Back in 2006 we made a trip to China. Qantas was advertising Sydney to Shanghai with heavily discounted prices, so we just had to go!
Part of the deal was a couple of nights in a reasonably posh hotel located on the Bund, Shanghai's best preserved riverside area. The hotel was actually very nice - big clean rooms and four star facilities. Part of the deal included the cost of an evening meal which, on the first night, was going quite well until one of the waiters realised we had ordered off the expansive a la carte menu, and not from the 'special deal' menu which, it turns out, had just three dinner choices, not the 300 offered in the a la carte version. I was just tucking in to a plate of Yunnanese something or other when a waiter appeared from behind a handy pillar and whisked my plate away as I was in mid chomp, replacing it with a plate of tepid-looking fried noodles. I shouldn't have been so surprised. Happily, breakfast at least was less traumatic.
After a few days in Shanghai, we flew to Chengdu to check out the pandas, then it was onto a flight to Lijiang and a trip into a high altitude area dubbed Shangri-La.
With a Starbucks on most corners and neon signs advertising Western products dominating the night sky, Shanghai appeared to be the least Chinese city in China. Like many cosmopolitan cities of the world, I think the locals consider themselves to be unique and perhaps not to be part of China at all - but then that's dependant on who you ask. At 23+ million people, it's a big city.
The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base was fun to visit. It has a breeding program to preserve these awesome creature. At the time it looked impressive but I wonder how long it will be before the panda's entire habitat has been swallowed up by the expanding human population.
We got on a plane to Lijiang, via Kunming, where we got lost in the confusing airport, accidentally exiting thru arrivals rather than shuffling through to the transit area. Luckily an airport official, who looked about 14, walked us through a number of security doors and officials only areas so we could get to the plane before the airbridge was removed. We'd successfully held held up the plane's departure by a few minutes so all eyes were on us as we hurried through the cabin to our allotted seats. Thankfully we got to Lijiang without further hassle.
At 2400 metres, Lijiang Old Town is part of Yunnan Province. It's a listed UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site and is famous for the preservation of it's ethnic Naxi heritage. This status is also shared with neighbouring Shue He Old Town, Dayan Old Town and Baisha Old Town. It's a lot of history to digest in one visit.
When we visited the Heritage area was fairly busy with busloads of Chinese tourists thronging the narrow cobbled streets and packing out the local cafes. Here, some of the favourite dishes on show were things like fried crickets, blowing liver, chickpea jelly and black goat hot pot. Don't ask me what those dishes were like because we opted for a more European diet, frequenting a restaurant called the Prague Cafe every night to eat, well, schnitzel and other European dishes!
In 1996 the Old Town was hit by a 7.0 earthquake seriously damaging the town. Today it has been completely restored which is why most of it looks so pristine. Lijiang is a mix of several different Chinese language and culture groups - most notably the Naxi people, the only social group left in the world that uses a system of pictographic glyphs that are similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs. I read that many Naxi people no longer live in Lijiang because mass tourism has made living in the city too expensive. A tale familiar in many over-visited locations all around the globe.
From Lijiang it's easy enough to visit some other beauty spots including Black Dragon Pool, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Shu He Old Town, Dali Old Town, Tiger Leaping Gorge and other settlements that sit on the historic Yunnan to Tibet tea horse route. We visited many of these places - except for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain as it was covered with cloud the entire time we were staying in the area.
Tiger Leaping Gorge was quite impressive and, while not as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon or Fish River Canyon, it's well worth a visit. We went on a day trip from Lijiang - the small bus pulled up on the road running through the Gorge. There were no barricades, bollards or railings to stop you stepping off the bus and straight over the edge! You can climb down to the raging waters or simply view the scene from the roadside. Porters throng the 'car park' offering to carry tourists one at a time down and up the very steep gorge sides in brightly painted two-person sedan chairs.
A wide panorama view of the mountains around Shangri-La - a city in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (until 2001 this was called Zhongdian but then the marketing department thought 'Shangri-La' was a far more alluring title for tourist development ). The city is at an altitude of over 3000m - and you'll find places to visit around the area are even higher so it's wise not to over-exert yourself unless already acclimitised to the rarified atmosphere. I got a couple of blinding headaches because of the thin air (or was it the beer?). You can buy cans of oxygen at local stores if you think you need it.
Top left and centre: The three pagodas in Dali and its inevitable Old Town area are good places to spend a day. Right hand image is the Black Dragon Pool park in Lijiang.
Aside from the obvious mountainous terrain, you'll see many folk in ethnic costume, particularly with horses, as that has been the main mode of transport for hundreds of years. Not much has changed - although everyone has a mobile phone. The whole region is an interesting mix of ethnic Chinese and Tibetan culture.
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