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!