The transfer went smoothly and took about two hours by car.  We were heading for a small village called Xi Zhou and the Linden Centre, a retreat, run by an American family.  The journey was beautiful as we headed through the mountains, stopping briefly at a service station which was a little different to those in the UK!

        

The Linden Centre is a restored Bai house which is built around three courtyards.  It has been lovingly restored over the last seven years and has recently been given the same level of heritage protection as the Great Wall.  It is situated on the edge of a small Bai village and has glorious views over rice fields to mountains beyond.  

       

The village itself has an interesting history as it was home to the Flying Tigers, an American air unit who supplied aid to parts of China during the Japanese occupation.  

We arrived at midday, so after checking in we headed to the bar for some lunch and we soon realised there would be no need to find anywhere else to eat as they had a wonderful selection of local dishes.  After lunch we arranged to go and watch some cormorant fishing at the local lake. For hundreds of years the local villagers have reared and trained cormorants to catch fish for them.  We got a small boat out on to the lake and then waited for a couple of fishing boats packed with several cormorants, to join us.  It was great to watch how the birds worked together to catch the fish and load them on to the boats. We then were rather surprised when the fishing boat came up along side ours and the fisherman jumped aboard and asked us if we would like to handle the birds, needless to say the boys jumped at the opportunity!!

                                       

   

                                        

Just when we thought we had got away with a non tacky experience we found ourselves joining several other boats in the middle of the lake to watch a somewhat  uninterested group of local women perform some traditional dance!!

The following day we headed off to a small family tie dye business in a nearby village.  Tie dying cloth is a big local business and they produce some amazing material.  We all had a go at sewing and tying our cloth ready to dye.  It was slightly embarrassing that the thirteen year old owners daughter was much better than me! It was interesting to see the cloth being dyed and how much of a cottage industry it still is.  

Back at the centre we borrowed some bikes and headed off to explore the surrounding countryside.  It was wonderful to see a more rural side to life in China. 

On our final day we headed to the nearby town of Dali.  The weather was not great, but in true British fashion we were not going to let a little bit of rain get in the way of a good walk.  We climbed a couple of towers, visited a temple and went for a walk along the city wall.  

We then found a great little restaurant for lunch and before leaving decided to pop in to a little foot massage place next door that had caught our eye.

By the time we got back to the hotel, the weather had brightened up, so we enjoyed our final evening having supper on the roof terrace soaking up the wonderful views.

Our car journey back to the airport was interesting as we went up through the mountains and hit a road under construction.  We thought we would be on it for a short while but it turned out to be half of the journey!

Our flight home was a little more eventful, as we got on the plane only to be told there would be a long delay so we were to get off and go to a hotel for lunch.  Everyone did this and we were slightly concerned when they actually checked us in, giving us two twin rooms.  However, just as we were tucking in to our food, someone rushed in to say the plane was leaving in half an hour!  Luckily we made the flight, but there were quite a lot of empty seats!