Lijiang Day 2

We woke up for the Day trip in Lijiang. It was supposed to bring us to YuLongXueShan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain), Dry Sea Meadow (Gan1Hai3Zi) , Glacier and a visit to Naxi Minorities.

We stopped first at the Dry Sea Meadow, it was a patch of flat land with grass, trees and wild flowers. The flat green land was nice against Snow capped mountains, but really nothing to brag about. A short distance from there, we reached the center that has a cable car which brings us up to the Glacier, 4,680m above. We had to wait a while before our group number was called. When it was our turn, we took a shuttle bus to the cable station. It was a long queue at the cable station. We had to wait around 30minutes. The center also provided rental of warm clothings and purchase of oxygen cans. We didn't get any as we brought our own clothings and didn't think we will really need the oxygen cans. The cable took 12minutes or so to bring us 4506m. The weather has turned significantly colder, we wore all our warm clothings. It was also blowing cold wind. The walway is very close to the glacier - although not particularly impressed compared to some Ross had seen in South America. It was also very foggy at the top. We climbed all the way to 4,680m, panting along the way, and taking frequent breaks.

Next, they took us to lunch. But it was a long time before everyone gathered in the bus as the queues were long coming down at the cable station. We had lunch near Cloud Fir Meadow (Yun2Shan1Ping). There was a lovely clear turquiose blue lake near the lunch restaurant. Further up, there were also plains and rapids where the locals were offering tourists Yak rides and photos. The plains and rapids looked simply lovely and out o the world! If I understood correctly, these were artificially made in the replica of a spot near Tiger Leaping Gorge. There, we bumped into Shima and Erwin again. We found out they had hired a cab to take them around and they just finished a horse ride up Cloud Fir Meadow.

We visited the Miniorities Tribal village next. It was a nice village where we got to know more about the different tribes in Lijiang, collectively known as Naxi people. Near the end of the visit, there was a short naxi music and dance performance. On the way walking out, we saw Salmon ponds. There were lots of big, fat, pale pink salmon fishes inside!

The tour bus dropped us off at the hotel. It was around 6:30pm. In the hotel, we unloaded some stuff and used our Lonely Planet to plan for our next trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge. We wanted to book accomodation and find out about transportation from Lijiang to Tiger Leaping Gorge. We found out that Sean's Guesthouse has a website and thought it might be good place to stay which has internet.

We called to book up the GuestHouse and realised the rate was quite cheap, just that it didn't have a private bathroom. Next was the arrangement of transportation to Tiger Leaping Gorge or QiaoTou, the beginning of the walking trail.

Lonely Planet said that there were as many as 10 buses going to Qiaotou in a day. We asked at the hotel but did not manage to get any information. The taxi driver was also not that sure, but brought us to a bus station that has only one bus a day to Qiaotou. We thought it was possibly the wrong bus station and took more cabs to go to another bus station. It was terribly frustrating, no one had a clear idea. In the end, we went back to buy the only bus we know goes to Qiaotou for 8:30am bus.

With that settled, we headed for dinner in town. After dinner, we went to a supermarket to stock up for the journey and happened to bump into Shima and Erwin again at the supermarket. We headed back together to the Hotel. Me and Ross got to learn that the couple was having their last holiday in China before being posted to Brazil. After 2 days in Lijiang Ancient Town, they would head to LIjiang Banyan Tree, 4 hours away in a 4- wheeldrive. I feel quite sad that friends (distant though it may be) are leaving the area and we might not be meeting them again.

Heading back in the room, we packed our things into a backpack so that we needed only to carry a backpack and day pack between the 2 of us. It had been a terribly busy day.