| Submitted by: Kevin Bertman, United Kingdom |
| Submission Date: 27 March 2006 |
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After a delay, due to a typhoon that struck Shanghai causing the airport to close, which was defined as 'indefinite' on the airport monitor, I arrived in Kunming via Shanghai at 3am in the morning - five hours later than scheduled. The flight from Shanghai to Kunming took 3 hours. I would have to make it back to Shanghai, travelling mostly by train, in three weeks, in order to catch my flight back to Japan.
I showed the map in my guidebook to a taxi driver at the airport and he took me to my youth hostel. The 8km taxi ride cost 30 yuan off the meter, which means that with the meter running it would've cost 20 - 25 yuan. I was greeted at the hostel by a drunken Englishman from Leeds who joked that there were no beds available. I was tired and at first I didn't realise he was joking. Hilarious.
The next morning I looked around Kunming. It is a modern city with not many sights, but it is not too big and was a good place to prepare for the long journey ahead. I needed to arrange a train ticket to Dali, 359km away. Most hostels in China have a travel desk and for a small service fee can arrange train, plane and bus tickets. The ticket to Dali cost 77 yuan for a hard sleeper (second class bed) plus a 15 yuan service fee. I wanted to take the night train, but had to take the day train as that was the only ticket available. This meant that I would arrive in Dali in the evening with no hostel reservation.
The train left at noon the next day. As far as I could see I was the only foreigner in my carriage. I was given snacks by some of the Chinese passengers, and one of them spoke a little English. Some children tried to speak basic English phrases that they had learnt. I tried to sleep but it was difficult with people running up and down the carriage, and talking loudly. The train didn't go directly to Dali. It stopped at Xiaguan which is 18km away. The passenger who spoke a little English showed me to where the taxis gathered.
The 18km taxi ride to Dali cost 50 yuan. The driver dropped me off outside a hostel different to the one that I showed him in my guidebook. I was tired so I decided to stay here anyway because it looked nice, and Dali was quite small, so the location of the hostel was not important. I hadn't made a reservation but that was no problem because they had beds available. One night in a room with four beds cost only 15 yuan. The only problem was that next to the hostel was a building site, so it was a little noisy. I went to the bar and bought a decent size pizza, a big salad, and an orange juice for 32 yuan. A 620ml bottle of local beer cost 5 yuan.
The next day I looked around the city. It is a small historic walled city with a large gate on each of the walls. To walk from one wall to the opposite wall takes about 10 or 15 minutes. It is a relaxing place with a very laidback atmosphere. Unfortunately the weather was not too good so I alternated my day between sightseeing and having drinks at the restaurant and hostel. I arranged my ticket at the hostel reception to my next destination - Lijiang. My minibus was due to leave early the following morning. The ticket cost 40 yuan plus a small service fee.
I woke up very early the next morning to the sound of construction. It was too early to get up so I tried to ignore the noise and go back to sleep. Unfortunately this also made me ignore my alarm. I was woken up by one of the hostel staff who told me that the minibus to Lijiang was waiting downstairs. In five minutes I was on the bus and we made our way around Dali to pick up the other passengers. Very soon we were on our way out of Dali heading towards Lijiang. Lijiang is 200km from Dali and the journey was supposed to take three and a half hours. The road passed small mountain villages before eventually winding up the hills into the mountains themselves.
Half way through out journey another minibus overtook us and urged for our minibus to stop. The other driver had noticed that we had a puncture in one of our tyres. We kept on driving steadily until we found a place where the tyre could be changed. It was a welcome break and people on the bus walked down the road to take photos of the mountain scenery. After 30 minutes we were on our way and eventually arrived in Lijiang in the early afternoon.
Before planning which route to take in China I was watching the Discovery Channel in Japan. I saw a documentary on Lijiang and decided that I definitely have to include a visit to the city during my trip to China. My plan was always to leave China from Shanghai. Lijiang being so far from Shanghai is the reason why I took the route around China that I did. If I hadn't seen the documentary I would've probably taken an entirely different route and never have gone to southwest China. I am glad I saw the documentary.
Lijiang has an old town and a new town. Since the old town is completely pedestrianised, the minibus dropped me off in the new town. I took out my guidebook to use the map to find the hostel where I wanted to stay. According to the map in the book, the old town didn't have many streets - just a few running approximately parallel to the river. When I arrived at the old town I realised that my guidebook only contained the major streets. The whole town was a maze of cobblestone streets, and what looked like straight streets according to my map, actually had kinks and turns that the makers of my guidebook didn't feel necessary to print. After walking around trying to find the hostel for nearly one hour, I decided to buy a tourist map of Lijiang from a street vendor. I arrived at my hostel a few minutes later. I wasn't sure whether I would stay for two or three nights, but one night only cost 30 yuan so I paid for three.
I had already seen a lot of the town during my search for the hostel. But now I didn't have my luggage to carry, so I set off to have another look. For the last 1400 years, Lijiang has been the centre of the Naxi minority - of which there are more than 250,000 followers. Around town Naxi women, in their traditional blue clothes, can be seen. Every day in the old market square they dance to traditional Naxi music, while scores of mostly Chinese tourists’ crowd round them, take photos, and sometimes join in.
