lijiang. yunnan. china. december 3rd - 9th

lijiang, in north western yunnan, is listed as a unesco world cultural heritage site, with the ancient 'old' town at the heart of its tourism industry and the 'new' town creeping out to the south and west. 2400m above sea level, two thirds of the way back up to lhasa. an early test for our return to tibet. we are both fine.

our time in lijiang was quite incredible. it was one of those experiences where everything seemingly comes together and happens just at the right time. our week in lijiang included meeting some very special people, who will always be remembered as an important part of our journey. a small group of people who all seemed to mesh together to create this great energy, all sparked by the wonderful staff at the panba hostel. may, rose and the others were all such amazing hosts and friends. providing us with a warm home in lijiang, with great food, commendable service, cheap beer and smokey warm fires!! and mostly, the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the wonderful group of people who had also found themselves at the panba hostel in the chilly december days of lijiang. by the end of our week there, we didn't really want to leave, but as most of the others had found there way on to other places, we knew it was our time to leave.
so here goes....

after a frustrating experience at the kunming bus station (see post 'the kunming bus station. round one'), the bus ride, although crammed, was not all that bad and quite uneventful (i managed to get some sleep, but laurel did not get much). we arrived in lijiang in the pitch black of 6am, a little disoriented from just waking up and from being tired, not sure if we were at the right place, but we were. happy to finally be out of the big cities in china. its easy to get stuck in the big cities and we are looking forward to our time here. after collecting our bags, laurel, justin (who we met at the kunming bus station) and i hire a taxi to take us to the panba hostel in the old town. in lijiang, the core area of the old town is closed to automobiles, so we are dropped off at a small intersection and pointed by the taxi driver to head in 'that' direction to get to our hostel. its still pitch black out and there are no street lights here and the morning air is crisp and cool. the streets are just alleys in the old town. we walk with our flashlights looking for any hint of where we might be, but after sometime, we determine we are lost. in front of another inn, we call the hostel and obviously woke someone up. its not even 7am yet! about 30 minutes later, a young girl comes to meet us, wearing her pink fuzzy slippers and walks us back to the hostel. we're glad to finally be here after a long and exhausting overnight journey.

we enjoy the breathtaking sunrise from our second floor balcony overlooking the rooftops of lijiang, we begin to fill with excitement and wonder. we freshen up, unpack a little and figure out what our plans are for the day. first, i need to eat. at breakfast down in the hostel common area, i meet ron, from australia, we chat about our travels and such and i quite enjoy our early morning conversation (the first of many). our first priority of the day is to extend our visas for china. we figure out where we need to go and make our way there. once there, we are told it would be in our best interest to come back on the expiry date, so we don't waste the 6 days from now until then. after some deliberation, we decide to wait and come back after the weekend to extend our visas, confident that it will get done then.




second priority of the day was to find the only listed all vegetarian restaurant in lijiang for laurel to get some food. its not far from the PSB office and we leisurely make our way over, walking through the 'new town'. we finally find it with the help of a nearby shop owner. the restaurant is closed!! argh!! what now? after standing in front scratching our heads for a short period of time, a women comes out from the side alley and asks if we are looking for vegetarian food? we say "yes!" with big smiles on our faces. someone understands us!! she says the restaurant is closed. we ask if its closed for lunch or for today, but after some discussion, we determine that she meant the restaurant is no longer open and closed for good. she leaves. i was hopeful that i just misunderstood her and i call the number that is posted on the shop sign. we can hear the phone ring inside and then a woman answers (the same woman who just met us out front) and after asking her the same questions, i am pretty confident now that we understood her correctly. disappointed, we leave and make our way back towards the old town. a few moments later, my phone rings. on the other end, a man speaks in english. 'are you looking for vegetarian restaurant?'. i look over my shoulders with suspecting eyes. thinking to myself, what's going on here? he says 'i have a vegetarian restaurant'. still confused, i talk to the man to figure out that he has a vegetarian restaurant in lijiang and we should go there to eat lunch. not sure what to make of it, i tell him we will try to make it by tomorrow and i take his phone number. after pondering the situation, we realized that when we called the closed restaurant, the woman must have taken my number off the display and then called the another vegetarian restaurant to tell them some people are looking for vegetarian food. we'll definitely try to go tomorrow for lunch.




