A Tiger Jumped Where?

Well we've only been in China for 12 days, but its already been remarkable. That is, aside from the constant spitting (which actually is hauking a loogie first then spitting it out), smoking allowed everywhere and the shocking public toilets - lets just say that public is definately the key word... has anyone else ever seen another adult person poo before???

We've been on a cultural kick again in China. In Kumning we spend a day on bicycles touring the sights of the city. We saw a beautiful 1000 year old temple, walked in a scenic park (Green Lake Park) and visited two pagoda's from the Tang Dynasty. The weather was not the best however, and for the first time in 2 months, I had to pull out my hoodie.

Yuantong Temple, Kumning

Next stop was Dali, not to be confused with Dali City (or Xiaguan) half an hour away. We were excited to see the old city of Dali with it's cobblestone streets and shops, but were disheartened when we discovered that we had arrived at this tourist hub for the Chinese at the start of their week long national holiday and prices for rooms had quadrupled!!! Not wanting to miss the sights, we stayed for 4 nights, but someone was a bit grumpy about the prices (not naming any names though). With mountains as a backdrop and a large lake in front, Dali was quite picturesque. We spent a day at the historic three pagodas sight - absolutely amazing, a day hiking in the mountains (we est. 22 km long!!!), and a day resting (after the 22 km hike!) .

Mike & I in front of the 3 pagodas.

View from our hike on the Cang Shan (Jade Green Mountains). In the background is Dali.

In Dali, we realized it was time to figure out our Tibet trip. After looking around, we found 3 other couples that were interested in the overland trip so after much discussion and number crunching, we booked two jeeps with drivers and guides (don't worry Moms). We should be leaving Saturday, May 13 and arriving in Lhasa 7 days later.

With our Tibet plans finalized, we continued north to Lijiang where we trekked the Tiger Leaping Gorge for the next 3 days. This was an exhilerating and breath taking (sometimes literally for me) hike. For those who don't know, Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the deepest gorges in the world. The mighty Yangtse River rushes between 2 mountains that peak at 5800high, although we climbed to 2660m. We stayed at rustic guesthouses along the way, with beautiful views. Mike spent one whole afternoon sitting on a ledge staring out into the vast mountain range. We had no cares in the world on this special hike. We may be one of the last few people to see the gorge in all of it's prime as the Chinese gov't plans to dam the gorge in the near future.

We've just climbed a part of the Tiger Leaping Gorge called the 24 bends for two hours, to reach this site.

Waterfalls, new friends and goats... who can ask for anything more?

Another view of the Gorge.

This is where we stopped to wait for the bus to take us back to Lijang after the trek was over... okay not exactly true, but we thought the sign was funny (we still had to go down to the river, cross a ferry, and climb back up the hill top to catch our bus).

We arrived back in Lijiang today and have been pleasantly surprised by the "old city" and are looking forward to exploring it more and seeing the Black Dragon Pool Park. Then we hope to head further north to Zhongdian where we will spend a few days climitizing to the high altitude for our trip to Tibet.

Overall, China has been wonderful! The food has been surprisingly good (we had heard of travelers surviving only on M&M's and McDonalds), the people are friendly and hardworking - we've witnessed men and women plowing fields by hand and carrying remarkably heavy loads on their backs, the scenery is astonishing and the culture is mesmerizing. Mike bought a Mandarin phrase book to help with the language barrier and we are starting to communicate better. But damn, those public toilets are just too hard to get over!!!


Some people pictures that we are starting to take


All the best,
Kendra & Mike