In 1996, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale hit Lijiang. More than 300 people were killed and 16,000 injured. Most of the new town was destroyed, but the traditional architecture of the old town coped quite well. The survival of the old town was one of the contributing factors to UNESCO's decision to name the town a world heritage site in 1997. Wooden buildings line the small streets alongside the canals, streams, and the small bridges that cross them. Most buildings are shops, restaurants or traditional Naxi guesthouses, which all serve Lijiang's booming tourist industry. In the evening, red lanterns line the streets, and floating candles follow the current of the canals, until they are caught by children waiting for them on the banks and at the bridges.
I needed to arrange transportation to my next destination, Chengdu, 750km away over the mountains. The only direct way of reaching Chengdu was by plane, so I went to the tourist information office to purchase a ticket. The only one available was due to leave two days later in the late evening. This meant I would arrive in Chengdu in the very early hours of the morning. I don't like doing this, but I had no choice. I bought the ticket for 820 yuan. And since I booked my accommodation for three nights, it meant that I could keep my luggage in my room until just before I left for the airport.
I went back to the hostel, and sat on the roof terrace on the top floor. The terrace afforded a magnificent view of the beautifully lit old town, overlooked by the floodlit 'Looking at the Past' Pavilion, which seemed to glow on top of the hill. When I first arrived at the hostel, I couldn't understand why my guidebook recommended it so much. Now I understood why.
In the morning, I had breakfast at a Tibetan restaurant. Tibet is not too far from Lijiang - the border is just a few hundred kilometres northwest.
Just north of the city lies Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. At 5500m the summit is covered in snow all year round. On a clear day, the mountain can be seen from the city. I decided to walk to Black Dragon Pool Park, which is just a few kilometres north. I wanted to take one of the most famous photos in southwest China. However, this morning was not a clear one. I paid the 60 yuan entrance fee, which I felt was far too expensive, and walked around the lake rumoured to have a dragon living in it. The clouds started to clear and I thought that if I waited I would be able to take my photo of a temple, a bridge and a snow covered mountain. I waited for two hours. The sky overhead cleared, but the mountain remained covered in clouds. Unfortunately I had to take the photo without the snow covered peak in the background. I spent the rest of the day wandering around the old town. In the evening I sat on the roof terrace again and had a few drinks. Lijiang was more expensive than Dali, and a 620ml bottle of beer cost 10 yuan.
The next day was the day of my flight to Chengdu. I decided to walk to the place where I would catch the minibus to the airport. I memorized the location on the map in my guidebook because it was a nice day and I didn't want to carry anything. The stop seemed to be at a major t-junction a few kilometres along the main road northwest of the city. I walked along the road but there didn't seem to be any t-junctions. I walked a little further but decided to turn back, go to the hostel, and look at the map again. This time I memorised the street names. An hour and a half after I was first there, I was back on the main road looking for the t-junction of Shangri-la Dadao and Fuhui Lu. I found the junction, but it was actually a crossroad. Judging by the large buildings lining both streets, it has always been a crossroad. If I tell the makers of my guidebook I will get my name printed in the next edition.
The evening came and I found myself waiting for the minibus to the airport. When it came I thought there would be some sort of storage space underneath the bus for our luggage. It turned out that we had to take everything onto the bus with us. There was one more seat than there were people, so fortunately I was able to put my backpack on it. Others crammed the isle with their large suitcases and there really was no place to move. As we pulled out of the car park a few minutes before schedule, I saw some foreigners arrive by taxi, probably hoping to catch the bus. The driver either didn't see them, or ignored them and we continued on our way. Besides, the bus was full anyway. On the way to the airport a Chinese university student spoke to me and asked me about my trip. He was from Xi'an, which would be my next stop after Chengdu.
After an 80 minute delay, I found myself on an extremely modern aeroplane on the one hour flight to Chengdu. During the flight, a passenger was having difficulty opening her bottle of water. She asked me if I could do it for her. I gave her a smile which suggested 'give it here, love, I'll do it for you.' I really tried but I was unable to open it. It hurt the skin on my palm. I apologised and gave her back the unopened bottle. She asked the stewardess for help, and the she opened the bottle with one easy twist. I must have loosened it for her.
At 1am the plane arrived at Chengdu airport. The only way to get to the city was by taxi. I showed the map in my guidebook to a taxi driver. After some discussion with other drivers as to where the hostel was, we set off on the 20km journey. The driver talked on his phone and drove with one hand most of the way to the city down the highway. We passed a serious traffic accident. A taxi had smashed into the back of a truck, which had destroyed the passenger side of the taxi and nearly taken the roof off. I was also sitting on the passenger side. The taxi driver continued to talk loudly on his phone and drive with one hand. We arrived at the area where the hostel was, and the driver asked a local shop owner where it was exactly located. |
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| Copyright © - "Kevin Bertman" |
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