Dali

After Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike I visited Dali, another 'ancient' city in Yunnan province.  Having hiked 25km the previous day, I decided to spend my first afternoon in the city on indulgences - a bagel & lox sandwich for lunch from a wonderful german bakery (Bakery 88) followed by a soul-reviving massage.  I then ambled about the city, had deliciously cheap dumplings for dinner, and retired to the hostel for a few drinks and conversation with other travelers before calling it a night.

Spirits revived, I rented a biked the next day and set off to explore the countryside.  My first stop was the famous Three Pagodas.  I parked my back, discovered that the entrance fee was a shocking $25 US (this is China!), took a photo through the gate, and then carried on.

I spent the next while pedaling along the shoulder of a highway while trucks, motorcycles and military vehicles all whizzed by me.  I then turned down a rural lane into a small lakefront village where I tried to sneak in a few unobtrusive photos of village life.  In general, guilt/shyness tends to stand in the way of my actively photographing people I don't know, so most of these are faraway shots.

That said, throughout my wanderings in China local residents would often come up to me and ask if they could take a photograph...here's a nice awkward example!

Lijiang

Lijiang has a beautifully preserved (ok, reconstructed) old city with winding alleyways interlaced by numerous rivers.  It made for some wonderful ambling before and after my hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge.  Pre-hike I spent a full day eating, drinking coffee and reading at cafes.  Post-hike I had a tasty meal of Korean food with some other travelers I met in the mountains (Jacques and Elizabetta pictured in last photo).

A typical street in the old city

Roofs

Whiskey and Kindle on balcony overlooking the main square

Diners at night

Snacks at the market

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Outside of Lijiang, China (which is itself a pretty cool city) I went on a two day hike in Tiger Leaping Gorge.  It was cloudy and a bit rainy for much of the hike, but the scenery was spectacular and the path was pleasantly un-peopled.

Looking back through the gorge

Goats in the way

One of many waterfalls

I stayed at Tina's (sorry Sean)

View from the bottom

The ladder back up

Landslide on the long road home

Seen at the Chengdu airport

I found this phrase at the Chengdu airport, printed on the back of a few seats by each departure gate.  It reminded me of the awesome Lawrence Weiner exhibit I saw at the Whitney a few years back.

Chengdu

I went to Chengdu to see some Pandas and get a haircut.  Great success on both counts. First, some pandas:

As for the haircut, I went to the nicest place I could find.  It set me back about $4.  The joy of non-tradable goods.

Other happenings in Chengdu included a Sichuan cooking class (Mapo Tofu & Twice-cooked pork), a trip to a Buddhist temple, the spiciest meal of my life (i looked like I did after the Great Wall hike...) and a cake fight.  The cake fight started out as a normal birthday party for one of the hostel staff, but things got messy pretty quick.  Fortunately, there were plenty of bags of chicken feet for people to snack on.

Before

After

Jiuzhaigou National Park

From Langmusi I took a 8-hour 14-hour bus ride to Jiuzhaigou Valley.  Woke up early the next morning and went to the pricey but insanely beautiful Jiuzhaigou national park.  Lonely Planet did an excellent job suggesting an early arrival and immediate bus to the far end of the park.  I spent the rest of the day walking back through the valley past stunning waterfalls and emerald lakes.  Here's somebody else's photo slideshow:

Photos from: tochinaandbeyond.com


After Jiuzhaigou I caught a 12-hour 19-hour bus ride down to Chengdu.

Xiahe and Langmusi

Xiahe and Langmusi are two towns in Western china at the border of the Tibetan plateau.  I spent 5-6 days between the two and went on a few great hikes (two day trips and one overnight), saws lots of Tibetan monasteries, ate more Yak-derived food products than I could have imagined, and hung out with some very chill French and Austrian travelers. 


Right now would be a perfect time for a few photo-highlights :(  Definitely not going back to the black market for future memory card purchases.

Lanzhou

En route from Xi-an to Xiahe, I stopped for a short overnight in the city of Lanzhou.  This wikipedia snippet does a pretty good job describing my experience in the city:


According to the Blacksmith Institute, Lanzhou is one of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, with its TSP (total suspended particle) rating 247% above that of the Gansu State recommendation. The air quality is so poor that at times one can not see Lanshan, the mountain rising straight up along the south side of the city. At one point, a controversial suggestion was put forward to bulldoze a mountain adjacent to the city, in order to let fresh air in to the bowl where Lanzhou is situated.


