lijiang, yunnan province, china, december 12-15

A short 40 minute flight over phenomenal mountain terrain (the bus ride is 16 hours) moved us to the villages and towns in the Northwestern part of the Yunnan Province. We arrived at a single baggage claim airport and headed by taxi to Dayan (Old Town), Lijiang- a Naxi (a Chinese minority) town with courtyard homes, rebuilt after a recent earthquake. With our packs in tow we wandered the streets in search of Mama's Guesthouse- a place that my sister Pallavi had highly recommended. We got lost in the narrow streets and alleys but ran across an Australian couple, Aidan and Danya, who pointed us in the right direction - with whom we later had hours and hours of great conversation and great times - see last picture. We arrived at Mama's (with no reservation, of course) and were greeted with a resounding welcome, tea, and delicious banana pancakes. Pallavi was right. Mama is wonderful, an unforgettable character who you attracts you like a magnet from the first minute (see picture to left). She is an incredibly spirited woman (when Mama's mad, you shut-up and run) who runs a wonderful hostel -- the food was scrumptious but it was the atmosphere that made it made it one of the most memorable places we have stayed.

The main part of Dayan was overflowing with trinket, tea, souvenir shops, and tourists. But, as we looked up towards the clear blue skies, the Jade Snow Mountain towered above us at a distance. At night, the streets around Sifang Square (the main square) were alive with activity. Young Naxi women dressed in traditional outfits stood across the canals from each other (and young men) chanting songs, ending each time with a call for the next chant- "Ya-soh, Ya-soh, Ya-Ya-soh". We never quite figured out what it meant but it elicited laughter, cheering, and loud replies. In reality, this was all a sort of contrived carnival set up for Chinese tourists as many of the Naxi have been pushed to the outskirts of town over the last few years.

Our best times in Lijiang were the hours we spent with backpackers from The Netherlands and Australia. We ate plates and plates of steaming hot Chinese stir-fries family-style, sometimes fumbling with our chopsticks, laughing almost the whole time. On our last night there we celebrated birthday of Maloush, a kind Dutch woman who turned a young 25. (We definitely were the old ones of this crowd).

On our last day we rented rickety bikes and rode about 10 km to the neighboring village of Bai Sa. After multiple stops to ask directions, we ended up on brick-lined streets outside the home and clinic of Dr. Ho, a renowned Chinese Herbal Medicine Doctor. Dr. Ho is a kindly 84-year-old man who has survived severe illness and treated thousands of others - one of his patients had stage IV lymphoma in '99 and is disease-free on Dr. Ho's herbal treatment only; the patient's Mayo doctors are now doing research with Dr. Ho. Luckily we were his only visitors during our hour-long stay so he told us about his patients and then examined Nima to help determine the cause of his various musculoskeletal enigmas, diagnosing him with "weak chi" - Nima strongly disagreed with the diagnosis and immediately demanded a second opinion.

Lijiang was the launching off point for our two-day trek through Tiger-Leaping Gorge, an incredible hike high above the Yangtze River.