I accomplished all I wanted to see
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1. Stone Forest
It rained pretty much the whole time I was there, but it was still incredible. The Stone Forest covers a huge area of land. They are karst landforms, not trees, but they are so named because they resemble petrified trees. I’m glad I stayed in Shilin the night before my visit (Shilin city. Shilin literally means stone forest), so I could go to the park early. Good things I did because, like clockwork at 10:00 am hundreds, probably over 700, Chinese tourists filed into the Stone Forest from huge tour buses coming from Kunming, which is 2 hours away. That’s when I left. I had never seen anything like the Stone Forest before. I learned there are a few similar ‘forests’ like this in the world. A notable one in Madagascar.
2. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain AND Blue Moon Valley
The mountain is named Jade Dragon Snow Mountain because looking from the city of Lijiang, the snow-covered and fog-topped mountain is suppose to look like a jade dragon lying in the clouds. Jade is the, typically, green stone used to make jewellery and ornaments. From the picture below, that I took off the internet, I can see how it resembles a jade dragon. This mountain is the highest I've ascended.The highest peak is 18,360 feet above sea level, but we could only go to 4,680 meters or 15,354 feet and 3.968 inches.
The entire day was an amazing experience but, seeing Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is a bit of a fiasco. The government is forcing people to go in tour groups of 7-10 people. I understand this is to limit the number who visits everyday to 10,000 people. That is a crazy-lot of people. Exactly what is going on is still muddy, because the recent information written by travelers online did not match the seeming reality. Also the cable car took us up so far that there really wasn't anywhere to hike. We just walked up some sets of stairs to see the mountain.
Only those buying a tour package the day before could visit the mountain. The tour included transportation to and from your accommodations, a cable car ride, a coat, lunch, entrance to the mountain and to Blue Moon Valley, and oxygen. I’ve never been given oxygen before. People were sucking this stuff up all day, but I didn't need any. I wonder if they really did either. My transportation van had 4 young Chinese people who helped me throughout the day because everything was in Chinese. At first everything was shrouded in fog, so I was thrilled when things cleared up a bit. I can only image how it looks on a clear day, though I understand they are rare.
My favorite thing in Yunnan was probably Blue Moon Valley. It’s a valley below Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the mountain clearly because it was hidden by the fog, but what we could see was amazing.
The White Water terraces at Blue Moon Valley are my new favorite thing.
I almost bailed on this day-trip to see one of the deepest canyons in the world because it seemed complicated and rain was in the forecast. But I didn't.
I got to gaze at this amazing view (above) before I headed off to see the iconic viewing point where a hunter is said to have been chasing a tiger through the gorge many years ago. The tiger lept across the river, escaping the hunter. I knew there would not be the famed turquoise waters, as the recent rain had stirred everything up, but it wasn't raining that day, so I set off, excited to see one of the deepest river canyons in the world.
Hiking the middle section of Tiger Leaping Gorge ended up being simple and much better than I thought it would be. It was a rugged trail, and in places sort of dangerous. It made the day adventurous and fun. The hike wasn’t long, under 4 miles, but my phone said I climbed 116 flights of stairs. It was pretty, but I'm ashamed to say I wasn't overwhelmed. I hope I'm not becoming jaded. Maybe the lack of blue water and sky played a part. I think I just prefer the scenery of Mount Sanqingshan and Huanghsan. But it was a great experience and a good hike.
The trail on this section was cut from the side of the mountain. I was IN that mountain!
I'm not always a thrill seeker, but I was excited when I saw I could cross this rickety bridge. I think the bridge is suppose to lead to THE rock the tiger was seen on.
It’s official. I’m not scared of heights. There was another option, but this vertical ladder made my day so adventurous.
The low-down on the cities
I slept in late after arriving to the youth hostel in Kunming. I was really tired. My flight was delayed, but I'd slept in the taxi, the airport and on the plane. Still I was alarmingly exhausted. I guess finishing the school year, having my first visitor and moving house, and all at the same time, takes a lot out of me. I've long since recovered from that.
Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan province with over 6 million people. I like what I saw of it. I walked around nearby Green lake, which is covered with lotus plants and a few beautiful blooms. Then I headed to the bus station.
Shilin City
Not a lot of choices in this Yi autonomous region. Most of China's minority people groups live in Yunnan and the village I stayed in was home to the Yi people. I stayed at a nice homestay where we used our broken language skills and translator apps to communicate. I knew this would be the case from the online reviews. The people were lovely and invited me to eat dinner with them. I declined, but took the offered tea. There is always tea. There were a few small stores nearby but not a lot of choices. I run into this occasionally, when traveling to small towns. They had no fresh food so I opted for Oreos and instant noodles. There is probably daily outdoor markets for produce, but not when I was there. They didn't even have instant coffee. Though I'm sure they had tea.
Lijiang Old Town
Lijiang Old Town is a well preserved ancient town. I picked a beautiful traditional style Inn to stay in. It was great to see it up close. Because of the language barrier and a little lack of privacy, I just stayed there one night. For the next two nights I was more comfortable at a simple hostel with a warm, fluent English speaker.
Good thing for Apple Maps because it’s really easy to get lost in the narrow alleyways.
Buses
I spent lots of time on buses this week. Two hours to the stone forest and back, 6 hours to Lijiang and back and 2 hours to Tiger Leaping Gorge and back. I really didn't mind as I had an up-front, window seats each time. I dozed, watched the scenery and listened to books.
Enjoying
I'm in Laos now and on day 10 of 33.
I admit it is nice to be taking a break from China. I love living in China. It's interesting, convenient in many ways, and it has so many beautiful places. I could go on. But there is also a chaos to it, and a harsh and crowded factor to it.
I'm currently in Vientiane the capital city, and largest city in Laos, but it has a population of less than 800,000. Though the language is Lao and not everyone speaks English, mostly everything is written in English and in comparison, it seems quiet and orderly; easy. There are a lot of Westerners here even though there really isn't much to see. I think most of them are tourists, but they could live here. I've spent a lot time walking around the city and sitting at cafes.
But more on that next week. Now I just want to enjoy being here.
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