“How is that even silk? It looks like a picture.”

(Dareus)

I woke up in my own private room at the guesthouse in Shaxi Village with the Korean drama still on the TV from the previous night. After a breakfast of noodles black with spice, we boarded our little bus and began our trek to Lijiang. Our first stop in Lijiang was Baisha village where the most intricate embroideries were hand crafted by the Naxi minority people. The girl who showed us around told us the mind blowing fact that her trade master could separate a silk strand the width of a hair into 250 separate strands. After that she showed us an art gallery of embroideries that was far more modern than you would expect for a village so small. The thin strands of silk were melded together so well by the artisans that the color gradients challenged those of digital pictures. After that our tour guide brought us to see Naxi murals that were about the mixing of cultures and religions in the local regions. It seemed like the ideal environment where all the different religions just kept to themselves and didn’t bother each other.

The next day we woke up bright and early to make our journey to Snow Mountain. The local government deemed tourist buses too polluting so we took a special “green” bus up the most sketchy half paved mountain road to some even more sketchy cable cars that were half open. 18 minutes later the doors swung open and we stepped out at the top cable car station. A barren green mountain pasture called Yak meadow was backed by the obviously snowy peaks of Snow Mountain. An isolated Tibetan temple stood alone with colorful prayers sheets flapping in the wind. Evan our tour guide seemed unfazed by the thinning air up there so he powered ahead and faded out of our range of vision. Meanwhile the rest of us felt like we were sucking in air through a straw. After that a legendary cable car ride ensued where Timmy and I emulated a number of noises including but not limited to rooster, sheep, goat, bird and cow. The bleating noises were the most successful because my goat whispering skills warranted a response from a passing baby goat beneath us. After that we visited a turquoise river that was surprisingly clear considering the rest of the water in China. At another location we saw giant Tibetan mastiffs that looked like giant self propelled swiffer dusters. Later at 8:50 we went and saw a cultural dance/music show at the suggestion of Evan. After that we basically died in our rooms.