China! Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge pics

Lijiang is one of the big attractions for Chinese domestic tourism. It's a stunning (reconstructed) stone town built along beautiful stone canals with drooping willows hanging over them. A few hours drive away is Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the world's deepest gorges, that I got to hike along with my new friend Mattan!

One of Lijiang's three streams.

More pictures after the jump:

Fried Tofu with pepper spice.

Mama Naxi's Hostel, where I spent 3 nights. Mama Naxi is super-friendly, and her hostel a great place to stay.

No demon leather, so far as I could tell.

It's tasty. And somewhat like biltong.

This place was a treasure trove for Chinglish gems.

I should have stayed here...

See? Delicious dried yak meat.

And a butcher.

Some local produce.

More colours

A sizzling pig

Steamed dumplings

Another apt title

I'm not sure if this is creepy or romantic

Ooh, ooh, this one is exciting. This area of China is home to the Naxi people (pronounced Nashee), who maintain the world's only pictographic alphabet still in use. This elementary school is one of the few that still teach it. The pictograms beneath the writing are Naxi script.

Clearly not all political dissent is quashed in China. Unless this is non-ironic? I'm not entirely sure.

This is just about the greatest food stall I found. So much food!

Here's more of it...

And more!

I bought this: it's rice pudding steamed in pineapple.

I did not buy this. Seriously they were really expensive. 

The local beer is good, although, like all Chinese beers, it suffers from lightness: a mere 3%.

Tiger Leaping gorge: That's a lot of water.

Seriously.

It wasn't as severely steep as I expected, but deceptively high.

This is me. Hi.

Mattan ponders the view

The bridge where we ended our hike.

Two of the tigers who leapt the gorge.

Back in Lijiang, a view of the old town.