four words say it all: automatic flush squat toilets
well, maybe they don't say it all, but i was pretty awed and amazed to encounter a fancy marble bathroom equipped with the aforementioned facilities. and this in the middle of lijiang, a previously quaint town in the middle of nowehere (well, actually, on the western edge of yunnan) which is full of colorfully dressed native people (the naxi, pronounced "nash-y", rhymes with ashy). sadly, i arrived here a few years too late, and the chinese government has turned much of the town into its own version of epcot center (chino-disney? sino-disney?).
that's not to say that the naxi weren't genuinely colorful. especially when 100's of the women gathered in the main square to do dancing in honor of chinese national day. and the older, untouched parts of town are beautiful. full of windy lanes and interesting architecture (one naxi lady i encountered took me into her home and showed me her dog's new puppies). but one full day in lijiang was definitely enough, and the next day we moved on to tiger leaping gorge, the narrowest point on the yangtze (did you know that 1/3 of all chinese live on the yangtze? which means, i think, that 1/10th of the world's population lives on the yangtze - yikes! but definitely not on this part - it's very remote and beautiful).
the original plan was to hike into the gorge, stay at one guest house, hike to another guest house the next day and then hike out the third. however a small landslide (prior to our arrival, thank heavens - esp as a landslide there this spring killed 5 hikers) led to a change in our plans. we stayed at the same guesthouse both nights and did a 6-hr hike on day two with smaller hikes on the first and last day. while the path was pretty muddy and slippery in some places, the gorge was beautiful - tall spikey snow dusted peaks and the roar of the river below.
****
a digression: needless to say, i've been in plenty of asian antique stores over the years. and i've often seen stone and wood chinese "pillows" and wondered how the chinese could possibly have used such things to sleep. while i'm not sure i understand the pillows any better, i can now say with authority that, unfortunately for me, the chinese like their beds the way they like their pillows. they are pretty much across the board the hardest beds i have ever encountered!
while sitting on our hard chinese beds in the evening watching tv, mary and i have become addicted to one particular chinese soap opera. at first we just had a big old silly time creating dialogue for the soap opera (set in quasi-feudal china and equipped with flying, karate chopping characters straight out of crouching tiger). but then we discovered something even funnier: we were actually getting the story line! suffice to say that the show is rife with surprise illegimate children, sword fights, unrequited love and, um, ninjas?
****
after lijiang (chino-disney), we headed up farther into the mountains to the town of dzhongdian (prounounced jong-jen) which is inhabited primarily by tibetans. GORGEOUS. incredibly picturesque villages with painted tibetan houses. yaks in the fields. colorful tibetans harvesting. giant drying racks full of turnips (?) and corn and hay. bright scarlet azalea bushes dotting the hills. tiny piglets running amok everywhere. happy happy happy!
dzhongdian also has a monastery which is a miniature version of potala in lhasa. the chinese tried to destroy it during the revolution, and on our tour we could see where the hand grenade damage has been repaired. fortunately, little of the interior infrastructure was damaged, (although all of the original statues had to be replaced since the chinese had bashed all of their heads). the monastery was really beautiful and it's nice to see that the chinese gov't is allowing worship there again (although our local, tibetan, guide would only answer some of our more pointed questions with "that's a political story").
while in the town, i had a big ole' time buying a tibetan coat - i was trying it on when some old tibetan ladies (their faces kind of looked like walnuts) saw me in the store. they apparently thought that susie in tibetan clothes was just the best thing ever and they managed to get me into the entire outfit (adding a sheepskin-lined fur vest and an apron). we had a lot of animated gesticulation (my tibetan vocabulary consisting only of the word for hello) and i managed to escape with only the coat and some fun pictures.
my charade skills served me better yesterday when i successfully communicated to three camera shop employees that my slr camera had dirt in it & i needed something to blow it out. i employed line drawings, pantomime, some dirt from a potted plant and one of their cameras to get my point across. all very entertaining for all concerned. (however my chinese vocabulary is growing. i now can say "hello", "thank you", the all important "how much", "don't want" ("boo-yeow" - very fun to say), "cold water", the hello used to answer a phone (very loud voice: "WAAAAY!"). i can also count to three wonderfully because that's what everyone here does when taking pictures and, because i've been here during a nat'l chinese holiday, i have seen hundreds and hundreds of chinese (there sure are a lot of people here) taking pictures of each other ("EEE, AWH, SEN!). oh, and saying the number five is fun: "ooooo".
we're in x'ian now (pronounced she-en, x's are sh's in china). this afternoon mary and i wandered the muslim quarter, buying tea and fried persimmons filled with raisins and walnuts (much better than it sounds). tomorrow our group is going to see the famed terra cotta warriors. the group has been great so far. it consists of me, mary, and 13 aussies, ranging in age from 28 to 69 and including a mother-daughter team, a mother-father-daughter team, several couples and two single men (one a 35 yr old postman and the other a fussy 69 yr old who's left his wife at home). and our tour guide lijian who's been terrific.
the day after the warriors, we hop on the 12 hour overnight train to beijing (supposedly the very nicest train in all of china) and, after three days in beijing, homeward.
