Shaxi

In contrast to the Fort Lauderdale/ Las Vegas-style, frenetic energy of Lijiang,  Shaaxi is a sleepy, boutique destination.  

I am writing this from the quiet, Sideng market square where I sip a perfect cappuccino observing interesting parade cross the square in front of me - a pig ambles by, followed by a group of Chinese college students, Canadian adventure travelers cycling in from Dali,  an Italian French couple (who even acknowledged that the wine, cappuccino and pizza is as good as in Italy). 

We enjoy visiting every single, precious little courtyard guesthouse that line the alleys radiating off the central square before choosing the Shaxi Guzong Horse House where the grandmotherly innkeeper fusses over us and we play drinking games late at night in the courtyard with the Chinese art students..



The valley around Shaaxi is also perfect for running --  I do 12k at sunset amidst these golden fields of rapeseed and onion. 

Lijiang - China Disneyland

8 million Chinese tourists reportedly visit the Old Town of Lijiang every year.  After trekking in the vast wilderness of Mount Haba, it is a bit of an adjustment jostling with these throngs of tourists in the narrow, claustrophobic lanes of Lijiang.

The crowded arcade shopping streets quickly grow wearying.  But I am absolutely captivated when I venture off the main streets into the alleys at night - every winding corner reveals another  a perfect Chinese image of red lanterns, carved stone dragons, guarding  .  I am drawn through this maze for hours until I end up at Lijiang's festive bar street.  It is like a Chinese Disneyland (and I actually mean that in a good way)

And what do these millions of Chinese tourists want to photograph amidst these magic, quintessential "Chinesey" images, fantastic medieval architecture and colorfully costumed local people here in old Lijiang?

They all want to take pictures of me.

Every time we look up there seems to be a camera pointed at the foreign devils.  Squealing girls are delighted when we agree to be in photo with them.  It is nice to feel like a rock star once in a while though it grows tiresome.

Haba Mountain 2 - The Perilous Climb to the Infamous Black Lake

With heavy hearts we abandon our dreams of climbing Mount Haba and in gorgeous sunshine we head off through meadows and pine forests for a new destination - the dreaded  Black Lake.  

At first we encounter women tending terraced vegetable fields, herds of goats, and regal Bai women in elaborate head dresses.  But as the hours go by and we gradually climb higher and higher, the air grows thinner, the terrain steeper, the ground covered with snow, and the vegetation sparse and gnarly.   As we approach the lake, like the Hobbits entering Mordor, we begin to sense the pervading gloom.  The sun is blotted out by menacing clouds, and a fierce icy wind nearly blows us off our feet.  Our guide grows increasingly uneasy as we crest a hill, and then suddenly we see it - the darkly mysterious Black Lake.  I am drawn to lake's edge by some spooky, unseen force where I peer into the inky blackness.   

It is a cold, windy, ugly place but I feel like I am under a spell and cannot leave.  My trekmates grab me for a brief, celebratory picture and drag me away.  But the curse of the lake stays with us.  Isobel, the most strong and experienced mountaineer I have met, is beset by breathing problems.  I lose a set of poles and gloves.  Finally we stumble back into Haba Mountain Village, thankful to have survived the Black Lake.

Haba Mountain Village

At sunset we arrive at the ramshackle Haba Mountain Village Inn, a rather homely looking place as you can see in the adjacent picture.  We duck into the dimly lit, dining room / reception area where the innkeeper family is huddled around a woodburning stove and where the wall is decorated with pictures of earlier guests smiling with triumph at the summit of Mount Haba,

Mount Haba towers ominously above us.  We immediately set about trying to arrange our summit attempt for the following morning.  The Haba Mountain innkeepers immediately set about emphatically trying to discourage us.  Apparently after taking one look at me and my sorry climbing gear, they are convinced I would never survive the mountain assault.  "The wind is terrible.  The trail is long.  The terrain is treacherous.  And worst of all the cook has left the base camp!"  they warn us.  We are not dissuaded by all their warnings, but the practical reality is that we need to be provided with a guide and they do not seem willing to grant us their services (or introduce the Muslim guide in town).  

As we huddle next to the stove picking at our dinner of Yak liver, two climbers from Beijing stumble in off the mountain.  They had successfully summitted, and are clearly drained by the effort and conditions, and they too are quick to join the innkeepers in trying to persuade us not to try climbing Mount Haba.

Tiger Leaping Gorge – One of the World’s Top 3 Most Beautiful Gorges?

I wake up to steady rain and decide that I will just stay in the idyllic comfort of the Naxi Family Guesthouse and live out my life far removed from the rancor and rat race of the world below.

