Morning in Lijiang

This was my last morning in Lijiang. In a few hours I would be heading for the airport to fly back to Kunming. The amazing thing about China is that today one can fly to many places thus allowing faster travel. I have yet to experience the trains and the buses. http://holachina is right now in China, they take buses, so it'll be interesting to hear their account of how bus travel has changed, they started traveling in China in the 80's. I'm always interested in hearing other people's travel stories, how they travel, to where and what kind of hardship they faced. I'm trying to muster up courage for a trip to Rajesthan, India, in January, 2010.
So before the streets become crowded with tourists, I went out to take pictures, of the rooftops and the empty streets. The locals were up and about, going to work and to school. There a few of us, photographers, on the empty streets. It was beautiful, to have the place almost to myself.

A typical Chinese/Naxi dwelling, the big door, the courtyard and the rooms surrounding the courtyard.

The three wells, it is a spring, the first is for drinking, the second for washing vegetables and the third is for washing clothes. Somehow they are able to section off the water this way.

Red is for prosperity.

Imagine, no one is about, I have the place almost all to myself. It's early yet and this is the best time to come out to take pictures.

Not so, I have to share the place with this lone photographer. There was another photographer somewhere nearby, he had his tripod with him, so he was more serious than the two of us.

The empty Sifang square, early in the morning. It will soon fill up with tourists.

This was my last look at Lijiang till next time. I don't know if I'll be back this way again. There are so many other interesting destinations in the world beckoning me. I saw the pictures, I took a trip here and now I'm on my way back to Kunming. It has been a very pleasant experience. I have loved it. My only regret is I didn't do more. I ran out of hard currency. This was an exploratory visit. Next time I will bring a ton of cash. If you're in doubt about how much to bring, just bring a lot, you can always bring the cash home. You need hard currency to exchange for the Chinese Yuan, they don't take foreign credit cards, though the hotel in Kunming did take my card.