i hope you're well!
ss
well, maybe they don't say it all, but i was pretty awed and amazed to encounter a fancy marble bathroom equipped with the aforementioned facilities. and this in the middle of lijiang, a previously quaint town in the middle of nowehere (well, actually, on the western edge of yunnan) which is full of colorfully dressed native people (the naxi, pronounced "nash-y", rhymes with ashy). sadly, i arrived here a few years too late, and the chinese government has turned much of the town into its own version of epcot center (chino-disney? sino-disney?).
that's not to say that the naxi weren't genuinely colorful. especially when 100's of the women gathered in the main square to do dancing in honor of chinese national day. and the older, untouched parts of town are beautiful. full of windy lanes and interesting architecture (one naxi lady i encountered took me into her home and showed me her dog's new puppies). but one full day in lijiang was definitely enough, and the next day we moved on to tiger leaping gorge, the narrowest point on the yangtze (did you know that 1/3 of all chinese live on the yangtze? which means, i think, that 1/10th of the world's population lives on the yangtze - yikes! but definitely not on this part - it's very remote and beautiful).
the original plan was to hike into the gorge, stay at one guest house, hike to another guest house the next day and then hike out the third. however a small landslide (prior to our arrival, thank heavens - esp as a landslide there this spring killed 5 hikers) led to a change in our plans. we stayed at the same guesthouse both nights and did a 6-hr hike on day two with smaller hikes on the first and last day. while the path was pretty muddy and slippery in some places, the gorge was beautiful - tall spikey snow dusted peaks and the roar of the river below.
****
a digression: needless to say, i've been in plenty of asian antique stores over the years. and i've often seen stone and wood chinese "pillows" and wondered how the chinese could possibly have used such things to sleep. while i'm not sure i understand the pillows any better, i can now say with authority that, unfortunately for me, the chinese like their beds the way they like their pillows. they are pretty much across the board the hardest beds i have ever encountered!
while sitting on our hard chinese beds in the evening watching tv, mary and i have become addicted to one particular chinese soap opera. at first we just had a big old silly time creating dialogue for the soap opera (set in quasi-feudal china and equipped with flying, karate chopping characters straight out of crouching tiger). but then we discovered something even funnier: we were actually getting the story line! suffice to say that the show is rife with surprise illegimate children, sword fights, unrequited love and, um, ninjas?
****
after lijiang (chino-disney), we headed up farther into the mountains to the town of dzhongdian (prounounced jong-jen) which is inhabited primarily by tibetans. GORGEOUS. incredibly picturesque villages with painted tibetan houses. yaks in the fields. colorful tibetans harvesting. giant drying racks full of turnips (?) and corn and hay. bright scarlet azalea bushes dotting the hills. tiny piglets running amok everywhere. happy happy happy!
dzhongdian also has a monastery which is a miniature version of potala in lhasa. the chinese tried to destroy it during the revolution, and on our tour we could see where the hand grenade damage has been repaired. fortunately, little of the interior infrastructure was damaged, (although all of the original statues had to be replaced since the chinese had bashed all of their heads). the monastery was really beautiful and it's nice to see that the chinese gov't is allowing worship there again (although our local, tibetan, guide would only answer some of our more pointed questions with "that's a political story").
while in the town, i had a big ole' time buying a tibetan coat - i was trying it on when some old tibetan ladies (their faces kind of looked like walnuts) saw me in the store. they apparently thought that susie in tibetan clothes was just the best thing ever and they managed to get me into the entire outfit (adding a sheepskin-lined fur vest and an apron). we had a lot of animated gesticulation (my tibetan vocabulary consisting only of the word for hello) and i managed to escape with only the coat and some fun pictures.
my charade skills served me better yesterday when i successfully communicated to three camera shop employees that my slr camera had dirt in it & i needed something to blow it out. i employed line drawings, pantomime, some dirt from a potted plant and one of their cameras to get my point across. all very entertaining for all concerned. (however my chinese vocabulary is growing. i now can say "hello", "thank you", the all important "how much", "don't want" ("boo-yeow" - very fun to say), "cold water", the hello used to answer a phone (very loud voice: "WAAAAY!"). i can also count to three wonderfully because that's what everyone here does when taking pictures and, because i've been here during a nat'l chinese holiday, i have seen hundreds and hundreds of chinese (there sure are a lot of people here) taking pictures of each other ("EEE, AWH, SEN!). oh, and saying the number five is fun: "ooooo".
we're in x'ian now (pronounced she-en, x's are sh's in china). this afternoon mary and i wandered the muslim quarter, buying tea and fried persimmons filled with raisins and walnuts (much better than it sounds). tomorrow our group is going to see the famed terra cotta warriors. the group has been great so far. it consists of me, mary, and 13 aussies, ranging in age from 28 to 69 and including a mother-daughter team, a mother-father-daughter team, several couples and two single men (one a 35 yr old postman and the other a fussy 69 yr old who's left his wife at home). and our tour guide lijian who's been terrific.
the day after the warriors, we hop on the 12 hour overnight train to beijing (supposedly the very nicest train in all of china) and, after three days in beijing, homeward.
i hope you're well!
ss