Lijiang - Baisha and Dr. Rock, 7/20

We spent about 4 hours driving mountain roads to get to Lijiang, a famous (mostly internal ) vacation spot, considered very romantic and justifiably so. The drive was a bit more exciting than anticipated with dense fog for over half an hour. We were in the front seats to help minimize my carsickness and got a much more detailed view of Chinese driving than we would have liked. I would think with all the passing we did on hills and blind curves and into oncoming traffic that there would be LOTS more accidents than there apparently are.

Before we got to our hotel, we drove to Baisha to see some several hundred -year- old frescoes that are famous despite being in iffy condition due to age and the Cultural Revolution.Then we drove up the mountain to the former home of Joseph Rock, an Austrian-American botanist who came here in the mid-1920's to find plants and got intrigued by the Naxi minority culture and writing system and became key to translating and documenting it. The botanical specimens, research, and artifacts that he shipped abroad before fleeing the communists in 1949 were all key to these things not being totally lost in the wars and Cultural Revolution. His rented home was in the style typical of the region, except this village is built of rock instead of adobe brick. It gives it a much more substantial look.

Courtyard of Joseph Rock's home

Back in Lijiang, we had to walk to our hotel in the old city because it is vehicle-free except for a limited number of service vehicles. Although it was badly damaged during an big earthquake in 1996, it was rebuilt in the old style,  on (mostly) the original street plan, apparently using many of the original materials since several wooden doors and decorative elements looked naturally aged. The place is totally a maze and the available street map was more decorative than useful. We learned one route into the main square and ventured out carefully from there. Fiona insisted we carry a business card from the hotel and her phone number so that people could help us find our way or call her if we were REALLY lost. The streets are all paved in rough stone and the look is truly charming. At the same time, it is treacherous!  There are canals in lots of places and open rock-lined pits alongside walkways and sometimes in the middle of them. We learned quickly to watch where we were walking instead of the cute shops. Luckily, when Jim stepped into one, he only shredded the zipoff portion of a pair of pants and scraped his leg, and did not break any bones, as I feared when I saw him fall.

The dark slits on either side of the middle pedestrians are the kind of hole Jim stepped into.

We were left to our own devices for a couple meals and found a local yak meat and noodle shop that served dishes that were seriously spicy. Actually, all of our meals here have had spicy dishes where there was really a bite, unlike our trip in 2005 when every spicy thing was toned down.