A Touch of San Antonio Atmosphere in China

Sunday, July 13, 2008--Lijiang (Continued)

I had some difficulty finding a room. The old town has many small streets, and most of the guesthouses are on back ones. I walked down the main street and found only other kinds of businesses. At the end, I went down an alley. The first place I came through was full. The second place I stopped, the man spoke no English, then he answered the phone and left me standing there; I just picked up my luggage and walked away even though I heard a woman calling, "Hello!" The third place had a room that is very nice. Rather than look further, I took it. The owner was so happy to have me, because they usually get only Chinese guests. Their signs are only in Chinese. But she commented she had had some Germans there last week. She probably gets a higher rate for the rooms from us foreigners than she does from the Chinese. The room is large with massive carved ceiling beams. One of the two windows overlooks old tile roofs, and the other overlooks a courtyard. The bath is very modern with glass countertops and sink. And best of all, it is a quiet room with no sounds from elsewhere in the evenings.

Lijiang is a bit like San Antonio in that it has a river that runs through it, and the river has lots of sidewalk restaurants lining it. I sat at one of the restaurants for dinner. The river beside me was different from the San Antonio River, however--a bit narrower and much clearer with swiftly running water and with goldfish swimming in it. San Antonio can only WISH for the kind of tourism this town has, however. All day every day, Lijiang has the kinds of crowds throughout the Old Town that San Antonio gets on the river on a Friday or Saturday night when there is a convention of 25,000 people in town.

I ate a Naxi sandwich for dinner. The Naxi are the local tribal group. The sandwich is a specialty of Lijiang. It consists of layers of flat bread filled with slices of tomato, slices of fried goat cheese, and a fried egg. It had some chile sauce on top. Unfortunately, I found the sandwich to be bland. It could have used some salt and a lot more chile sauce.

Monday, July 14, 2008--Lijiang

I relaxed in my room for part of the morning. It was so nice to have such a quiet pleasant place to work. I went through my Around-the-World IX travel schedule and made some adjustments. I need to have it finalized by next week when I arrive in Thailand so I can buy the ticket then. I had realized I had extra miles, so I figured out a side trip I could take to a part of Korea (Jeju Island) where I did not visit on my two previous trips. Then I had to make notes of the information needed from the cyber cafe to have the full schedule ready for buying the ticket. I ran into one potential problem, however. The non-stop flights from the international airport have been canceled to Jeju. I have to go through other airports to connect to my international flight when leaving the country, and the earliest flight to there arrives just 50 minutes before my departure to Malaysia. I hope they will allow the ticket to be processed with such a short time for an international connection. With that side trip, I will use all but about 600 of the allowed 29,000 miles and will make the maximum number of 15 stops on the new ATW ticket.

I spent the day wandering Old Town after going to the bus station to buy my onward ticket for Dali for tomorrow. The Old Town is so big here. Some of it is rebuilt due to an earthquake in 1999, but most of it is still old, original architecture. In typical Chinese style, the ground floor has shops, and the family operating the shop lives above it. The shops seem to have quality merchandise and a wide variety of offerings. The streets are so narrow that the corners of the sloping tile roofs almost touch at intersections. That narrowness and those roofs also have the advantage of shading the walkways much of the day. It is so easy to get lost. Streets go off in all directions and twist and turn their way through town. Fortunately, the city has placed maps at intersections that show where one is and usually give directions to the main square. Even to get back to my room, I had to worry. I figured out a route that, from the main square, involved takeing a specific street from which at the end I make a right turn. From there, I continue taking the next left turn, a second left turn after a wiggle in the road, and a final right turn.

For dinner, I chose a restaurant facing a quiet, small square. I had pork with tomatoes and peppers. It was ground pork cooked with chopped tomatoes and chopped red and green bell peppers. I had rice with it. It was tasty, but it would have been best to share it with someone else. Meals here are really meant to be shared.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008--Lijiang to Dali

I am so tired of hearing about the Olympics. Talk about them takes up at least 20% of everything on the news programs here. It's worse than being in the U.S. during a Presidential Election period. China seems to think that by hosting the Olympics the whole world's attitude about the country will change to one of glowing admiration and deep respect. I don't think they realize that everyone just plans to watch the games and hope that they win more medals than anyone else. Of course, they will be impressed with some of the venues, but I doubt that that will change their whole perspective on China itself.

I'm off to another old town--Dali. It's near a lake and is another popular stop for tourists here in Yunnan Province. The bus leaves at 11:10 and should take about 3 hours to get there. Then it will be the same old process of finding a place to stay before being able to explore the old walled city.