*This post was originally sent as an email on the 11th July
Greetings,
Things move fast here. Today I reached Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, at the end of a 24-hour bus ride. Sichuan, the home of spicy, flavourful Chinese food. It's good too, but I'll have tasted more tomorrow. Since I last wrote, I left Kunming and travelled to Dali, then Lijiang, and now Chengdu. Dali and Lijiang are both small towns in the same vein. Historically rich, they've been largely rebuilt or repaired throughout the "old" sections of those towns, as a drawcard for domestic tourism, while a new modern town grows and engulfs it. Both were charming: a large portion of Dali's old city wall had been repaired, and for 2Y I was able to walk its length, while Lijiang seemed to have sprung up organically in twists and turns along the many canals and streams flowing in stone watercourses throughout the town.
Of the two, I was glad to see Dali first, as it served as a good introduction to Lijiang. Lijiang was far more beautiful. You can (and I did) get lost meandering through its narrow winding streets, up and over small hills. Dali was laid out in a strict grid pattern, lacking the orientalism and exoticness of Lijiang. Wandering Lijiang you could never see more than 50m in any direction, and you were always in danger of coming upon a sudden bridge, or waterwheel, or tree-lined square. In short, it provided all the sudden spaces, beautiful architecture, and greenery that you could ever desire. Both towns were filled with Chinese tourists, yet that didn't bother me too much, since they seemed to belong. Towns such as those you expect to be bustling with life. Only when they broke out the cameras was the illusion temporarily broken. On my last morning in Lijiang, I had some hours to kill before catching the 24-hour bus, and it was raining, so I was able to wander through a relatively deserted town.
Also fascinating (though perhaps only to me), was that Lijiang is home to the Naxi people, who have the only pictographic alphabet in the world still in use. The local primary schools had Naxi script painted all around the outside.
Back in Dali: I exhausted the town's possibilities for exploring in the early afternoon, and so rented a bike for 20Y, and rode 20km north to the Bai hamlet of Xizhou. An old woman invited me in to look around her home, the lake it borders was beautiful though severe in the late afternoon light, with wind-torn waves and scudding clouds across the sky. I found an ancient temple with a three-story pagoda, that I was allowed to climb.
Then it started to rain. I tried to wait out the storm, but it seemed only to be settling in for a longer stay. Eventually I just hopped on my bike and road the 20km, becoming soaked along the way. There is a fearlessness and wild excitement to be covering ground quickly under your own power, ignoring the elements however they beset you. I was in a good mood when I got back to Dali, though it then stopped raining.
Anyway, tomorrow I have booked a morning tour to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre, after which there is a Taoist temple, and a local museum of archaeology I'd like to check out, perhaps ending the day with a trip to see some Sichuan opera. And of course, there's food to be eaten.
Until next time,
Anthony