I bid farewell to my trekking friends -- Isobel, Caroline, Yusef, and the crazy Czech couple -- and order another large serving of banana pancakes and Yunnan coffee. But then to my deep chagrin I realize that the wi-fi is still not working, that starting a new life here in the Yunnan mountains is untenable and that I will have to leave this little utopia and set out on the steep, windy trail through the Gorge.

Fortunately it stops raining and the sun bursts through as we climb up the steep switchbacks far above the canyon floor. Mountain goats surround us, and one goat stumbles and slides past me – wow, even the mountain goats are struggling with their footing on the precipitous cliffs above the Gorge.

We feel transformed by the sublime beauty and majesty of the towering canyon wall rising above us as we rise higher into the heavens.. then finally we crest a ridge and we gaze out upon --– a highway clogged with tourist buses, a system of drainage pipes and the blue roof of a large warehouse. 

Isobel is not impressed: “This place is among the World’s Top 3 Gorges?!" she spits out, her voice dripping with disdain and disgust.   

It seems the powerful investment driven Chinese construction juggernaut has penetrated deeply into Tiger Leaping Gorge over the past 5 years, somewhat detracting from the wilderness experience we had journeyed to the far western reaches of China in search of. 

Still it is a beautiful gorge, and all this infrastructure meant that when we arrived at Woody's Guesthouse that afternoon our bags were waiting for us along with a fine late lunch of sliced pork, onions potatoes, and Yunnan coffee.  It was also an easy matter to find a driver to take us onto our next destination, Mount Haba, a true wilderness experience.

Tiger Leaping Gorge Trailhead

The view of Lijiang at sunrise is breathtaking from the airplane.  The terraced fields looked like glittering ponds rimmed with Chinese tiled roofed buildings, all amidst mountain ranges sweeping off into the distant horizon.

Even the Lijiang airport evoked a "Lost Horizon" exotic  mountain nirvana.  But I had no time to relax and seek nirvana.  My plane lands at 8:30 and I need to get all the way to the distant Tiger Leaping Gorge trailhead by 13:00, a journey that entails 3 bus rides and a walk across town.  Moreover the Wikitravel/Lonely Planet provides me with only the vaguest of directions to the Gorge.  And no one seems to speak English. 

Fortunately the Yunnan people and the Chinese tourists in Lijiang prove to be unsurpassingly helpful and friendly.  I am repeatedly pointed in the right direction and soon find myself crammed in the back of an express bus amidst a festive group of tourists from all over China, sharing odd pork flavored crunchy snacks washed down with Red Bull. 

The bus rolls into the scruffy little town of Qiaotou right at 13:00 and my new Chinese friends point me in the direction of Jane’s Guesthouse, an even scruffier place, where I rendezvous with my trekmates and head into the Gorge.

After a pleasant 2 hour hike we do arrive at Nirvana - the Naxi Family Guesthouse - an otherworldly Chinese courtyard palace perched on a stunning, terraced, hillside where we are attended to by the courteous, angelic Naxi innkeepers. 

Welcome to China - Chengdu taxi ordeal

It is a jarring re-entry into China after 5 years away. 

My flight between Tokyo and Lijiang required a brief late night stopover in Chengdu, and I book a hotel as close as possible to the airport in hopes of catching 4-5 hours of sleep between midnight and 5am.

But alas, I jump in a cab at the airport and it quickly becomes apparent that the cab driver, who had seemingly recognized the hotel address, has no idea where we are going (and cannot reach the hotel phone number I give him).  It begins to pour down rain. I have forgotten all Chinese and the cab driver does not speak a word of English.  We drive down scary dark roads for an hour, my precious minutes of sleep slipping away. I am terribly tired and begin to get slightly irritated and express impatience in a torrent of exasperated English.  

At this point, the driver who is a bulky, rather menacing looking fellow steers onto a particularly dark and empty road.  I grow slightly concerned - might the driver stop and try to shake me down for all my cash?  or abandon me here in the middle of nowhere at 1am in absolutely torrential rain?  

I plaintively point in the direction of some distance lights and fortunately he turns and heads in that direction.  The lights turn out to be a different hotel but they are at least able to explain how to get to my hotel - a hotel that does turn out to be only minutes away from the airport.   

I pay the driver a generous fare, but firmly decline to pay him for the full cost of his ineptitude.  So he follows me into the hotel lobby, shouting loudly as I register and then tries to chase me onto the hotel elevator -- at which point the hotel security intervenes and blocks his path.

I am just happy to get to sleep.  But it is not an auspicious return to China.