Contents:
Train to Dali
Old Lijiang
New Comic Book
Train to Dali
I leave Kunming on Tuesday, August 12, in the morning around 9:00. First I have to wait in line for half an hour in order to buy the train ticket to Dali, which is quite annoying. The line to buy tickets in the Kunming railway station is always very long, but the woman selling tickets always acts incredibly slowly and carefree, like she has all the time in the world.
The train to Dali takes six hours. Because Yunnan is so mountainous, half the time is spent inside tunnels. Oftentimes we will pop out of each tunnel only momentarily to cross a bridge over a stream or gorge, then on the other side of the bridge it's back into another tunnel.
On the train I meet an 18-year-old girl of the Bai minority race and talk to her for quite a while. I also meet some other Chinese girls, but they don't interest me much. When I get to Dali in the afternoon one of the girls helps me find out which bus I should take to get to the bus station. Then, since I'm quite hungry, I eat a bowl of wonton before taking the bus to the bus station and purchasing a bus ticket for Lijiang. The four hour or so ride to Lijiang is spent on winding mountain roads overlooking big mountains covered in rich green forests, the mountain peaks lost in the clouds. Yunnan is always cloudy, so it's no wonder they call it Yunnan; yun means clouds, and nan means south—Yunnan is a southern province full of clouds.
Old Lijiang
When I get to Lijiang around 8:00 PM I walk around for a while and come upon Old Lijiang, a part of town where everything is kept old-style. The streets are narrow cobblestone paths and there are no cars or bicycles, just pedestrians. Because it is perched on a hillside, there are quite a few steps. The architecture is all old-fashioned and most of the buildings have courtyards in the middle. Red lanterns hang everywhere. It all looks like a set for a Chinese movie. At the top of the hill is a park with a fancy pagoda and lots of big trees.
I stay at a small Inn in Old Lijiang for 30 RMB ($3.60 US). English errors are rampant throughout China; the sign hanging outside the inn says "Homely Nazi Guesthouse". It should say "Naxi" not "Nazi". The Naxi people are one of Yunnan's minority races.
The guesthouse is a very nice place to stay. It has two levels of rooms surrounding a central courtyard paved in stone. The courtyard is full of plants and flowers. In the middle is an apple tree loaded up with hundreds of ripe apples free for the picking. The roofs of the building overhang the courtyard quite far, so that when it rains you can still sit outside without getting wet. It often pours down rain here in Yunnan, but even when it's raining it's still warm. However, it also never seems to get really hot either.
New Comic Book
I walk around the city for an hour or two, eat dinner, and buy some more Robotic Cat comic books to read when I get bored. These ones are better, because they are very small, easily fitting in my pocket. I am happy and surprised to find them; I looked all over for them in Kunming, with no success.
I tell the innkeeper I want to go to “Shangri-la” the next morning, but she says Shangri-la is no fun and too far away. Another guest at the inn says the same thing. The innkeeper spends some time studying a map with me, and then suggests I go see Tiger Leap Gorge. So Wednesday morning I say goodbye to the innkeeper. She tells me to tell all the Americans I know to come to Lijiang and stay in her guesthouse. I promise her I will.
I buy a bus ticket for Tiger Leap Gorge. The bus leaves at 11:00 a.m.
