西遊記 2
Hello everybody, here are some news from the western front:
From Lijiang we headed to the Tiger Leaping Gorge to do a popular two day trek. On the first day, just when we were looking for a restaurant to have a good lunch, we met Mr. Mu again, who was accompanied by his 14 year old son. We decided then and there, that we would spend a couple of more days together. Although the weather wasn’t perfect, the scenery was still quite impressive. But compared to the five day trek to Lugu Lake, this one felt much more overrun by domestic tourists and for us, just like a walk in the park.
Tiger Leaping Gorge:
Mr. Mu suggested that we should visit Shaxi, a small authentic ancient village close by Lijiang, to recharge our batteries after the trekking. The place was much less crowded and not as commercial as Lijiang. We hung around with the locals on the village square, roamed through the nearby countryside and visited a local cattle market.
Shaxi:
Next stop was Liming, with its fascinating red cliffs and canyons. We were lucky and got there on International Women’s Day, so that we could profit from a big discount on the entrance fee. Just when we got on top of the mountain the clouds started to clear off and revealed a spectacular view. For the next day we had initially planned to climb a via ferrata, but Chinese bureaucracy/security regulations made the endeavor impossible. First of all, they wanted us to show them a certificate to prove our ability to climb the via ferrata alone, which we didn’t have, of course. Then they wanted us to take a guide, which probably wouldn’t have been a match to our experience, since we do a lot of via ferratas back home in Switzerland. Irrespective of all those issues, it would have been too expensive anyway. Instead we did another hike through the park’s beautiful scenery.
Liming:
After another night in Lijiang and saying goodbye to Mr. Mu, his son and our dear Chinese friend Curtis from the Hotel, we took a flight to Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan Province), instead of travelling on to Shangri-La as we originally intended (Shangri-La is almost 4000masl and would have been too cold and isolated during this season). There we met up with Tanja, whom we knew from the Chinese language course we did back home. We decided to travel together for the following three weeks. Her advanced reading skills of Chinese characters combined with our speaking skills would prove to be a great match for most coming situations!
In Chengdu we visited the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base to see the incredibly cute Panda Bears and Red Pandas. One evening, we went out to eat one of the infamous and amazingly spicy Sichuan hot pots. Another evening we went out to see the Sichuan Opera. Before the show we were able to watch the performers getting ready, putting on make-up and slipping in their dresses. The show itself was a captivating display of dancing, singing, live music, puppet and shadow theater, comedy, fire spitting and the famous changing of masks performance – time just spun away!
Chengdu:
Our next destination was Jiuzhaigou in the northern part of Sichuan. It is one of the most touristy places you can go in China, every Chinese wants to go there once in his or her life. That’s why it was very crowded even in low season. But the reason for this obsession is quite obvious. Jiuzhaigou means ‘Nine Village Valley’ and according to a Tibetan legend it was created when the goddess Wunosemo dropped a magic mirror to the ground, which shattered into 114 shimmering turquoise lakes. The natural beauty of this place was simply astonishing.
Jiuzhaigou:
After Jiuzhaigou we moved on to Songpan, which had a nice old town with some parts of it going back 600 years to the Ming-dynasty.
Songpan:
From Songpan we organized a homestay in a nearby Tibetan village, where we stayed for three nights with a Tibetan family. They were very warm and welcoming and stuffed us with Tibetan foods, such as tsampa-yak-butter porridge. Unfortunately, we couldn’t speak any Tibetan and the family members had a very strong Tibetan accent when they spoke Mandarin, so it was quite difficult to communicate with them. But generally, the people in the village were very kind, curious and outgoing. They tried to strike up a conversation whenever they met us. To our amusement, nobody seemed to understand our intention of hiking through the surrounding mountain ranges. On these aforesaid hikes, we reached summits up to 4000masl. All in all it was a very enriching experience off the beaten track.
Tibetan Village:
After another night in Songpan, we took a taxi ride to Huanglong over a mountain pass covered in snow. It was totally the wrong season to visit the park, since the usually exquisite terraces of multi-colored limestone ponds were mostly empty or covered with snow. Nevertheless, as we were almost the only visitors, we enjoyed a nice walk through a beautiful winter landscape and were able to observe various wild animals.
Huanglong:
Our next planned destination was Rilong, but we had to take a stopover in Dujiangyan. This turned out to be a surprisingly good location due to its nice old town containing the oldest existing irrigation system in the world. We didn’t take a look at the irrigation system though, because we wanted to continue our journey to Rilong.
Dujiangyan:
We arrived in Rilong the following day. Here we wanted to visit the three valleys of Siguniang Shan (Four Girls Mountain). All of the three valleys were located above 3400 masl and all of them were stunningly beautiful. Due to the high elevation the nights were bitter cold. Luckily our hotel had a cozy living room with a wood stove, where we could complete our exhausting days of hiking with hot tea and a game of cards.
Mount Siguniang National Park:
After another stopover in Dujiangyan, we finally arrived in Baguo next to the holy buddhist mountain Emei Shan. Here, the climate was much more humid. We hiked three days on this mountain with its seemingly endless stairs and spent one night in a monastery. On the way up, we were ambushed by wild and naughty Tibetan macaque-monkeys. Our initial plan was to hike all the way up to the summit in two days. Unfortunately, due to a landslide, we weren’t able to continue our ascent and had to go all the way down again. There, instead of walking, we took a bus to the top. When we reached the Golden Summit at an elevation of 3077masl, we found ourselves above the clouds and face to face with the world’s tallest golden Buddha statue – what a sight!
Emei Shan:
With soar muscles, we left Mount Emei behind us and travelled on to Le Shan, where we stayed for one night. There we went to the People’s Security Bureau (PSB) to get an extension of our visas. The whole thing turned out to be much less bureaucratic than we expected.
Since we were already in Le Shan, we used the chance of visiting the Giant Buddha and its sorroundings. Sadly, this was also the last thing we did together with Tanja. From here our ways would part again. Tanja will travel on to Yunnan Province, where we have already been. We spent some amazing three weeks together, really enjoyed ourselves and became good friends. We’re sure that we’ll meet up again as soon as we’re back in Switzerland.
Le Shan Giant Buddha:
Now we’re back in Chengdu, enjoying the amenities of a big, modern city. In the following weeks our journey will lead us further into the west, all the way across the Tibetan plateau…
Cheerio, the steffles
