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.
It was my last day in Kunming and I'm frantically trying to locate the two pagodas. I'm walking all over the various streets thinking I'll spot them peeking out of the horizon. I was wrong because the taller and newer concrete buildings blocked all views of it. According to the map, it looked like they'll be here but they were not. I asked around but they couldn't understand what I was getting at. I drew pictures but they still didn't understand. Finally I remembered the guidebook I had in my backpack had Chinese names also. So I took it out and pointed to the Chinese characters but then I was already very closed to finding the two pagodas. The first one is the more impressive Western pagoda and it had a beautiful garden around it. There were people milling around, some were doing Tai chi, others were just hanging out. There was a little pavilion and there were people singing some Chinese folk songs. It was very gratifying to have located these two beautiful pagodas. This was my first live encounter with any Chinese pagodas. I have seen them in pictures all my life.
They say this is a sacred flower, they are found mainly in Yunnan.
The pagodas are now locked and no one is allowed to climb them.
The Eastern pagoda and the older one of the two was just situated a little distance away. Finding the first one was tough but the second one was just next to it.
The eastern pagoda.
This was next to a pavilion which has seen its better days. It was in disrepair but was still beautiful. By now I was hot and sweaty. The temperature was around 80 F but it seems hotter because of the humidity. My next stop was the Provincial museum but before that I was waylaid by a little bird.......