that afternoon is spent strolling through and admiring the beautiful old town. although it is now all geared towards the tourism industry and most of the genuine local shops have gone and made way for touristy souvenir shops, the city still maintains a certain charm and beauty. old buildings, endless black clay rooftops, cobblestone streets, and canals decorate the colourful heritage and history of this city. our first day in the old city and the often overcrowded narrow streets are pleasantly quite empty. maybe due to the off season? who knows? but its good for us. we finally find food at susan's naxi restaurant (the naxi are the main ethnic minority group in lijiang). that evening we wander into the centre of the old town again. at night, the glow of the lights are mesmerizing. a deep orange, set against the black backdrop of the sky. in december. the days are warm. the nights quite cold. no heating. no insulation. only electric heating pads. its now time to sleep. its been a long last 24+ hours.







today, we make plans to go to the 'other' vegetarian restaurant for lunch. we ask our host may to call and get proper directions for us. we now know the restaurant is called 'da fang guang'. our taxi takes us to the area, but we can't determine exactly where the restaurant is, so he points us in a direction and then leaves us in a quiet, somewhat deserted area of the new town. after some walking and some confusion, i call the restaurant to tell them we are nearby, but we can't find it. not knowing where we are, he can't help us. a short while later, we finally see a sign not 50 feet from where the taxi dropped us off (he pointed us in the wrong direction!). the characters said 'da fang guang' and the buddhist vegetarian restaurant!! we are greeted by a young man who speaks very little english, but he is happy to see us in his empty restaurant. we sit and read the menu. i look around to see if the gentleman i spoke on the phone with might be around. hmmm? no one here speaks english, so we cannot ask and we begin to get a little confused? i just talked to him? anyways, we have a vegetarian menu, albeit small (dumplings and dumplings), so we can eat. then my phone rings? hello? hello, are you still coming to my restaurant for lunch? huh? now confusion really begins to set in. i tell him we are here at the restaurant. at that moment i realized that this must not be the right restaurant and he also realized what had happened and told us there is another vegetarian restaurant with the same name right near by and we must have gone to that one instead. we feel bad and tell him that we'll come by tomorrow for lunch or dinner instead, as we have already sat down here and the people have been especially nice as well. he says no worry and tells us to enjoy our lunch. go figure!! two vegetarian restaurants with the same name right near each other! how could we have known? after two big plates of pretty good vegan dumplings and lots of tea, we leave and decide to find the other restaurant so we won't get lost on the way tomorrow. it is literally across a narrow alley on the same side of the street! we are met by li ye chang or 'bob' as he is known to english speakers. he quickly invites us in as asks us to join him for some tea. we apologize for the mix up and promise to be back tomorrow to eat. the restaurant is empty. we sit and begin to chat with bob and ended up spending the better part of the afternoon, drinking more tea, having pleasant conversations about the many things that travelers, vegans, artists, restaurant owners, canadians, chinese, chinese-canadian people might talk about. bob was such a gentle, sincere and honest person. we learn that the other restaurant is owned by a former partner with his restaurant and they split and decided to open up right next door with the same name! through our conversation, it was also obvious that his business was hurting. a vegetarian restaurant, off the beaten track in a very isolated area of town. he's doing what he can to get by. we want to help him bring in business, but not sure how we can do that. laurel tells him of an online vegetarian directory 'www.happycow.com' that she and many others worldwide use all the time, which his restaurant is not listed in. we tell bob that we'll send in his restaurant information for them to post. its a start. had we not accidently gone to the wrong restaurant in the first place, our extremely enjoyable afternoon might not have ended up as such. we'll be back tomorrow to sample some of the food.



our walk back afterwards took us through zhongyi market in the southern part of the old town and then back through a maze of alleyways before we eventually find ourselves back in sifang square (the heart of the old town). evening. a nice dinner at lamu's house of tibet, more wandering through the streets and surprised to encounter club land in lijiang. a strip of obnoxiously loud night/dance clubs in the centre of the old town? its barely 9pm? we went to see what all the noise was about, but soon left after finding out.