On the bright side, I did enjoy my visit to a "Western" restaurant in the city where I got to see people eating chicken wings with a fork and knife...cultural symmetry.

Xi'an: Land of Giant Action Figures

After Beijing I flew to Xi-an, in Shaanxi province where I spent four days.  Sadly, while in Xi-an I purchased a memory card which turned out to be defective so I lost all the photos I took here and for the next few stops as well.

:(

Anyway, here are some higlights with accompanying internet-sourced photos!

Terracotta Army:  This tomb full of giant action figures from the 3rd century reminded me of the epic 'set-ups' from my childhood.  Sure, it was full of tourists, but the main hall with thousands of restored warriors was pretty cool.

Xi'an walls:  The old city of Xi'an is surrounded by a giant rectangle of walls built in the 14th century.  Nowadays, these make for a perfect bike ride around the city complete with panaramic views of the concrete towers rising in all directions.

Wild Goose Pagoda:  I met up with an awesome local one night through couchsurfing and went out for a meal of delicious soup dumplings (jia san bao zi) before heading over to the Wild Goose Pagoda for an epic nighttime fountain + light show.  Thanks Lixin!

Beijing Nights

Beijing also had some great nightlife to match it's daytime attractions. When traveling solo nightlife really depends on who you meet up with and in Beijing I was fortunate to go out with some friends of a friend one night and local couchsurfers for two others.  

The night out with friends of a friend (thanks Weichen and Kate) started off at a tiny whiskey bar called Amilal run by a very cool Mongolian.  A few whiskeys later we strolled down Nanluoguxiang, a very trendy hutong full of tiny cafes, craft stores, bars, and gelato places.  We stopped at ____ bar for a few more drinks before heading over to a late night Dim Sum meal where I tried chicken feet for the first time!  I thought they tasted pretty good, though the tastiness:bone ratio was a bit high for my liking.

Amilal interior (thebeijinger.com) 

Another night out I met with a big group of couchurfers for one of their weekly meetups (the site offers much more than just a couch to crash on).  The one I went to in Beijing had a great mix of locals, local expats, and passing travelers.  We went to Haidilao, a Sichuan style hotpot restaurant where small groups sit around two big pots of broth and drop in various vegetables, noodles, meats, etc. to enjoy.  This meal was followed by a trip to a nearby bar called the Brick for further merriment before calling it a night.  Thanks Lydia! 

Couchsurfers at Haidilao

I met up with some of the same couchsurfers for drinks the next night as well, this time in the Goulou Daijie neighborhood.  I enjoyed some good drinks and conversation on a rooftop bar and also had a chance to walk around the Houhai lake area.

Houhai lake nightlife

Beijing Days

My first few hours in Beijing felt like entering a vaguely post-apocalyptic world.  The sun was blotted out by a thick haze of smog, the train from the airport broadcast a weirdly distorted replay of a women's indoor volleyball match, and the ramshackle alley in which I found my hostel was full of animals, garbage and electric bicycles.  Fortunately this impression quickly passed and I was soon learning to make dumplings at the hostel's dumpling party that night.  I spent each of the next four days visiting one of Beijing's genuinely impressive tourist attractions.

1.  The Forbidden City - I spent four hours wandering around this massive palace complex listening to my audioguide while weaving in and out of hordes of toursits.  I found the whole place impressive more for it's sheer enormity than any other particular aspect.  Even after four hours I had barely visited half of the 'sites' contained within.

2.  The 798 Art District - A former industrial park transformed into a collection of art galleries and cafes.  I feel entirely unqualified to comment on the artwork, but I definitely dug the in-progress reclamation of a massive industrial facility for purposes of artfun. 

                              

 3.  Summer Palace - Like the Forbidden palace, but with a big lake in the middle, the world's longest corridor (pictured), and a giant paddle boat made of stone!

4.  The Great Wall - Jinshalong section - My favorite site in Beijing.  It felt endless, was pleasntly untouristed, and was tremendous fun to hike along.  Only wish I could have spent more time there.

 This last photo was taken at ice cream and/or beer o'clock.  Sadly neither was available at the time.