Black Dragon Pool

Our holiday in China is nearly over, tomorrow we all go our separate ways, Ann, Richard, Maureen, Denis and David to the UK; Anne to Perth, Chris to Sydney, Vicki and Charlotte to Melbourne (after a little stay in Hong Kong), Roc to Mt. Tom Price, Lynne and Andrea to Melbourne via Hong Kong, Jo and Glen to Brisbane, Karen and Mick to Mackay and me to Hobart (after a short stay in Melbourne with family). Sarah is back to her family for a week. We are looking forward to Sarah's 'farewell speech' tonight back i n Kunming. It is Sarah's birthday tomorrow so we have prepared a little surprise for her and are going to get her a birthday cake.

This morning we went to a lovely park which has the Black Dragon Pool and also the Dongba Museum. The park was beautiful and we were lucky that the mountain with lots of snow was so clear.

After lunch we flew back to Kunming for our last meal together. Chris organised a beautiful keepsake (a concertina book she bought at the old town) for Sarah that we all wrote a page in and managed to get Sarah to come to one of the rooms where we all surprised her.

Then our last dinner together, we were so sad but Sarah loved her cake and was very touched that we had thought of her. We are all going to miss each other.

Our last party together!
David and Anne tickled the ivories until the hotel decided to blast out their music.

Tibet

Almost in Tibet today, I felt I could almost reach out and touch it. This picture was taken at Tiger Leaping Gorge on the upper reaches of the Yangtze.

The first stop this morning was at a monastery built for the emporer's son who became a monk. There was a boy monk there who made a fortune from us charging 5 yuan for his photo to be taken. Not sure that I wanted to take it but who could resist. He was very chatty and wanted to tell me something but I couldn't understand him at all. I did point and say Tibet and he agreed but who knows!

A close up of the Tibetan prayer flag.

I thought we were above the clouds, on top of the world!

All the men in our group were excited about this strange vehicle. I have absolutely no idea why they were so interested I think the plants were much more exciting :)

We then had a good walk out to Tiger Leaping Gorge,

this was superb although I was bemused by some who thought they should be carried out in a rickshaw.
There were so many people here, many buses, especially on the other side of the gorge. I am rather glad we just had a 2.6k flat walk out rather than the walk straight down the other side....then back up again!
There were certainly some interesting signs.
We had lunch at a local 'restaurant'. The food was fantastic, so fresh and spicy. Best chili sauce I had tasted, you could imagine that all the ingredients had been freshly cooked. The kitchen was almost 'open air' with one side completely open. The loo a long drop into the Yangtze.
Last stop before we returned to Lijiang was a mountainside market.
Tonight is a free night so most of us are heading out to the old town. We love it there!

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Flew to Lijiang early this morning, meant getting up about 5am. Lijiang is about 4000m above sea level and you could certainly feel the difference, puffed climbing stairs etc.

When we arrived we went to the old town, I just loved the old buildings and the crowded narrow streets. It has been made into a market and there were many shops but this morning we just walked around as we didn't have much time before we set out to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.


We were very lucky as they had just had a snowfall on the mountain. The Queenslanders in our group were very excited when we arrived and there was light snow falling (sleet first but turned into snow). The visibility wasn't zero until just before we left when I managed to get a couple of photos of the mountain.


On the way back we stopped to look at some yaks that are used to give tourist rides but as the weather was pretty bleak we passed on that.

That night we went back to the old town after dinner for the dongba show. The old (78) dongba (sharman/wiseman) was a real character and played to the audience. The show was very enjoyable with a lot of the local ethnic Naxi (nashee) people performing their ethnic dances. The band also used traditional Chinese instruments. This was a very long day but one that I enjoyed tremendously!

Stone Forest, Kunming

Long drive by bus to start off this morning as the Stone forest is about 120km south east of Kunming. The forest was very interesting but very much a tourist spot. All the paths were paved, not our idea of a national park.

Once again there were peddlers and photo opportunities if you wanted to dress up in national dress. The Yi minority live in this area.
The stones were quite intriguing with some very strange shapes. The Chinese of course like to 'use imagination' and make the shapes into cats, elephants, etc but I was content to enjoy the strangeness of the landscape.

There was of course the 'legends' and we all sat on this stone bed for 3 seconds for good luck. Not good for the bum!!
The surrounding parklands were superb and I particularly loved the Japanese Maples. There was a pond and as I walked past a lady was feeding the fish which resulted in a boiling of the waters, I couldn't believe the amount of fish.