we spent the next afternoon visiting the deep, peaceful, quiet and calm surrounds of 'he long tan' (black dragon pond) in the northern part of town before heading back into old town and climbing up lion hill to wangu pavilion for spectacular views of lijiang city and finally making it all the way back down to bob's restaurant for an early dinner. there we order two simple, but quite delicious dishes. the total? 22RMB, which is only about $3.80 CAD!! we want to help his business and we can't even give him $4 worth of business? we decide we'll come back again one more time before we leave lijiang. later, back at the hostel, we meet nathan (from seattle) who had just returned from a tough trek with justin through tiger leaping gorge. i think it almost killed him, but we're glad it didn't or else we wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet him! quiet when we first arrived, the hostel is now filling up quickly with guests, the common rooms full of people. stories, laughter, warm fires. beer. food. there is an nice energy at the hostel. no sign of ron, who we hadn't seen since the morning of day one. its now the end of day three. maybe he has left already?












its the weekend and the hostel is full. its saturday and a lazy day for us. at breakfast we bump into ron again!! he hasn't left yet after all. we also meet sue and caroline (from london) and sue and gord (from the uk), who like us, have sold their house, packed up and started traveling. they too had an 'encounter' with the guy at the kunming bus station. we all spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon sharing travel stories, experiences and etc. what a unique and interesting group of people who have found themselves here at this time. today, i finally got to try the local 'naxi baba bread', a pan fried flat bread. it was only okay. i think i'll try it from somewhere else next time. we join a big group back at the hostel for dinner, where the staff prepared a wonderful meal of mostly vegetarian food. after spending the early part of the evening chatting with other travelers and the staff at panba, 7 of us decide to go out for drinks. ron invites us to a nearby bar he says he's been to. its called 'waiting for you in lijiang', named after a popular song of the same name that written by the somewhat famous owner of the bar. once there, we are herded deep inside the club, to an area behind a big curtain, there is a room full of people sitting around singing, laughing, chatting, drinking and grilling snacks. we are squished into the already full room, order some beers and enjoy the entertaining company. its obvious who the owner is (the guy holding the acoustic guitar and running the show!) and ron sits himself right beside him and they exchange some happy greetings and then proceed to break out into a chinese song together! ron, who has been teaching in china for the past 10 years, had learned some popular chinese songs and was having a whale of a time singing them with the group and we enjoyed watching him. more music, laughter, beer and good times ensued and after some time, we all paid up and made our way back to the hostel. once there, ron and i decide to stay up and drink some more beer and we chatted until quite late. i really enjoy our conversations and will miss them when we leave. today we had a really nice day just sharing stories and getting to know some of the other travelers.




well, sunday was also another quiet day for us. we are joined by ron and make our way back to the new town and 'da fang guang' vegetarian restaurant for a late lunch. we enjoy a really great meal and share some nice conversation with ron and bob. on our walk back, we discover a new way to get through the old town without getting lost in the alleys! for the most part, we spent most of the day and evening in the hostel chatting with other guests and the panba staff. its still lively here, although some are beginning to make plans for their departure. the next morning we have to get up early to get our visa extensions.

9:00am at the PSB office, the police officer issuing the visa extensions is convinced i'm japanese, even after i tell him i'm chinese, he still says i'm japanese. haha! its was funny, but i think he was serious. i think i had to tell him 3 times! well, either way it didn't hurt our chances at the visa extension and we received them within 30 minutes of arriving there. we leave, happy to be staying in china for another month. we make plans for our departure to shaxi tomorrow. lunch at the prague cafe. at dinner back at the hostel with other guests and the staff, we meet hyung from kansas, who has been teaching in nanjing for the past 1.5 years, and its nathan and justins' last supper as they are leaving back for kunming tonight and then their separate ways after that. it was nice to meet you both. safe travels. the hostel is quiet now, not like the weekend. we spend the evening chatting with ron, hyung and the staff. as you can see, we spent alot of our time conversing with other guests, something we don't usually do too often, but sometimes along the way you meet some people who you find inspiring or just enjoy being around and sharing stories with and our time here was definitely one of those times.





well, today is check out day. we are sad to be leaving lijiang but looking forward to shaxi (thanks helen for the shaxi recommendation and for all the tips and advice to getting there!). at breakfast, ron asks to join us to shaxi. we are happy to have his company. we say our sad goodbyes to may, lele and the panba staff and to hyung who we just met yesterday, but will hopefully meet again in the near future. to everyone at panba hostel, thanks for the memorable experience. we will see you again in the spring!