Apr 19, Sunday, Dali to Lijiang

It rained last night and the clouds were a bit brooding and overcast when we left the hotel.  Before leaving the Dali area we had a mixed bag stuffed full of sightseeing.  All of the activities turned out to be very interesting.

The first stop was the Three Pagodas, that were constructed between 850 AD (the large one) and 1050 (the two flanking small ones).  The left one is leaning from an earthquake.  We got some good pictures before it started raining.  

In addition to the pagodas the complex included a bell tower, a small museum housing artifacts that were found when the pagodas were restored a few years ago, a monastery, a temple and other buildings.

There were expansive views of the lake and surrounding mountains from the pagoda plaza.

We then drove on north to Xizhou Village to see some traditional Bai minority homes and attend a Three-Course-Tea. The three types of tea are bitter tea (intended to represent one’s efforts in getting established in life), sweet tea (representing one’s established life – job, family, home), and long-flavored (representing old age and savoring life’s success).

While we drank tea we were entertained by folk songs and dance performances by Bai minority people.  

We took walk through a nearby courtyard with the usual decorative rocks and a wall that separated the courtyard from the streets.  

There was a lovely small lake/pond nearby that was mirror flat and gave incredible reflections of a lovely arched bridge.

We then walked a bit of the streets and found a section where the walls were covered with a large number of murals.  The guide told us the story behind each one (but we don't remember the stories).  Regardless, they were all interesting.

This one was for a preschool.  

through a market.  The Chinese like their food very fresh and in the market we saw lots of fruits and vegetables....

and butchers with meat on display (no ice like we would have in the US but the guide said it would all be gone by noon)...

odds and ends of household items....

and many containers with live fish, eels, chicks (they take them home, raise them and “…then make soup…”), chickens, and various creepy, crawly things from the local rivers, lake and woodlands.   

Along the walk saw a lot of people working in the fields, harvesting garlic (a very popular food). 

Then we went to an embroidery school where we were told about the production of silk and shown the silk cocoons.  The school teaches young women the art of Chinese embroidery.  It takes several years for someone to become a master embroiderer.  The work is done on silk cloth using silk thread, often a single thread. 

Of course they had a display room with some phenomenal pieces.  There were some that looked as though they were pictures, the work was so precise.  Of course, Mary had to buy a piece…now we will need to find a place to hang it once we get home.

Then it was on to another village, the Bai minority village of Zhoucheng.  After walking through the market area (much smaller than the last one, mostly household goods and fruits and veggies)...

we went to the home of a family that produces tie-dyed articles.  Tie-dye is a centuries old craft that they report to have originated in the area.  The designs are very intricate and not at all like what one thinks of when we think of tie-dyed shirts from the 70’s.  

After showing us the process they of course took us upstairs to their show room.  It is obvious from the number of articles in the show room that they have a large number of artists providing goods for the showroom. 

The primary color is deep blue, made from indigo.  They also have a vivid purple color that required 28 different plants in order to get the color.  They also had many other colors including bright green, pale green, orange, brown, a blue/grey and tan.  Of course, it was time for a bit more shopping.

Then it was a brief stop in Shacun Village for a boat ride to see some cormorant fishing.  There were just the two of us, our guide and the fisherman/oarsman on our boat.  However, we ended up part of a flotilla that included seven other boats full of Chinese tourists...

plus the boat with a couple of fishermen and about 8 or 10 cormorants. 

They set the cormorants to fishing and some of them were very successful.  A small ring is put around their necks and they can only swallow very small fish.  Any large fish they just hang onto until the fisherman can retrieve it (they partially swallow medium size fish and the fisherman then just pulls it out).  

The fish tail is sticking out of the cormorants beak.

Occasionally the fishermen would toss a bird into the air.  The bird would then dive into the lake to catch a fish.

When one bird came up with a fish the others would often streak towards that one to try to steal the fish, or at least get a bite.

This poor fish is getting pecked to pieces by a mob of cormorants.

It was interesting to discover that the Chinese tourists immediately bought the catch and then the entire flotilla of boats, minus us, headed over to a  park on the lake to get the fish cleaned and cooked so they could have very fresh fish.

After a late lunch our guide left us with our driver who took us the 2 ½ hours to Lijiang, a recently listed UNESCO world heritage monument located at 8300 feet up in the mountains.  The earliest references to the city date back to the Warning States Period (476 -221 BC).  The city was key to trade as it was on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road between China and Tibet and India.

The main minority group in this area is the Naxi (Nah She) and it turns out that our guide, Jenny, is half Naxi.  Our hotel is in the old part of Lijiang and required that our driver park outside of the Old Town and we had to walk several blocks into the town to the hotel.

The hotel is an interesting set up in that we checked in at the lobby and then had to walk about a half block to another building where our room is located in an old building with a courtyard.  

Courtyard in our hotel

Our room even has a lovely little private walled patio but it has no furniture in it so cannot be enjoyed.