YAKS!

(Alex)

Today we headed to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain early in the morning, with the hopes of having a great day’s hike and, my personal goal, finding a yak to take a picture with. After meeting up with Diana around nine, we headed off in the direction of the mountain that had been towering so beautifully on the horizon for much of the previous day’s activities. Arriving in a very crowded parking area, we made a quick dash towards the cable car arrival station, due largely in part to the enormous crowds that were already forming around the ticket counter. 

Today’s trip really reinforced for us one of the things about Chinese culture that has really affected our trip thus far. There is absolutely no concept of lines when it comes to entering a vehicle or other constricted space. We have all learned to perfect the art of flying elbows and knees in order to reach the buses, planes, and cable cars as a group. 

Well, after a relatively short cable car ride (much to Lianna’s relief) we reached a sort of base camp for viewing the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, with a pristine meadow central to the stop. The trail surrounding the meadow and leading directly under the mountain was complete paved with wooden boards and steps, something that we learned is commonplace for many “natural” tourist attractions around China. Diana led us around the perimeter of the meadow, allowing us to take in the majestic natural beauty of the mountain up close as well as the surrounding meadow. We even saw a family of cows crossing the path behind us. They were quite cute. Making our way back down after many, many photos taken of the mountain, we stopped to see the river flowing from the mountain, and the place where many, many tourists were talking pictures of YAKS! Yes, we found our elusive prey in the pristine waters where many groups had found them in the past. After paying a measly 50 RMB (around $9) I was able to fulfill one of my big goals of the trip and ride one of the coolest animals found in China. We took a lot of cool pictures both together and separately, so keep an eye out for them (Yes, I know I have been saying this a lot, but it takes A LOT of bandwidth actually uploading photos so I think I’ll wait until we get a stronger connection). It was definitely one of the favorite moments of the trip for me thus far. After the Yaks, I exercised the waterproof power of my boots and waded into the falls, getting a lot more cool pictures and some jealous looks from the other tourists. And you thought bringing them would be a bad idea Mom! 

While Mark and Li both took the opportunity to walk upstream to some shallower areas and explore the crystal clear water banks, and had some fun splashing about, Diana and I went to get some spicy cup noodles. Even the cheap and nasty cup noodles taste better in a foreign country! 

Finally wrenching ourselves away from easily the most beautiful natural scenery we have seen in China thus far, we headed back to Lijiang to visit the Naxi Cultural Museum, the definitive collection of ancient artifacts of Lijiangs most populous minority. It was very interesting to see some of the ancient relics and technology of a culture that we have had to the opportunity to see operating in present day. Many of their old traditions are still maintained today, though in far more modern forms. It truly awakened us to the pervasiveness of minority cultures even in modern China, and how they have impacted the entire countries development. 

In keeping with the theme of minority exploration, our nighttime activity after a delicious traditional Naxi dinner was the ethnic traditional dance exhibition. It featured more than 15 different local ethnic minorities dancing to express various traditional stories that represent the respective minorities backgrounds. I was surprised to find that even with a language barrier, the show managed to convey the messages central to each minorities identity and tradition, and I think we all came away with a much more profound appreciation with each minorities long history and culture. 

Today has certainly been an amazing day in terms of connecting with the true natural and cultural essence of China, but an extremely exhausting one… So for now, goodnight! Coming up soon: Xi’an, and the Legendary Richard!