A Chinese Winter Wonderland

Wow - it's snowing! Apparently this only happens once every few years in Kunming, so we're very lucky. It does make me nostalgic for the Alps in winter.

Speaking of which, I just recently got back from a trip in Yunnan. I visited Dali, Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge. Although I wasn't that keen on Dali when I arrived, it grew on me and I think it would be a nice place to hang out for a few days. I stayed the first two nights half-way up a mountain, Cang Shan to be precise, at a height of around 2600m. I stayed at a place called Higherland Inn (www.higherland.com) and it was wonderful. Being Winter, it was especially quiet, only a Chinese girl and I, plus two Frenchmen who seem to spend a lot of time there. The owner, Li Ping cooked really good food and it was great place to chill out and escape from people (not an easy thing in China!) In the evenings after dinner we sat around the log fire reading with a couple of dogs and a tiny kitten for company.

I spent the following two nights in the town of Dali, which was also quite relaxing, mainly because I didn't do very much! However, I hired a bike and cycled to Erhai Lake and visited a village called XiZhou (only 18kms each way!) Dali is quite attractive, though far too full of shops and tourists for my liking! I also spent some time with Amanda, my new Chinese friend, which was cool.

After Dali, I moved on to Lijiang. Now, if I thought Dali was bad, Lijiang was a hundred times worse! As one of my friends described it, 'Disneyjiang'!!! Oh well. So, I found a bed for the night, visited Black Dragon Pool Park, ate some pizza and planned my escape... When I was staying at Higherland I got chatting to the Frenchmen and told them I was heading to Lijiang. They asked me if I was going to Tiger Leaping Gorge. I had thought about it, but wasn't too sure about making the trip and doing the hike by myself etc., so I had kind of decided against it. However, they told me that it was really worth it and, not wanting to spend 3 more days in Lijiang, I threw caution to the wind and got on a bus headed for Qiaotou.

I was a little apprenhensive, but I met some Germans when we arrived - a couple called Maite and Christoph, and also a guy travelling by himself, Gerhard. We decided we would all walk together and it was really lucky for me that we did as they proved to be great people and I had a really cool time with them.

The walk itself was amazing - my photos are good but you can't really imagine how spectacular it is unless you have been there. The peaks tower above you and the water gushes along way below. Dry and bare hillsides give way suddenly to bright green terraces. Amazing. We stayed at the Halfway Guesthouse the first night - a wonderful place far away from the main road. The stars were something else. The second night we stayed at Sean's Place in Walnut Garden, also cool, but not quite as 'in the middle of nowhere'.

The second day we walked down the gorge to the river and then alongside it for a bit. We were stopped at regular intervals by people asking us for money to use the paths they had created and/or were maintaining, but I guess they needed the money more than us. On the way back up we met a man called Mr Xia who invited us in for tea at his house. He showed us his business card and gave us some of his corn alcohol to try - blimey, it was strong!!! He takes people hiking, horse riding etc and was really friendly. Communication was a little difficult, but I got by fairly well with my poor Chinese. We ended up using his and his friends' ponies the next day to go up the mountain. Wooden saddles and everything...

All in all, I'm very glad I decided to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Unfortunately, there is a plan to flood the valley and use it for HEP - see Sean's website for information on this: www.tigerleapinggorge.com.

I arrived back in Kunming last Friday in one piece, but managed to pick up some sort of stomach bug on the way back and was in bed on and off for most of the weekend. Business as usual once more in the stomach department, however, and it didn't do my waistline any harm!

Still snowing...