Lunch was probably our worst meal this trip but the wallpaper was superb, might get some for my bedroom, keep me awake I think :)

Called in at a crystal place, more "shopping opportunities" before having tea and going to a professional ethnic show. The show is going to tour the USA. It was excellent, lots of very loud drum music and dancing. This included a peacock dance by a lady our local guide, Tessie, thought was very old (48).

Reed Flute Caves

These caves are absolutely magnificent. The cave temperature remains at 20ºC all year round. They were opened in 1962 and managed to escape most of the destruction that occurred during the cultural revolution. I was blown away by the reflecting pools.



After the caves we visited the South China Pearl Exhibition Centre where we had a talk about pearls then a fashion parade of ladies wearing the pearls! After lunch we climbed up Folded Brocade Hill where we could see out over the city. The caves on the way up contained many Buddha images that had the heads knocked off during the cultural revolution, they have all been repaired and are very beautiful. Once at the top we saw, as at the Great Wall, locks chained together that signify wishes for a family or couple. Sarah read one out to me and it was for a family wishing all members health and longevity.


We then boarded our flight to Kunming and dinner was Kunming's famous dish - the 'Across the Bridge Noodles' banquet. Also entertained by a show at the restaurant of local dances and music.

Lijiang River

Arrived in Guilin late last night after a flight from Chongqing. Today was very relaxing as we cruised on the Li River (Chinese jiang means river - Lijiang is beautiful river/water). There were a million other tourists there on a lot of different boats - traffic jam. The bus took us out of Guilin to the port where we boarded a ferry. We boarded at Mopan Hill Wharf and cruised down the river for 4 hours, then after a wander through another market boarded the bus for the return to Guilin (about 2 hours). The scenery was magnificent, the limestone karsts towered around us everywhere, supposedly 9999 of them.


After dinner I saw the Guilin city lights by boat on the city moat. This was so well done, the lights along the moat are just beautiful, highlighting buildings and the plants. The pagodas look spectacular. There was also a group of musicians playing as we glided past and at the turn around point there were some opera singers and of course the cormorant fisherman. There was a fountain in the moat that was orchestrated to perform with music. Hopefully these videos will give you some idea of the performances.

Of course there was the cormorant fisherman as well!

Panda

I'm so excited; today I went to the Chongqing Zoo to see the Pandas. They were so cute and there was a 6 month old baby. There are only about 1000 left, so they are facing extinction.
I managed to get this video of the 6 month old panda through the glass.

Our local guide in Chongqing is full of life, she loves telling us jokes.


Why doesn't the fisherman give you fish? Because he sell(s) fish (selfish).


There is a saying in Chongqing "dogs bark when the sun shines". It is so misty in winter that the sun isn't seen so the dogs don't know what it is.


The zoo was well patronised by the Chinese. The first panda we saw were the red pandas, native to the Himalayas in India and Nepal and southern China, they look a bit like racoons, I really like their colour and one posed really well for me. They aren't much bigger than a domestic cat.

The pandas were so cute but of course they really aren't as they are very bad tempered and quite a solitary animal. They don't even particularly like each other. The women are very particular who they mate with and the men are almost impotent, well that is what our guide told us as the excuse for their low numbers. Who knows what the real story is?

We were also lucky to see a South China Tiger, when we first went by his cage there was nothing to be seen but near the end of our visit to the zoo he appeared and what a magnificient beast!


Next stop was a museum commemorating the Flying Tigers, and American Volunteer Group and Chinese Air Force who fought against overwhelming odds and lifted the spirits of both the American and Chinese people during the darknest days of World War II.

After lunch I walked over to a local side walk market, bought some socks for 3 yuan that have massage beads in them, I must take a photo and put up! Also saw an old Chinese guy practicing 'cupping' on a woman. Lynne was very interested as she also does it but not to the extent of this guy who had blood running everywhere!

This is one of the dishes we had for lunch, chilis galore but very nice.

We went for a stroll in the highest park in Chongqing but the visibility wasn't good. I was quite amused to see a whole lot of beach umbrellas along the riverside. Once again the Chinese were out in force, playing mahjong and cards. Enjoying lunch and strolling around Eling park. We went to a tea house and had a tea ceromony where we tasted three different teas, I can only remember lychee tea because of the story of the Lady who ate 300 lychees a day. We also had olives, very strange, they were green and had a sugary coating and very hard, you had to chew them off the pip.

Last stop before catching the plane to Guilin was a local market. It was so good to get a chance to see what the local people did for leisure. They were having such fun, the toffee makers were facinating.