Days 7-9: Lijiang

Lijiang is a smaller city in northern Yunnan, just a few dozen miles short of the Tibetan plateau. We were lucky enough to stay in Shuhe, a part of Lijiang that hasn't yet been overrun with commercialism and is actually a small, quiet town that feels like it hasn't gone through the drastic development and urbanization that other parts of China have in recent decades. Largely populated by the Naxi ethnic minority, you can find traditional works of art here that wouldn't be as common in other parts of China, as well as a variety of Tibetan clothing and crafts. With snow-covered mountains to the north, this is a destination for trekking foreigners as well as for Chinese tourists. Unfortunately we found ourselves on a Chinese tour bus, meaning that there was an unpleasant tour guide (he was very yashua, or toothbrush - my new favorite insult) speaking into a microphone on the bus the whole time at a deafening decibel level, and the tour stopped at various shopping sites on the way back from Tiger Leaping Gorge, our destination. Luckily the guide finally piped down on the way back from the gorge, and our small town of Shuhe was close to the massive jade market that the bus stopped at, so we fled the tour as quickly as possible at that point. The gorge was quite a site, though - the Yangtze is constricted to one third of its size through towering cliffs on either side, and there's a trail blasted/carved into the rock along the base of the gorge so you can hike along the cliffs and see and hear the rushing water below. The dozens of signs warning you to look up since rocks would be falling on you were a bit disconcerting, but we managed to get to the end of the trail and back unscathed. Shuhe actually seemed quite a bit like any other mountain town - it reminded me a lot of Boulder, CO. Open spaces, sloping roofs, and clear, cold air and water. Of course the monasteries, fuzzy ponies pulling yellow and red carts, and snub-nosed Tibetan dogs serve as a reminder that you're in northwestern Yunnan province, in the shadows of Jade Dragon Mountain rather than the Rockies.